Deficit narratives about Blackness are embedded in research, discourse, and policies as policymakers and researchers theorize about differences in schooling outcomes between Black students and their peers. We offer a counterstory to prevailing conceptualizations of student absenteeism by arguing that they center racialized and deficit narratives…

The 2021 Oscar Causey Award Address presented at the Literacy Research Association by Professor Dr. Patricia A. Edwards is a response to two self-reflexive questions: "How were my dreams cultivated as a little Black girl growing up in Albany, Georgia during the mid-fifties. sixties, and early seventies?" and "What implications does…

When discussing college student voice, the historical narrative has generally focused on large-scale student activism as the definitive medium through which students expressed their beliefs. However, this inevitably leaves more subtle forms of student expression left uninterrogated, specifically in the South, and other areas of the country where…

Positive relationships can facilitate the adjustment to college. However, it is uncertain what specific characteristics of college students' personal networks of fellow college students lead to increased social connectedness and college wellbeing. Thus, the role of emerging personal networks in new students' transition to and adjustment to college…

This article highlights the State-Wide Read Aloud Days of the picturebook "My Shadow is Purple" (Stuart, 2022) held across and beyond the state of Georgia in response to the firing of elementary school teacher Katie Rinderle under Georgia's trio of censorship laws. The goals for this article are to: (1) document and analyze the emergence…

Absent a nationwide plan for universal public prekindergarten, states and districts have taken various approaches to increasing access to school-based educational opportunities for their youngest learners. Though some of these programs have focused on making public prekindergarten available to all families, others have targeted families most in…

As Latinx teachers are recruited to work in U.S. schools, a continued agenda to understand their experiences is warranted. This multiple case study considers the storytelling of six Latinx teachers in a new Latinx diaspora community. It documents both their racial literacy (the ability to resolve racially stressful issues) and their experiences…

Brown v. Board (1954) catalyzed a nationwide effort by the federal judiciary to desegregate public schools by court order, representing a major achievement for the U.S. civil rights movement. Four decades later, courts began dismissing schools from desegregation decrees in a staggered fashion, causing their racial homogeneity to rise. I leverage…

Several studies have reported a relation between race-related stressors and the poor health of Black Americans. Such findings raise questions regarding the mediating biological mechanisms that might account for this link. The present study investigated elevated systemic inflammation, a factor shown to be a strong predictor of chronic illness and…

Teacher turnover across the country presents a persistent and growing challenge for schools and districts, with the highest rates of turnover geographically concentrated in the American South. Research on teacher staffing and turnover problems consistently highlight two subsets of schools as struggling to attract and retain well-credentialed,…

The intent of this study was to determine if special education teachers had certain perceptions regarding the disproportionate amount of minorities in special education classes. I examined special education teachers' awareness of the disproportionality, their causal theories, and the effectiveness of Response to Intervention (RTI) to regulate…

Despite the number of arguments in support of or against the value and relevance of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), there is little literature that takes an in-depth look at the diversity among HBCUs and the students who choose them. The purpose of this study was to explore the college choice motivations and academic…

This article presents results of a racial/ethnic climate study conducted at Georgia State University (GSU). The study was designed to assess undergraduate student perceptions of the university's racial/ethnic climate. This included assessing student's overall level of satisfaction, satisfaction with GSU services and facilities, experiences with…

THE VOTING RESULTS OF 13 DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES, PARTISAN, NONPARTISAN, AND REFERENDUMS ELECTIONS HELD BETWEEN 1954 AND 1964 IN ATLANTA, GEORGIA, WERE STUDIED TO ASSESS THE EFFECTS OF PARTY AFFILIATION, CLASS COMPOSITION, AND RACE. THIS STUDY WAS A REPLICATION OF THE MAIN PORTIONS OF A DES MOINES STUDY (SEPTEMBER, 1963) AND RELATED THE RESULTS OF…