ABSTRACT
The purpose of this article is to discuss issues of language, specifically African American Vernacular English (AAVE), as it relates to the reading performance of African American children. Previous research on the science of reading provides a research-based framework that is a starting point for evidence-based research that can be used to improve the reading outcomes of African American children. School psychology literature is limited in its inclusion of issues posed by deficit perspectives of AAVE with Black children and reading achievement. Given that practicing school psychologists spend significant portions of their time conducting assessments related to identifying and remediating reading problems, an increased awareness on how AAVE can impact African American children's reading performance is necessary. Implications for research and practice will be discussed, such as inclusion of instruments to differentiate between reading difficulties and dialect differences (i.e., Diagnostic Evaluation of Language Variation). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Black or African American , Reading , Child , Humans , Language , Cognition , Psychology, EducationalABSTRACT
The purpose of the present study was to assess the efficacy of a culturally adapted version of the Strong Start intervention program on the social-emotional outcomes of African American male students. Externalizing behavior problems of children, specifically African American males, are of great concern for schools. Punitive discipline polices such as expulsion and suspension have proved to be ineffective and harmful. Consequently, school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions have been proposed to teach children coping skills that can help them increase positive social behaviors and emotional regulation. Sixty-one African American male students enrolled in an urban elementary school participated in this intervention. This study employed a randomized delayed treatment control design. Results indicated positive effects in the areas of self-regulation and self-competence. However the intervention did not have an impact on student's empathy, responsibility, or externalizing behavior. Implications are discussed in terms of developing culturally relevant school-based interventions for African American males. (PsycINFO Database Record
Subject(s)
Black or African American/psychology , Child Behavior Disorders/therapy , Emotions , Learning , Psychotherapy/methods , Social Behavior , Treatment Outcome , Child , Humans , Male , Self-Control/psychology , Students/psychology , Urban PopulationABSTRACT
The recruitment of culturally and linguistically diverse students to graduate programs is critical to the overall growth and development of school psychology as a field. Program websites serve as an effective recruitment tool for attracting prospective students, yet there is limited research on how school psychology programs use their websites to recruit diverse students. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether school psychology program websites include sufficient levels of diversity-related content critical for attracting diverse applicants. The website content of 250 professional psychology programs (165 school psychology training programs and 85 clinical and counseling psychology programs) were examined for the presence of themes of diversity and multiculturalism that prospective racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse students deem important for selecting a graduate program. Results indicated that school psychology programs had less diversity-related content on their program's website relative to clinical and counseling psychology programs.' Implications for improving recruitment of racially/ethnically and linguistically diverse students through websites are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record
Subject(s)
Cultural Diversity , Education, Graduate/organization & administration , Education, Professional/organization & administration , Internet/standards , Psychology, Educational/education , Curriculum , Education, Graduate/economics , Education, Professional/economics , Faculty , Humans , Psychology/statistics & numerical data , Psychology, Educational/economics , School Admission Criteria , Training Support , United StatesABSTRACT
The current study examined the association among home-school dissonance, amotivation, and classroom disruptive behavior among 309 high school juniors and seniors at two urban high schools in the Southern region of the country. Students completed two subscales of the Patterns of Learning Activities Scales (PALS) and one subscale of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS). ANCOVA analyses revealed significant differences in classroom disruptive behaviors for the gender independent variable. Controlling for gender in the multiple hierarchical regression analyses, it was revealed that home-school dissonance significantly predicted both amotivation and classroom disruptive behavior. In addition, a Sobel mediation analysis showed that amotivation was a significant mediator of the association between home-school dissonance and classroom disruptive behavior. Findings and limitations are discussed.
