This article investigates Black students' educational attainment in relationship to parental divorce. Using a national representative sample from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS), which is part of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the authors have found several outcomes: (a) Female students were impacted more by divorce…

Black families and White families are affected by autism in different ways. Little scholarship acknowledges these differences, especially those communicated by Black fathers of students with autism. In this article, I share an evocative autoethnography which highlights how my cultural, familial, and occupational identities intersect and confound…

Literacy is one of the strongest predictors of adult success, yet one in four children are illiterate and 50% of adults cannot read a book that is written on an eighth grade level. Although African American children from low-income homes are three times more likely than White children to be poor, and at greater risk for illiteracy, this author is…

Robert Hill (1972) identified strengths of Black families: strong kinship bonds, strong work orientation, adaptability of family roles, high achievement orientation, and religious orientation. Some suggest these strengths sustain the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of Blacks. This study used narratives and survey data from a…

A growing number of Black teens are becoming religiously involved. This undoubtedly intersects with another trend in Black communities, the changing structure of the Black family. Research has shown that school-related dialogue between parent and child is an important factor in educational outcomes. This study set out to determine if there might…

In this post-industrial global society, parental and student role strains may exacerbate social-ecological risks and academic difficulties of African American male students. Therefore, school-based interventions must ensure rigorous preparation, promote successful navigation of social-ecological risks, and mobilize cultural-ecological strengths to…

A study explores the concurrent and longitudinal effects of parenting practice on children's academic achievement in 2,247 African American families using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999. Results show that parental expectations of children's highest educational attainment and parental beliefs in…