AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES IN INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS

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DESCRIPTION: Derived largely from questions as to the worth of private school education for the educational attainment of African American males and initial reports on the experience of African American males in private schools, this preliminary longitudinal project will investigate psychological and social adjustment of African American males through interviews with approximately 150 youth (80 boys and 70 girls) across 1st through 12th grades, their families, their teachers, school personnel and alumni in five independent schools. The school sites differ according to urbanicity, religious affiliation, gender focus, school climate and structure, and percentage of minority students. This pilot study will include a combination of quantitative standardized measurement, open-ended semi-structured questions, and ethnographic fieldwork. The qualitative methods of the project will work toward understanding patterns of dropout, retention, and graduation of males compared to females. These methods are also designed to aid in understanding different cohort effects of grade (1-12), gender (male versus female), age (6-18), school division (lower versus middle versus upper) and schools (boys only versus coed; suburban versus urban; religious based versus non-denominational). A biopsychosocial component of the project monitors youths stress experiences expressed as cardiovascular reactivity and supports an interdisciplinary perspective within the work. The work is designed to aid schools in recruitment, programming and support efforts for all students in private schools, but particularly African American males. The proposal has several aims: (1) to assess the psychological and academic well being of high and low resource African American students in five predominantly White private schools; (2) to assess the current level of parent involvement and its impact on male adjustment and school oneness to racial diversity; (3) to track the interrelationship between male and female psychosocial adjustment, the role of context-associated stress, and parent engagement in the independent schools across four years; (4) to develop intra- and extra-curricular programs that promote the mental health of African American and bi-racial boys; and (5) to augment traditional methods of information dissemination to independent schools nationally.