As education reform continues a seemingly endless cycle of incremental advancement for students and teachers of color followed by the inevitable White-centric backlash threatened by ideas like equity and anti-racist curricula, it is essential to consider perhaps now more than ever, what the past has to teach us all. Inspired by three voices from…

The purpose of this study was to explore the dynamics of racial change through the landmark appointment of the Black social scientist, Allison Davis, to the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1942. As archival materials make clear, the appointment came to fruition through the collaboration of powerful White liberals at the Julius Rosenwald…

The literature on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is abounding with the importance of increasing college access, retention, and persistence among students because of implications for America's global competitiveness. Particular emphasis has been placed on college students of color who remain underrepresented in STEM…

Several theories suggest that African American culture facilitates academic achievement, but others suggest that identifying with Black culture contributes to the achievement gap by undermining the academic performance among youth. These opposing perspectives are labeled "cultural compatibility theories" and "cultural incompatibility theories,"…

Standard setting (the process of establishing minimum passing scores on high-stakes exams) is a highly evaluative and policy-driven process. It is a common belief that standard setting panels should be diverse and representative. There is concern, however, that panelists with varying characteristics may differentially influence the results of the…

In order to ensure that American students are competitive with students in other countries, since the 1980s, U.S. policymakers have been trying to improve the K-12 public school system. Recent reform efforts have led to the current high-stakes testing movement, which measures student achievement and school effectiveness mainly by standardized test…

Charles H. Thompson is best known as the founder and the first editor-in-chief of "The Journal of Negro Education" (1932-1963). Throughout his career, Thompson sought to extend educational opportunity in ways that were "for the good of Negro education as a whole." His main concern was in educating future leaders for service in African American…

This article is a call to the research community to look again at the "everyday" or community-based meaning-making practices--ways of seeing, knowing, talking, acting, valuing, representing--that African American students K-12 use routinely in navigating everyday life out of school and how these relate to learning and achievement in science and…

This article presents the text of a lecture delivered by American Educational Research Association President Carol D. Lee at the 29th Annual Charles H. Thompson Lecture-Colloquium Series which was held on November 5, 2008. In her lecture, Lee discussed several points of similarities between W. E. B. Du Bois and President Barack Obama. These…

Historically, the Black Church has been an institutional stronghold in the Black community and has thereby sustained a cultural ethos that has enabled African Americans to combat racial prejudice and hostility for generations. Therefore, this article will unearth Yosso's notion of alternative capital that students of color have at their disposal…

A research synthesis was conducted including three meta analyses, a review of the relevant literature, and supplemental analyses examining the relationship between personal faith and the reduction of the achievement gap. Personal faith included belief and adherence to any religion. The results of the three meta-analyses indicated that: (a)…

This study examines aspects of Dr. Howard W Thurman's (1900-1982) career in higher education through the lenses of Black spirituality and critical race theory. The experiences of Howard Thurman offers distinct perspectives through which to interrogate the Black experience in American higher education and the intersections of race, religion and…

The authors present findings from an oral history of the all-Black Douglass School, which existed in Parsons, Kansas from 1908-1958. The oral history of the school is significant for several reasons: (a) it adds to our understanding of segregated schools outside the South and northern urban centers, (b) the school was razed in 1962, and very…

This article is a retrospective analysis of a commentary we published in "The Journal of Negro Education" 25 years ago in which we discussed the interrelationships between and among the interpersonal, institutional, community, and African American achievement variables before and after the historic 1954 "Brown" decision. We discuss in this piece…

The major decisions of pre-and post-Brown and the history of African American student achievement are discussed through an analysis of select federal court decisions. One can conclude that the struggle for equal educational opportunity for African Americans in the United States is vying for the attention of more conservative Federal Court judges.