Charlotte Journals
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High Expectations: Increasing Outcomes for Black Students in Urban Schools
Get PDFThe underachievement of students in the United States is alarming and calls for more attention to solutions that will increase college and career readiness. In addition, the continuing narrative of the underachievement of students of color still thrives as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores consistently report gaps between White and Black students. Although much research has been conducted on the achievement of students of color, the data reveals that more work is needed to promote higher achievement for Black students. When thinking about high achievement for Black students, the impact of the multiple factors hindering increased student performance also needs to be considered. This research is concerned with re-visiting proposed solutions for increasing academic outcomes for Black students while providing concrete examples of how those solutions can move from proposals to practice
Articulating high quality free choice time in Head Start preschools: A framework to support professional development and classroom observations
Get PDFFree choice time (FCT) is ubiquitous on Head Start and other preschool’s daily schedules. Yet there is a lot of variation in what FCT looks like across classrooms. We lack tools that identify strong FCT practice, including how teachers ought to facilitate it. A framework for defining and gauging high quality FCT in preschool classrooms is overdue. This study documents the development of and preliminary findings from the Framework for Free Choice Time (F-FCT). Based on a comprehensive field- and research-based understanding of best practices, this framework articulates low, middle-range, and high-quality practice across 26 elements within 5 dimensions. Findings demonstrate some initial validity and reliability of the framework. The F-FCT articulates a range of quality and can be used to support preservice and in-service teacher professional development. Future work with the F-FCT may have implications for preschool curricula, policy, and teacher evaluation
Head Start and HIPPY Better Together: Examining Current Collaborations and the Outcomes for Children
No full textThe purpose of this project was to examine the blending of two research-supported early childhood programs, one delivered in the classroom - Head Start and one delivered by parents in the home – HIPPY. Head Start and HIPPY share the common goals of preparing children for kindergarten by closing the achievement gap and empowering parents as first and best teachers for their children. Data on the effectiveness of Head Start/HIPPY collaborations was collected through focus group interviews with teachers, parents, and administrators. Themes discovered through qualitative analysis included the recognition of home visiting as a way to provide services to families; the added ability to provide services for children and families; better communication between all parties involved in the collaboration; and better outcomes for both the children and the parents; and the difficulty of including all the requirements of both programs in her work with families. The major recommendation for future programs was to plan for the continuation of services from the grant writing stage. Another was to partner with school districts in order to track the long-term outcomes for children. And the most frequent recommendation was to adjust case-loads to reflect the additional work required for the collaboration
My Story, My Way: Conceptualization of Narrative Therapy with Trauma-Exposed Black Male Youth
Get PDFThis manuscript conceptualizes narrative therapy as a therapeutic intervention for race-based trauma experienced by trauma-exposed Black males. Urban youth, particularly Black males in high-risk communities, frequently witness community violence and endure multiple ongoing traumas, including those that are race-related. Such trauma may be overlooked or exacerbated in schools through teachers’ implicit bias, inappropriate zero-tolerance disciplinary measures, out-of-school suspension, and misdiagnosis of trauma-related mental illnesses (e.g., anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder) as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This research explores race-based trauma from a blended theoretical framework incorporating trauma and narrative theories. Narrative therapy is presented as a collaboration-based counseling approach that emphasizes client experiences. Traditional talk therapies typically ignore race-based trauma as experienced by Black males. A culturally responsive narrative therapy model is proposed that incorporates the client’s preferred mode of story-sharing, such as poetry, song/rap, drama, dance, writing, and illustration. Model significance and recommendations for school administrators, counselors, and therapists are provided.
Keywords: Black males, narrative therapy, urban schools, race-based traum
An Analysis of Services Available to Dual Language Learners and Their Families at Head Start
Get PDFThis study addressed gaps in current research on the types of services that Head Start provided for dual language learners (DLLs) and whether the Head Start’s DLL services would be related to the Head Start program goals, DLL parents’ involvement, and family-school partnership. This study used the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2009) to address these gaps. Two types of Head Start’s DLL services emerged: family/adult focus and child ESL focus. The services with family/adult focus were related to the program goals of providing the families with language and educational support whereas the services with child ESL focus were related to the program goals of connecting the families with the communities’ resources and services. Further, services with family/adult focus were related to greater parent involvement and family-school partnership than services with child ESL focus. Research and practical implications are discussed
Teacher Talk during Children\u27s Play in Head Start Preschools: Differences in Quantity, Differences in Quality
Get PDFTeacher-child interactions in preschool classrooms have been studied extensively (e.g. Mashburn, Pianta, Hamre, et al., 2008), but these interactions during particularly dynamic times of the preschool day are less well-examined. The current study focuses specifically on teacher-child interactions during free choice time (FCT). Teachers in the two higher-scoring classrooms in the study provided more exposure to talk, more sophisticated talk, longer interactions, more discussions, and fewer directives than teachers in the two lower-scoring classrooms. Given the current lack of training in teacher preparation regarding how to talk with children and how to effectively facilitate FCT, this study has implications for teacher preparation and professional development. This study also adds to a research base demonstrating that well-facilitated playtime in preschools can support children\u27s learning, in this case, language development, in developmentally appropriate ways