In its diverse forms, authentic writing carries the potential to connect literacy practice to an author's 'real world'. While contemporary approaches to authentic writing instruction--advocating writer-centred, intertextual and culturally relevant productions--are most often explored in formal learning contexts like classrooms, this paper seeks to…

Suicide rates among Black youth have risen faster than any other racial/ethnic group in the past two decades. Black youth residing in rural areas are subject to systemic challenges such as minimal access to mental healthcare providers, generational poverty and oppressive social structures that lead to racial discrimination. Racial discrimination…

Principals play a critical role in improving schools, but high rates of principal turnover threaten improvement gains. In this study we used a mixed-methods design to examine school, district, and community factors associated with greater principal turnover, and explore how these factors differ for rural schools. We found that rural districts tend…

Teacher retention has become a major challenge for schools over the past several years. Rural school districts have become increasingly short on staff and are struggling to retain the staffs they have. The study had four purposes: (a) to determine teachers' perceptions of the factors leading to their retention, (b) to determine administrators'…

Using a 3-Round Delphi Technique, the current study aimed to ascertain consensus regarding parents' thoughts about the school, home, and community protective factors (i.e., preventive behavior interventions, behavior resources) needed to prevent adolescents from referral to behavior school and subsequent involvement in the juvenile system. A…

Early childhood has long been known to be a formative time in a child's development-- a time when the brain produces more than 1 million neural connections every second during the first few years of a child's life. However, there are factors at the individual and community levels that impact the development process. In communities across America,…

Explanation pertaining to individuals' cognitive development and learning approaches is a recurring theme in the areas of education and psychology. The work of Okagaki (e.g., Okagaki, 2001; Okagaki & Frensch, 1998), for example, has provided both theoretical and empirical insights into the structuring and situational positioning of individuals…

This study involved a Delphi inquiry concerning the characteristics of resiliency specific to African American children/youth. The study was conducted with a large group of African American parents who were considered experts in resiliency because they had graduated from high school and had at least one child who had graduated from high school.…

The importance of early recognition and intervention for developmental delays is increasingly acknowledged, yet high rates of under-enrollment and 1-3 year delays in entry to the public early intervention system continue. Much research has examined developmental screening in health and child care settings, but less well understood is what prompts…

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2011a; 2011b), the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) report revealed that African American and Hispanic students with disabilities continue to score well below their White and non-disabled counterparts in all areas tested and across all grade levels. Researchers…

This study examined the relationship between subjective well-being criteria (negative affect, positive affect, and subjective well-being) and individual, family, friend, school, and neighborhood predictor variables in 159 ethnically diverse, urban adolescents. Results indicated that negative affect was significantly predicted by family variables,…

Out-of-school time programs can offer a secure and nurturing environment for children and adolescents, reducing the worries about what they are doing during these most vulnerable hours. For example, research suggests that participation in out-of-school time programs and activities can lessen the likelihood that children and adolescents will engage…

Promising Black males are an understudied and underserved population in the field of higher education. The purpose of this study was to understand how promising Black males define academic success and to identify the factors that affect academic success at a large predominately White public institutions of higher education located in the…

A survey in three United States cities indicates that fear of rape is greatest among women who are elderly, belong to ethnic minorities, or have low incomes. Certain psychosocial and environmental factors are associated with high fear levels among women. Fear, in turn, determines the use of certain types of safety strategies. (Author/MJL)

As we approach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the globalization and privatization of the academy is destabilizing the patterns of university professional work developed over the past hundred years (Slaughter and Leslie, 1997). To grasp the extent of changes taking place and to understand the forces of change on women in…