Access, Achievement, and Academic Resilience: The Relationship between AVID and Black Student Participation in Advanced Placement Courses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the AVID program and Black student Advanced Placement (AP) participation. Academic resilience was operationally defined in this study as the ability of a student to successfully complete advanced placement or international baccalaureate courses despite academic risk factors. This study hypothesized that a relationship exists between the participation of Black students in the AVID program and AP course completion. The participants were 9th grade Black students (N = 2,267) that participated in the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009/2012 (HSLS:09/12). To test the hypothesis of an association between AVID membership and AP course completion, the Goodman and Kruskal’s lambda was utilized. The study results suggest a statistically significant association between AVID participation and advanced placement course completion (λ = .58, p \u3c .0001). The interpretations and conclusions from this study provide implications for educational stakeholders

Closing the Gap or Reaching the Ceiling: An Exploratory Trend Analysis of The Black White Achievement Gap in Texas

The academic achievement gap is an intriguing issue in educational research across the nation, as well as one of the most serious problems facing the United States. Texas has shown tremendous success in narrowing the difference between the percentage of White students and students of color that pass the TAAS and TAKS over two consecutive decades. This study investigated identified evidence a “ceiling effect” may mediate the results of two decades of assessments in the state of Texas. The results suggest that the growth patterns for African American students pass rates were consistently larger than White student growth trajectories, but because the White students begin with substantially larger pass rates there growth was limited. This study yields significant implication for further research and subsequent testing administrations. Researchers suggest that efforts shift from “gap gazing” to “pattern praising” or the identification of positive achievement patterns that represent progress rather and emphasis on the deficit

A Critical Exploratory Analysis of Black Girls\u27 Achievement in 8th grade U.S. History

The purpose of this study was to utilize an ethnically homogeneous design to examine Black female student U.S. History content-specific knowledge. The study aims to elucidate the importance of single-group analyses as an alternative to between-group comparative designs. The present study utilized a critical, quantitative, descriptive research design to examine the achievement of Black girls in U.S. History from a strength-based and growth-focused perspective. The study contributes to the literature on Black girls’ achievement by applying a quantitative approach to intersectional research. This study utilized two subsamples of Black 8th grade girls from the 2006 and 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (N = 4,490). Mean differences in Black girls’ specialized U.S. History content knowledge were assessed using both descriptive statistics and an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicate statistically significant growth overall, and on the democracy and world role domains. Data also indicate that scores on the democracy and culture domains were statistically significantly higher than scores on the technology and world role domains. This study provides implications for middle grades U.S. History achievement and the specific needs of Black girls