This article examines the teaching philosophies of Black male teachers of Black male students in manhood development classes in a district-wide program in Oakland, California. Drawing on observations and instructor interview data, we explore the teachers' histories, teaching philosophies, and the trajectory of their racial-educational…

Obesity and overweight prevalence in African American (AA) youth continues to be one of the highest of all major ethnic groups, which has led researchers to pursue culturally based approaches as a means to improve obesity prevention interventions. The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate culturally adapted obesity prevention…

The current study presents results from an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) public health surveillance project conducted in Minneapolis. The study was designed to compare ASD prevalence in Somali children (ages 7-9) to that of non-Somali children. The study adapted methodology used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Autism and…

Summer reading loss is a prevalent problem that occurs primarily for students who are not exposed to or encouraged to read at home or in summer programs when school is out. This problem prevails among early readers from low-income backgrounds. This study provided 31 six and seven-year-old children with a structured guided reading program through…

Purpose: In this study, the authors explored alternative gold standards to validate an innovative, dialect-neutral language assessment. Method: Participants were 78 African American children, ages 5;0 (years;months) to 6;11. Twenty participants had previously been identified as having language impairment. The Diagnostic Evaluation of Language…

Background: The reported prevalence of depression and anxiety among African American children and adolescents and their negative sequalae suggest a need to further explore factors that may be protective of depression and anxiety among this population. Objective: The aim of this review was to examine empirical studies that focus on the association…

The purpose of this study was to explore the differential effects of access to gifted education on the mathematics and science achievement of fourth-grade Black girls. This study utilized mean difference effect sizes to examine the magnitude of differences between groups. By convention, White girls were included as a comparison group. Girls…

Given the empirical links between familial characteristics and children's academic performance, this study examined associations between stress, relationship quality, and young children's school readiness (i.e., academic, psychosocial, and socioemotional characteristics) for economically impoverished Black families (N = 127). Parents reported low…

Objective: Using the Head Start Impact Study data, this study examines Head Start's impacts on social-emotional outcomes for children with disabilities. Method: Among 4,442 children, 570 children were reported to have disabilities. Ordinary least squares regression was used to determine whether the number of disabilities, having an individualized…

This article describes a theory of how culture enables literary interpretations of texts. We begin with a brief overview of the reader response field. From there, we introduce the theory and provide illustrative participant data examples. These data examples illustrate the four cultural positions middle grade students in our research assumed when…

Purpose: This study was designed to examine the relationships among minority dialect use, language ability, and young African American English (AAE)-speaking children's understanding and awareness of Mainstream American English (MAE). Method: Eighty-three 4- to 8-year-old AAE-speaking children participated in 2 experimental tasks. One task…

This study provides qualitative and quantitative evidence of how an emotion explanation task can reflect African American preschoolers' pragmatic skills. We used an emotion explanation task to assess pragmatic skills among 19 children (aged 3-5 years) related to (1) engaging in conversational turn-taking, (2) answering "Wh-" questions,…

Purpose: To report preliminary comparisons of developing structural and dialectal characteristics associated with fictional and personal narratives in school-age African American children. Method: Forty-three children, Grades 2-5, generated a fictional narrative and a personal narrative in response to a wordless-book elicitation task and a…

Research documents that African American children, relative to White peers, are disproportionally at-risk for being unready for kindergarten. However, research finds that parental involvement can promote positive educational outcomes, and that parental involvement is influenced by parents' own histories of involvement. The authors use qualitative…

Cultural factors such as health care access and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptom interpretations have been proposed as impacting delayed diagnosis and treatment for African American children with ASD. A qualitative study of urban African American families caring for their child with autism was conducted with 24 family members and 28 ASD…