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1. Locating Economic Risks for Adolescent Mental and Behavioral Health: Poverty and Affluence in Families, Neighborhoods, and Schools

   Rebekah Levine Coley, Jacqueline Sims (January 2019, Child development)

   null (Ed.)

   associations between income and youth mental and behavioral health by delineating economic risks derived from family, neighborhood, and school contexts within a nationally representative sample of high school students (N = 13,179, average age 16). Attending schools with more affluent schoolmates was associated with heightened likelihoods of intoxication, drug use, and property crime, but youth at poorer schools reported greater depressive and anxiety symptoms, engagement in violence, and for male adolescents, more frequent violence and intoxication. Neighborhood and family income were far less predictive. Results suggest that adolescent health risks derive from both ends of the economic spectrum, and may be largely driven by school contexts. 

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2. “Show Them the Playbook That These Companies Are Using”: Youth Voices about Why Computer Science Education Must Center Discussions of Power, Ethics, and Culturally Responsive Computing

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3660645  

   Ryoo, Jean J; Blunt, Takeria (September 2024, ACM Transactions on Computing Education)

   Culturally responsive computing (CRC), that centers sociopolitical issues and transformational uses of technology, has been described as valuable for increasing engagement with computing, especially for historically underrepresented minoritized students. But what do high school students think? Through a sociocultural lens prioritizing student voices recorded in 56 interviews over a period of 2 years (1–3 years after students’ first experience with computer science (CS) education through Exploring Computer Science or Advanced Placement CS Principles in high school), this study centers the perspectives of 39 primarily low-income, Latine and Black youth from urban California and rural Mississippi public schools to understand what they perceive as the role of technology in our world and what they subsequently desire of their computing education. While none have studied CRC before, the majority responded with CRC ideas about the kind of pedagogy they believe would make for a more meaningful computing learning experience: They see computing as a form of power that impacts both good and bad in the world and want computing educators to prepare them to take on these issues of equity, ethics, social responsibility, and underrepresentation in the field. The students’ perspectives offer important pedagogical insight into how to support deeper engagement with computing in current CS for All initiatives, while also preparing youth for the rapidly evolving and increasingly complex computing landscape that impacts all of our lives. 

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3. Designing STEM Classes for Hawaiian Youth’s Rightful Presence.

   Tofel-Grehl, Colby (September 2022, International Conference of the Learning Sciences)

   This paper shares the process of designing a summer school science and technology class focused on youth advocacy and the development of youth rightful presence (Calabrese Barton & Tan, 2019) for students in Hawaii. We examine students’ changing perspectives and connections to STEM through their engagement in projects that center their own geography and life experiences. Findings indicate that youth sense of agency and autonomy were greatly improved by engaging in a space where science and technology were tools serving their own goals of protecting the island from further development and tourist abuse. 

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4. EXAMINING BLACK MALE STUDENT PARTICIPATION CHALLENGES IN A HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING

   https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2023044603  

   Fletcher, Edward C.; Hines, Erik M.; Asunda, Paul; Ford, Donna Y.; Moore III, James L. (January 2023, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering)

   In this study we followed a qualitative case study design to examine the perspectives of 20 school stakeholders (e.g., district and school administrators, school board members, teachers, school counselors, parents, staff, and advisory board members) regarding (in)equitable ways they promote and broaden the participation of Black male students in a high school academy of engineering. Using the concept of cultural matching and the formation of STEM identities, we understood that Black students at Madison River Academy did not participate in rigorous academic programs (e.g., the academy of engineering), partially due to a lack of the school stakeholders' abilities to provide culturally congruent, compatible, responsive, or synchronized learning environments that connected them with their home cultures and lived experiences. Findings from our case study demonstrate how the change in the historical mission of career academies has limited access to rigorous STEM opportunities and engagement of ethnically and racially diverse (particularly Black) students. In this academy, the lack of Black male student and teacher representation as well as mathematics were two barriers limiting the engagement of Black male students. Thus, we contend that it is critical that STEM academy school stakeholders, particularly school leaders, prioritize equity as a strategic goal for their STEM programs and recruit Black teachers who are willing to create culturally responsive curricular experiences to elicit interest in STEM for Black students. 

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5. The Impact of a School-Based Academic Support Program on Students’ Psychosocial Impairment

   White, Gwyne W.; Hatchimonji, Danielle R.; Vaid, Esha; Caldwell Jr., Rickey A; Elias, Maurice J. (May 2023, Journal of educational and developmental psychology)

   The skills conveyed in high school are essential for success, and evidence suggests that psychosocial well-being is critical to that process. Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) is an in-school, academic support program that targets underserved students. The current study explored the impact of an intervention program targeting academic achievement on student perceptions of social support and psychosocial impairment. The study was conducted in an under-resourced, majority Latinx high school and the sample included 75 AVID students and 140 demographically matched controls. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were performed to identify the impact of participation in the AVID program on symptoms of emotional and behavioral distress. After controlling for demographics factors and academic achievement, student perceptions of emotional and teacher support explained 7.2\% of the variance in psychosocial distress; participation in the AVID intervention was found to have significantly improved the variance accounted for (ΔR2=.02, 5.13, p=.025; R2=.11, F(9,204)=2.90, p=.003). The results of this study indicate that perceived teacher social support and AVID participation were, independently, significantly associated with reduced student psychosocial distress. These findings suggest that interventions targeting the complex mechanisms of school achievement may also have a positive impact on psychosocial impairment beyond student perceptions of social support. 

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