Racial equity in education is often framed around "closing the achievement gap," but many scholars argue this frame perpetuates deficit mindsets. The "opportunity gap" (OG) frame has been offered as an alternative to focus attention on structural injustices. In a preregistered survey experiment, I estimate the effects of…

The purpose of this study is to examine how the perceptions of school climate, specifically school relationships, differ for Black girls with and without an individualized education plan (IEP) as compared to their peers. The study utilized survey responses from high school students in a Georgia school district who participated in the 2020 Georgia…

Many young people in Newark, New Jersey, when they cross the invisible line that separates street from school, enter what constitutes for them an alien territory, a place where their values, experiences and their ways of talking and thinking are not acknowledged, respected, or welcomed. At the same time, schools are also one of the few places…

Understanding the economic and social benefits of more college-educated residents, over 40 states during the past decade have set goals to increase their state's share of adults with college credentials and degrees. In many of these states, achieving these "degree attainment" goals will be directly related to their state's ability to…

In this study I hypothesize a larger penalty of obesity on teacher-assessed academic performance for white girls in English, where femininity is privileged, than in math, where stereotypical femininity is perceived to be a detriment. This pattern of associations would be expected if obesity largely influences academic performance through social…

Although prior research has suggested that some students may be averse to taking out loans to finance their college education, there is little empirical evidence showing the extent to which loan aversion exists or how it affects different populations of students. This study provides the first large-scale quantitative evidence of levels of loan…

Using new perspectives on mathematics as a cultural and social activity and new research on learning outside the school, the authors ask readers to rethink the problem of mathematical achievement for all students, and for Latino/a and black students in particular. The paper argues that doing so will help those students connect how they learn in…

This article presents a survey designed to investigate what young people know about history. The survey was administered to 2,000 high school juniors and seniors across all 50 states. The students were asked to "jot down the names of the most famous Americans in history," with the caveat that they could not include U.S. Presidents or First Ladies.…

From the 3rd grade to the 11th grade, Jorge Martinez walked out of his front door each day hating the prospect of going to school. For most of those days, Martinez, now 17, was a target of bullies. But that was only half of it. There was discord at home. He says he was lazy and unmotivated, preferring to spend his time in front of the television,…

This study investigated the relationship between adolescent life- satisfaction and bonding to adults/developing meaningful roles in the neighborhood within a pilot study of slightly modified version of the CDC Middle School Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MSYRBS) in a southern state in the USA. Overall, 43% of students reported that they were…

There is a disproportionate incidence and prevalence rate of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) among African Americans. HIV/AIDS is one of the leading cause of death among Blacks, aged 25-44. It is likely that many of these individuals contracted HIV while they were college aged. Black college students are an understudied group. The behaviors of…