Racial School Research Articles

Experiences of Racism in School and Associations with Mental Health, Suicide Risk, and Substance Use Among High School Students - Youth Risk Behavior Survey, United States, 2023.

Racism is a fundamental determinant of health inequities among racial and ethnic groups and is understudied among adolescents. In 2023, the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey questionnaire included an item assessing experiences of racism in the school setting among students in grades 9-12 in the United States. This report estimates the prevalence of students who reported ever having experienced racism in school and compares prevalence by racial and ethnic groups. For each racial and ethnic group, prevalence differences and prevalence ratios were estimated comparing the prevalence of indicators of poor mental health, suicide risk, and substance use among students who reported that they have ever versus never experienced racism in school. In 2023, approximately one in three high school students (31.5%) said that they had ever experienced racism in school. Reported experiences of racism were most prevalent among Asian (56.9%), multiracial (48.8%), and Black or African American (Black) (45.9%) students and least prevalent among White students (17.3%). Black and Hispanic or Latino (Hispanic) students who reported experiencing racism had a higher prevalence of all health risk behaviors and experiences investigated, including indicators of poor mental health, suicide risk, and substance use compared with students of their racial and ethnic group who reported never experiencing racism. Many of these associations were also found among multiracial and White students. Student reports of racism were associated with indicators of mental health and suicide risk among American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Asian students. Among students of color, including AI/AN, Asian, Black, Hispanic, and multiracial students, the prevalence of seriously considering and attempting suicide was more than two times higher among students who ever compared with never experienced racism. These findings demonstrate that racism in the school setting is experienced by high school students attending public and private schools and continues to disproportionately affect students of color. Students who reported experiencing racism had a higher prevalence of indicators of poor mental health, suicide risk, and substance use. Schools can incorporate policies and practices to prevent unfair treatment on the basis of race and ethnicity and offer resources to help students cope with these experiences.

Association of Childhood Exposure to School Racial Segregation with Late-Life Cognitive Outcomes among Older Americans.

Disparities in cognition, including dementia occurrence, persist between White and Black older adults, and are possibly influenced by early educational differences stemming from structural racism. However, the relationship between school racial segregation and later-life cognition remains underexplored. To investigate the association between childhood contextual exposure to school racial segregation and cognitive outcomes in later life. Data from 16,625 non-Hispanic White (hereafter, White) and 3,335 non-Hispanic Black (hereafter, Black) Americans aged 65 or older were analyzed from the Health and Retirement Study. State-level White-Black dissimilarity index for public elementary schools in the late 1960s (range: 0-100) was used to measure school segregation. States were categorized into high segregation (383.6) and low segregation (<83.6) based on the top quintile. Cognitive scores, cognitive impairment (with or without dementia), and dementia were assessed using the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status (TICS) and proxy assessment. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted, adjusting for demographic covariates, socioeconomic status, and health factors. Stratified analyses by race were performed. The mean (SD) age of participants was 78.5 (5.7) years, and 11,208 (56.2%) were female. Participants exposed to high segregation exhibited lower cognitive scores (12.6 vs. 13.6; P<0.001) and higher prevalence of cognitive impairment (50.8% vs 41.4%; P<0.001) and dementia (26.0% vs. 19.5%; P<0.001), compared to those with low segregation exposure. Multilevel analyses revealed a significant negative association between school segregation and later-life cognitive even after adjusting sequentially for potential confounders, and these associations were stronger among Black than White participants. Notably, in the fully adjusted model, Black participants exposed to high segregation displayed significantly lower cognitive scores (-0.51; 95% CI: -0.94, -0.09) and higher likelihood of cognitive impairment (adjusted Odds Ratio [aOR]: 1.45, 95% CI: 1.22, 1.72) and dementia (aOR: 1.31, 95% CI: 1.06, 1.63). Our study underscores that childhood exposure to state-level school segregation is associated with late-life cognition, especially for Black Americans. Given the rising trend of school segregation in the US, educational policies aimed at reducing segregation are crucial to address health inequities. Clinicians can leverage patients' early-life educational circumstances to promote screening, prevention, and management of cognitive disorders.

