This study explores Black girls' perceptions of school and the leadership of a Black woman principal. Portraiture as the methodology was used to understand the nuances of education by interviewing and observing six Black girls. In this article, Black girls are situated as experts and co-constructors of knowledge on what it means to be a Black girl…

White Canadian teacher candidates are brought into direct dialogue with urban high school students through a yearlong immersion in a high school with a "demonized" image in the broader community. Interviews with students reveal experiences of school as "my safe space" and the predominance of a student culture not characterized…

A Bangladeshi girl who spends her out-of-school time translating documents for her parents' immigration hearings. A group of Chinese high school boys whose teachers can't figure out why they're so disengaged. A Vietnamese boy who speaks almost no English and is the only Asian student at his low-performing school. A Korean-American girl at the top…

Relational theories of gender conceptualize masculinity and femininity as mutually constitutive. Using a relational approach, I analyzed ethnographic and interview data from male and female black adolescents in Grades 8 through 10 enrolled in ''Diversify,'' an urban-to-suburban racial integration program ("n" = 38).…

This study investigated whether a diagnostic testing condition leads to stereotype threat effects for African American children (n = 198) at an urban elementary school. Results indicated that presenting a reading test as diagnostic of abilities hindered the performance of African American children aware of racial stereotypes but not of those…

Two hundred and sixty two K-12 teachers, ranging from pre-service to experienced teachers, and from elementary to high school, were surveyed regarding their perceptions of students based on gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and behavior. Utilizing a five point scale that surveyed teachers' responses to narratives of student stereotypes…

This research brief outlines six major studies of magnet school student outcomes. Magnet schools are programs with special themes or emphases designed to attract families from a variety of different backgrounds. They were originally established to promote voluntary racial integration in urban districts. The studies are located within a much…

Stereotype threat (Steele & Aronson, 1995) refers to the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one's group in a particular performance domain. The theory assumes that performance in the stereotyped domain is most negatively affected when individuals are more highly identified with the domain in question. As federal law has increased the…

In today's school systems, students of color, particularly in urban settings, represent the majority student populations (Lewis, Hancock, James, & Larke, in press). Interestingly, the educators--teachers and administrators--that comprise these settings are predominately White, and, in turn, the students of color commonly face pressures that…

Two dozen 18-year-olds from across Illinois sit circled inside a classroom on DePaul University's main campus, nestled among the pricey greystones and trendy taverns of Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. All are fresh out of high school, plan to become teachers, and are there to participate in a six-week summer institute--part of a scholarship…

Jury verdicts in recent high-profile cases, including the O. J. Simpson murder trial, have been controversial. Suggestions are offered for reform of jury trials to lessen the impact of societal stereotypes and public opinion. Among these suggestions are to eliminate or restrict peremptory juror challenges and rewrite and clarify instructions to…

This paper examines constructs of school violence among 11 teachers in a large urban secondary school and a large rural district high school. It describes how these teachers contextualize their particular schools, and explores contradictions between teachers' constructions of violence in schools in general and their particular constructions of…