Transacting With Texts

This chapter presents an applied model for supporting preschool children's executive function, skills that serve as protective factors against risks associated with poverty, using Rosenblatt's transactional theory. The authors posit pedagogy that elicits children's responses to an author's/illustrator's picturebook whereby preschool readers' responses are mediated by the teacher through reflective discussion. Children are encouraged to reflect upon literary characters' motivations, behaviors, and problem solving. A demonstration case analysis shows how this model is implemented in a diverse and inclusive university laboratory preschool program where approximately half the children are served through Head Start, a federal program for children living in poverty. Given the preschool years are an especially sensitive period for acquisition of executive function skills, the authors assert that supporting young children's transactions with and interpretations of a text is the type of transactional strategy that has potential for narrowing the opportunity gap.

Structural Racism is Associated with Assisted Living Location

Our objective was to measure the association between structural racism, a previously unmeasured but theoretically causal factor, and assisted living communities (ALCs) location as fewer ALCs are located in counties with a greater percentage of the population reported as Black (PPB). We used a recently developed measure of structural racism—the racial opportunity gap (ROG), which compares the economic mobility of Black and White people who grew up in the same area with parents who had similar incomes. We estimated a multilevel mixed-effects bivariate regression model to examine the factors contributing to the presence of ALC. We relied on state and county random effects. The likelihood of an assisted living being located in a census tract in 2019 was significantly positively associated with the percent of the population over the age of 65 (OR=150.1573, p=<0.001), the PPB (OR=2.9916, p=0.004), and higher median incomes (OR=1.0, p=<0.001). In contrast, rurality (OR=0.5656, p=<0.001), unemployment rates (OR=0.0288, p=<0.001), and census tracts that have a high PPB in addition to a high county ROG (OR=.0058, p=0.0137) are all associated with a lesser likelihood of an ALC. The interaction coefficient between the ROG and PPB reverses the previously documented negative association between the PPB and ALC presence. This result empirically supports the premise that structural racism, not population race alone, is a negative determinant of where an ALC is located within a county.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Inquiring Into, About, and During Covid-19

One of the most pervasive ways the inquiry movement has needed to be reshaped since its inception is as a mechanism to respond to a global pandemic. As COVID-19 necessitated an abrupt transition to remote delivery of instruction, teachers needed a powerful form of professional learning to understand and respond with changes to serve their students during this challenging time. At P. K. Yonge Developmental Research School, a K-12 school, the leadership team designed a Canvas website devoted to teacher inquiry, enabling teachers to share experiences, collaborate, and address issues regarding the abrupt transition to emergency remote instruction. In this issue, five pandemic inquiry teams present their reflective essays, to describe their collaborations to re-imagine classroom communities; empower students to express their views of the pandemic; re-construct curricula to capture essential learnings; modify for struggling students, and bridge the opportunity gap for students of color.

Taking an Equity Lens: Reconceptualizing Research on Latinx Students’ Schooling Experiences and Educational Outcomes

Previous research has expanded our understanding of Latinx students’ schooling and outcomes in many ways, but current knowledge fails to appreciate nuances associated with the constantly evolving Latinx population. In many cases, schools are ill prepared to serve these students. I offer recommendations for developing a robust knowledge base on the education of Latinx students and the roles that schools play in perpetuating or ameliorating inequities. Specifically, I discuss strength-based perspectives and the expansive diversity of the population as concepts that are essential to framing research and interventions that aim to improve education for the Latinx student population. I review the empirical evidence on achievement outputs and key features of the school opportunity gap—segregation, discrimination, family-school partnerships, classroom teaching and learning, and instruction language use. Finally, I propose implications for developing equity-oriented reforms to support the continuous improvement of Latinx students’ education.

Requiring Civics Then and Now: Potentials and Pitfalls of Mandated Civics Curriculum

Background In recent years, the United States has seen a resurgence in calls for mandating civics coursework across the country. For decades, scholars have identified classroom practices that help make civics courses more impactful to students’ civic engagement and knowledge. As more civics courses are required of young people, one begins to wonder if these courses include the kinds of curricular goals and pedagogical practices that can support students’ understanding of politics and promote their engagement with the system. Purpose With increasing calls for mandating middle school civics coursework across the country, it becomes necessary to better understand what happens in these courses. To gain insights into a mandated civics curriculum, the study presented in this article examined students’ experiences in a mandated middle school civics course and how the course influenced students’ civic knowledge and engagement outcomes. Research Design We used a fully mixed concurrent triangulation design to develop a robust understanding of how a mandated middle school civics course was implemented. We collected and analyzed quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously to confirm, cross-validate, and corroborate findings. The qualitative portion of the study looked to understand quantitative trends by examining these relationships through in-depth interviews and classroom observations. Findings Three takeaways were elucidated by analysis of data: 1. Students’ experience of a mandated civics course varied a great deal between the two cases explored in this study; 2. these differences were instigated by the academic pressures associated with an end-of-course exam; yet 3. certain kinds of civics instruction have the potential to promote some desired civic outcomes in middle school. These findings suggest that middle school civics has the potential to promote students’ developing civic knowledge, interest, and engagement. However, these findings hint at a troubling civic inequality that exists as early as middle school. Conclusions Our study found that middle school is a good time to introduce students to civics content because they seem to have fairly positive attitude toward civic-mindedness. At the same time, we found that the civic opportunity gap can manifest as early as the middle grades. Specifically, these inequalities are exacerbated by the existence of a high-stakes end-of-course exam, which negatively impacts students who are already considered low academic performers.

Jefa o Profesora

Is a winner mentality acceptable? This chapter will present a brief description of a winner mentality, opportunity gap, and the good, the bad, and the perplexity of the educational pipeline for Latinos. Hispanic women/Latinas in higher education have been affected or have benefited during the process of entering institutions into higher education by the recruitment, retention, and promotion of the organizations. As a growing and developing society where income is related with access to education and job opportunities, Hispanic students in the United States have seen how different their educational outcomes are from their White classmates. Overcoming every step of the way many have become Jefa/Supervisor and others Profesora/Professor by exercising positive human interaction while understanding institutional hierarchies and innovating ways to work the system.

Exploring the 4-H Thriving Model: A Commentary Through an Equity Lens

Many youth-serving organizations across the nation have made commitments to enhance their ability to better engage diverse communities with equity and inclusion at the fore. For many youth programs, there is a need to better align youth, adult leaders, and curriculum with the diverse needs and social conditions of the country. In their article, Professors Arnold and Gagnon describe the most recent iteration of a theory of change for 4-H, a national youth-serving organization that offers a variety of PYD programs. 4‑H recognizes the critical need to reach the most marginalized communities, yet the opportunity gap that exists in its programming cannot be fully addressed if an equity lens is not applied to the systematic analysis and delivery of programs. In this commentary, I critique the 4-H Thriving Model through an equity lens and, in doing so, explain the key terms and theories necessary for stakeholders to understand in order to promote equity in the youth sector.