School Racial Composition and Changes in Black Children’s Academic Engagement and Motivation During Late Elementary School

School Racial Composition and Changes in Black Children’s Academic Engagement and Motivation During Late Elementary School

The 1619 Project Moral Panic: The Role of Cable News

Abstract The U.S. right is in the throes of a moral panic over the study of race and racism in schools. This panic developed in part through the backlash to the 1619 Project, an effort by the New York Times to reframe American history around the legacy of slavery. How was a publication with anti-racist ambitions co-opted by a movement to reject the teaching of anti-racism? I argue that a key element is cable news coverage of the 1619 Project, which over a two-year period moved from explaining structural racism through references to the Project toward characterizing the Project as a threat to schoolchildren. To parse this Fox News-led transformation, I draw on Stuart Hall’s analysis of the media’s role in fomenting a mugging moral panic, which provides a model for integrating research on meaning-making with media routines. Analyzing an original archive of 567 news segments, I conceptualize three methods of discursive articulation, namely acts that connect distinct meanings with the Project, to explain this transformation. While “reverberations” initially echoed the 1619 Project’s structural arguments, “redirections” created connections to controversies and “reductions” tied the Project to terms laden with anti-American associations.

Racismo indígena en la escuela. Hacia un estado del arte

Racism is a social and historical matrix made up of discriminatory practices, prejudiced attitudes, stereotyped representations, feelings of contempt, and forms of physical and symbolic violence. It is a system of hierarchies built because of social origin, skin color, descent or national origin, indigenous status, and religion. There are as many racisms as there are groups that need to justify their superiority and the exercise of relations of domination. One of the most serious consequences is inequality in access to fundamental rights such as education, health, employment, and housing. This article proposes to elaborate a state of the art on the manifestations of indigenous racism in the school environment. Academic productions of theoretical and empirical base framed in a socio-educational perspective developed by national and international organizations, by research teams from universities or specialized institutes and postgraduate theses are recovered and systematized. Systematized studies focus on the various expressions of indigenous racism in schools, particularly in institutional practices, in daily interactions, and in the curriculum. They note the effects of this phenomenon on feelings of shame and fear, on prolonged and interrupted educational trajectories, and on processes of exclusion and self-exclusion.

“We’re changing the system with this one”: Black students using critical race algorithmic literacies to subvert and survive AI-mediated racism in school

PurposeThis paper aims to center the experiences of three cohorts (n = 40) of Black high school students who participated in a critical race technology course that exposed anti-blackness as the organizing logic and default setting of digital and artificially intelligent technology. This paper centers the voices, experiences and technological innovations of the students, and in doing so, introduces a new type of digital literacy: critical race algorithmic literacy.Design/methodology/approachData for this study include student interviews (called “talk backs”), journal reflections and final technology presentations.FindingsBroadly, the data suggests that critical race algorithmic literacies prepare Black students to critically read the algorithmic word (e.g. data, code, machine learning models, etc.) so that they can not only resist and survive, but also rebuild and reimagine the algorithmic world.Originality/valueWhile critical race media literacy draws upon critical race theory in education – a theorization of race, and a critique of white supremacy and multiculturalism in schools – critical race algorithmic literacy is rooted in critical race technology theory, which is a theorization of blackness as a technology and a critique of algorithmic anti-blackness as the organizing logic of schools and AI systems.

Association Between Changes in Racial Residential and School Segregation and Trends in Racial Health Disparities, 2000-2020: A Life Course Perspective.

