A group of middle school students, working with educators in Washington Heights, NYC, designed a school-wide oral history project as a strategy to enrich the cultural and socio-emotional well-being of our school. As part of New York State's required SEL intervention, we developed a Longitudinal Oral History Project, led by middle school students…

African American youth are more likely to experience racial discrimination, which contributes to greater sensitivity to disrespect and aggressive behavior. However, little is known about possible reciprocal relationships among discrimination, disrespect sensitivity, and aggression. This study investigated these reciprocal relationships and whether…

There is limited research on ethnic-racial socialization outside the family context (e.g., in peer groups). Using two-week, daily data from 177 U.S. ethnic-racial minority 9th graders in 2017-2020 (M[subscript age] = 14.48 years old; 51% females; 52% Black, 20% Latinx, 10% Asian American, 6% Native American, and 12% Other), this study tested a…

Guided by the social-ecological diathesis-stress model, we examined the interactive influences of prepandemic bullying victimization and COVID-19 peer discrimination on Chinese American adolescents' mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included 193 Chinese American adolescents from middle and high schools in the United States.…

As immigrants account for an increasing proportion of American youth, understanding how these young people experience change in their citizenship status is an important, yet rarely examined area for research. There is a plethora of evidence that opportunities to participate in American society are stratified according to class, race and ethnicity.…

Puerto Rican students are a growing population in U.S. mainland schools, yet few recent studies have focused on the school contextual and identity-based experiences of Puerto Rican youth. Using stage-environment fit and LatCrit theories, this qualitative study examined seven Puerto Rican adolescent students' perspectives on domains of school…

It is important to prepare middle level teacher candidates with the dispositions, content knowledge, and pedagogy needed to implement justice-oriented practices in middle level curriculum. This article explores using "Hateful Things," a traveling exhibit curated by the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, to integrate issues of…

Racial discrimination and the COVID-19 pandemic are important risk factors for negative mental health outcomes in children and adolescents, but few studies have examined the relation between these exposures and posttraumatic stress (PTS) in middle school students. The current study evaluated the association between pandemic exposure and perceived…

Using detailed classroom-level data for North Carolina, we build on previous research to examine racial gaps in access to high-quality teachers. We calculate the exposure of White, Black and Hispanic students to teachers with various characteristics in 4th grade, 7th grade math and English, and 10th grade math and English. We find that across the…

Racial disproportionality in school discipline is a major U.S. educational problem. Official data show that Black boys are disciplined at the highest rates of any racial and gender subgroup. Scholars suggest the "criminal" Black male image shapes teachers' views and treatment of their Black male students. Yet few studies examine the…

Discrimination is a common experience among racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) youth and often results in negative health and psychological outcomes. However, few studies provide adolescents with opportunities to directly share their discriminatory experiences, especially within the school context. Using a critical race theory framework and…

This dissertation studies several key issues related to teacher turnover, mentorship, and discrimination. The first chapter examines the impact of misbehaving students on the likelihood of novice teachers leaving their positions within the first five years. Utilizing data from North Carolina between 2007 and 2015, the study employs quasi-random…

The COVID-19 global pandemic forced teachers and schools to rethink everything about the educational process. They were left in their own homes to face the challenges of binary pandemics: healthcare and racial injustice, and the need for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy became as important as ever. This article provides a view into the lives of…

Few studies examine how racial-ethnic peer discrimination experiences of Latinx youth vary across the race-ethnicity of the perpetrator. In a sample of 170 Latinx early adolescents (M[subscript age] = 12.86 years, range = 10.33-15.23; 51% female), we identified 4 latent profiles of youth: (a) relatively low likelihood of experiencing…

In this article, we answer the questions 1) What could social justice look like in the middle school curriculum; 2) How do we help young adolescents recognize and repudiate racism and other forms of social injustice; and 3) What are some lessons learned from a middle level teacher preparation with a focus on social justice? By presenting three…