Excellence in Research: Pathways to Academic Success in African American Children

认知能力较好的孩子在学校表现得更好。学习成绩在三年级时开始稳定下来，从而为高中取得学术成就奠定了基础。关于这一主题的大部分知识都是从对高加索儿童或低收入非裔美国儿童的研究中收集的。关于非裔美国儿童在不同社会经济水平的早期成就的预测因素，我们知之甚少。在这项研究中，研究人员将对经济上不同的非裔美国儿童样本进行纵向跟踪，这些儿童最初在学龄前和幼儿园时被评估。将在另外两个时间点收集关于这些儿童的数据，这两个时间点与他们四年级和五年级的时间重合。这项研究将通过确定成就和三个认知过程之间的发展相互联系，以及通过确定这些认知过程与课堂质量和师生关系质量的相互作用如何与数学和阅读方面的学术成功联系起来，来促进对非裔美国儿童学习成就的了解。研究人员将使用经济上不同的非裔美国儿童样本，评估儿童/家庭人口统计学、儿童认知能力(结晶智力、流动智力、执行功能)、课堂质量、师生关系质量和学业成就。研究人员假设，液态智力和执行功能将预测数学成绩，而晶态智力将预测阅读成绩。研究人员还假设，执行功能将在流动智力和结晶智力之间的联系中起中介作用，而流动智力(与结晶智力相比)将是成就的更远的预测因素。此外，研究者预测，认知与成就之间的联系将受到课堂质量和师生关系质量的调节和/或中介。该项目将通过增加对影响早期学术成就的因素的基本了解，对科学、教育政策和社会产生重大影响。这项研究还将为女本科生提供培训和指导机会。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Children with better cognitive skills perform better in school. Academic performance begins to stabilize by the third grade, thereby setting the stage for scholarly achievements in high school. Most knowledge about this topic has been gleaned from studies of Caucasian children or low-income African American children. Little is known about predictors of early achievement across various socioeconomic levels among African American children. For this study, the investigator will conduct a longitudinal follow-up of an economically diverse sample of African American children who were originally assessed when they were in preschool and kindergarten. Data will be collected about these children at two additional time points that coincide with their fourth and fifth grade years. This study will advance knowledge regarding academic achievement of African American children by identifying developmental interconnections between achievement and three cognitive processes, and by determining how the interaction of these cognitive processes with classroom quality and student-teacher relationship quality are linked to academic success in math and reading.Using an economically diverse sample of African American children, the investigator will assess child/family demographics, child cognitive ability (crystallized intelligence, fluid intelligence, executive functioning), classroom quality, student-teacher relationship quality, and academic achievement. The investigator hypothesizes that fluid intelligence and executive functioning will predict math achievement, while crystallized intelligence will predict reading achievement. The investigator also hypothesizes that executive functioning will mediate the association between fluid and crystallized intelligence, and that fluid (compared to crystallized) intelligence will be a more distal predictor of achievement. In addition, the investigator predicts that associations between cognition and achievement will be moderated and/or mediated by classroom quality and student-teacher relationship quality. The project will have a significant impact on science, educational policy, and society by increasing basic understanding of factors that impact early academic achievement. The study will also provide training and mentoring opportunities for female undergraduate students.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.