Most studies of the relationship between racial segregation and racial health disparities have focused on residential segregation. School-based racial segregation is an additional form of segregation that may be associated with racial disparities in health. This study examines the relationship between both residential segregation and school segregation and racial health disparities among non-Hispanic Black compared to non-Hispanic White persons at the county level in the United States. It also examines the relationship between changes in residential and school segregation and subsequent trajectories in a variety of racial health disparities across the life course. Using the CDC WONDER Multiple Case of Death database, we derived an annual estimate of race-specific death rates and rate ratios for each county during the period 2000-2020. We then examined the relationship between baseline levels of residential and school segregation in 1991 as well as changes between 1991-2000 and the trajectories of the observed racial health disparities between 2000 and 2020. We used latent trajectory analysis to identify counties with similar patterns of residential and school segregation over time and to identify counties with similar trajectories in each racial health disparity. Outcomes included life expectancy, early mortality (prior to age 65), infant mortality, firearm homicide, total homicide, and teenage pregnancy rates. During the period 1991-2020, racial residential segregation remained essentially unchanged among the 1051 counties in our sample; however, racial school segregation increased during this period. Increases in school segregation from 1991 to 2000 were associated with higher racial disparities in each of the health outcomes during the period 2000-2020 and with less progress in reducing these disparities. This paper provides new evidence that school segregation is an independent predictor of racial health disparities and that reducing school segregation-even in the face of high residential segregation-could have a long-term impact on reducing racial health disparities. Furthermore, it suggests that the health consequences of residential segregation have not been eliminated from our society but are now being exacerbated by a new factor: school-based segregation. Throughout this paper, changes in school-based segregation not only show up as a consistent significant predictor of greater racial disparities throughout the life course, but at times, an even stronger predictor of health inequity than residential segregation.

What Do So‐Called Critical Race Theory Bans Mean for Elementary Literacy Instruction?

AbstractIn recent years, a number of states in the United States have enacted educational policies, often referred to as “critical race theory” bans, that aim to restrict teaching about race and racism in schools. This study examines how current and future elementary literacy educators interpreted and intended to respond to one such law in Tennessee. Drawing theoretically on policy sociology and critical race theory policy analysis, we qualitatively analyzed data generated in focus groups with 18 prospective and practicing teachers. Our findings illustrate the restrictive effects of the policy on elementary literacy instruction, caused partially by teachers interpreting the policy as substantially impeding their ability to engage students in critically reading, writing, and talking about race and racism. Further, findings demonstrate how this new policy intersected with and exacerbated existing curricular constraints in elementary literacy classrooms, including developmental discourses and neoliberal standardization, reinforcing normative whiteness by producing further impediments to elementary literacy instruction as a space to develop critical consciousness about race. This study contributes to emerging literature on the effects of divisive concepts legislation, as well as situating this current legislative wave within existing policy contexts of restriction.

Divisive or Descriptive?: How Americans Understand Critical Race Theory

AbstractCritical Race Theory (CRT) has become a flashpoint of elite political discord, yet how Americans actually perceive CRT is unclear. We theorize that Republican elites utilized a strong framing strategy to re-define CRT as an “empty signifier” representing broader racial and cultural grievances. Using a survey and a pre-registered experiment among U.S. adults (N = 19,060), we find that this strategy worked. Republicans exhibit more familiarity with CRT and hold more negatively valenced (and wide ranging) sentiments toward CRT, relative to Democrats. Moreover, compared to teaching the legacy of racism in schools, Republicans are significantly more opposed to teaching CRT while Democrats express greater uncertainty. Our findings suggest that by framing CRT as a broad term that envelopes many grievances (including those beyond the scope of CRT), Republican elites have shaped a subset of Americans’ understanding of and attitudes toward CRT.

Race Matters: A Family–Educator Antiracist Curriculum Collaboration

ABSTRACT Systemic institutional racism in schools engenders different and difficult educational experiences for students of Color. Relatedly, there is an enduring divide between home and school that often influences school curricula, teachers’ pedagogies, and students’ educational progress. Considering this preclusion to learning, this case study gleans insight from a K-5 urban elementary school that partnered families and educators in an antiracist curriculum collaboration. Utilizing tenets of critical race theory and community cultural wealth, three salient themes emerged: (1) centering family voices and experiences, (2) calling for more antiracist practices and curricula, and (3) moving beyond the racist/not racist binary. We conclude with recommendations for schools engaging in antiracist work with family members.

“When I think about Shortfield, I think about mosquitos, and neo-Nazis”: Students’ narratives of racism, sexism, and intolerance in rural Swedish schools

The aim of this study was to analyse how young people living in geographical areas with a tradition of high neo-Nazi activism talk about racism and sexism, in particular, and the “school climate”, in general. Two schools situated in traditional rural mill towns were selected, and students (of ages 14–16) were interviewed. Influenced by Essed's theory on everyday racism, the study addresses how micro and macro dimensions of racism intersect through the voices of the students, when they talk about their community, their school, and the visible traces or signs of the neo-Nazi movement. The results show a recurrence of everyday racism in the schools, and indicate that the expression of racism was largely taken for granted. Initially in the narratives the students talked about their school and community in terms of inclusion and social connectedness. As the discussions proceeded, quite a few examples of racist practices and verbal racist and sexist harassment were mentioned. Such expressions were often downplayed, such that everyday racism and sexism appeared to have been normalised. This apologetic stance also seemingly contributed to a “return of the repressed”, in the form of overt expressions of neo-Nazi symbols and acts in the school environment.

A Model of Performative Racial Ally Behavior: Implications for School Psychology

Over the last several years, the field of school psychology as a whole has become increasingly focused on racism and antiracism. With this focus, many white school psychologists have turned their attention to the foundational research, practice, and advocacy work that School Psychologists of Color have been building for over a century; however, given white people’s inevitable complicity in racism, their engagement in these efforts presents opportunities for them to cause further harm. The purpose of this paper is to describe performative racial allyship (PRA) and its implications for school psychologists. Drawing from existing work by various Scholars of Color, we define, deconstruct, and interrogate PRA as a corrosive, counterproductive, and pervasive phenomenon in this field. We also introduce a model of PRA which locates, identifies, and compares performative and authentic ally behavior. We urge scholars and practitioners–primarily those who are white–to deeply introspect, authentically listen to Scholars and Activists of Color, and demand systemic change in service of racial liberation. Impact Statement In recent years, the field of school psychology as a whole has become increasingly focused on racism in schools. Building on the seminal works of many Scholars of Color, this article describes the nature of performative racial allyship (PRA) and its implications for disrupting progress toward racial justice in the profession and K-12 settings. Particular emphasis is placed on white school psychologists’ engagement in PRA, given their long history of inflicting racial harm in the U.S.

Mental Health across the Early Life Course at the Intersection of Race, Skin Tone, and School Racial Context.

Prior research documents higher levels of depressive symptoms among Black Americans relative to Whites. Yet, we know less about the role of other dimensions of stratification (e.g., skin tone) in shaping mental health inequality between Black and White adults, and whether mental health trajectories by race and skin tone among Black adults are contingent upon social contexts in childhood and adolescence. To address these gaps, this study asks: 1) to what extent do self-identified race and interviewer-rated skin tone among Black respondents shape inequalities in depressive symptoms between Black and White Americans across ages 12-42? 2) Are trajectories of depressive symptoms by race and skin tone among Black respondents contingent on school racial contexts (e.g., school racial composition)? Using five waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health and growth curve models, results suggest trajectories of depressive symptoms across ages 12-42 vary by race, school racial context, and skin tone among Black respondents. Specifically, Black students rated as having very dark, dark, and medium brown skin who attended high proportion Black schools in adolescence experienced lower levels of depressive symptoms than their White and light-skinned Black counterparts, particularly across the teen years and early 20s. Conversely, attending higher proportion White schools led to increases in depressive symptoms across earlier ages for Black students, particularly those who fell within the middle of the skin color continuum. Findings highlight competing advantages and disadvantages of navigating racialized spaces in childhood/adolescence for Black Americans of different skin tones.

Dissecting Anti‐Asian Racism Through a Historical and Transnational AsianCrit Lens

The primary focus of this paper is twofold: to demarcate the epistemic erasure of societal knowledge and narratives of Asian Americans as braided with other forms of anti‐Asian racism by tracing its historical roots in orientalism, colonialism, and imperialism; and to redress such erasure by foregrounding transnational perspectives and Asian American Critical Race Theory (AsianCrit). By attending to historical and ongoing experiences of migration and racialization, this paper highlights the transculturality of Asian American histories, epistemologies, and communities, along with the multi‐stranded connections that they share with diasporic Asians in other countries. It expands the dominant framing of racialized minorities in the United States that indexes and limits their experiences within the geopolitical boundaries of the nation‐state. By situating Asian Americans within critical historical and transnational contexts, this paper generates a fuller and more complex understanding of the past and present conditions of Asian Americans and anti‐Asian racism. It also deliberately highlights the agency of Asian American youth and their strategies in contesting anti‐Asian racism in schools and society at large. By amplifying Asian American youth voices and agency, this paper not only affirms their wealth of transnational funds of knowledge but also offers crucial interventions challenging the curricular violence that continues to marginalize and misrepresent Asian Americans.

School Racial Composition as a Moderator of the Effect of Discrimination on Mental Health and Substance use Among American Indian Adolescents

PurposeTo examine the relationships between individual-level perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and mental health and substance use outcomes by school-level racial composition among American Indian (AI) adolescents. MethodSelf-reported survey data on individual-level variables come from a sample of AI adolescents (n = 510) living in or near the Cherokee Nation during the fall of 2021. School-level data come from publicly available databases. Multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to test for and examine the interaction between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and school racial composition in relation to symptoms of anxiety and depression, past 30-day use of alcohol and marijuana, and misuse of prescription opioids. ResultsAdjusted analyses showed a significant interaction effect between discrimination and racial composition on anxiety symptoms, such that the effect of discrimination was more pronounced at lower % AI (10th percentile) than at more equivalently mixed (50th percentile) or higher % AI (90th percentile) school settings. No significant interactions were observed with depressive symptoms or substance use outcomes. DiscussionSchool racial compositions of higher percentage AI may buffer the adverse effect of racial/ethnic discrimination on anxiety symptoms among AI adolescents.

Making a Case for Afrofuturism as a Critical Qualitative Inquiry Method for Liberation

Afrofuturism as “both an artistic aesthetic and a framework for critical theory” is concerned with racial equity and technological agency to create emergent liberatory [social] systems. Using Afrofuturism as a research method encourages the imagination of new possibilities for Black liberation in a world where racial inequalities persist. Through Afrofuturism, researchers and public administrators can enter empirical and imaginary evidence required for Black liberation into the public sphere. This article provides thick descriptions of a pilot project, the Three Cities project, to demonstrate how Afrofuturism can be used as a research method for gathering empirical and imaginary evidence, particularly for public service design. This article provides an illustrative example of experiences of racism in schools and corresponding solutions with a key finding that Afrofuturism centres Black communities’ knowledge, subjectivities and experiences. The article concludes that Afrofuturism as a critical qualitative inquiry method for liberation can challenge the range of traditions and histories that have shaped public administration in ways that subjugated and marginalised Black communities, but importantly, academic researchers would need to be embedded with Black communities for an extended period in service of their Black liberation agenda.

What Do School Administrators Think About Race? A Critical Race Mixed-Method Study

Purpose: This study intends to be a catalyst in preparing school leaders to go beyond the call of social justice, to step into the role of anti-racist school leaders who advocate and actualize systemic changes in the educational landscape. Research Methods: Data were gathered using a mixed method approach, starting with an online survey (ARDSA) of 223 school administrators across Texas followed by in-depth interviews with a representative sample of 19 school administrators. Data analysis techniques included quantitative analysis of surveys to determine school and district administrators’ perceptions of racism in schools and need for professional development followed by qualitative analysis to look for patterns and themes. Findings: Women agreed significantly more than men on Perceptions of Racial Inequities, Perceptions of Equitable Expectations, Addressing Racism, Critical Self-Awareness about Race, and Professional Development on Antiracism. Black and Latinx participants placed higher value on Engaging in Dialogues about Race with close connections more than Whites. Latinx and White participants agreed more with the items on remaining silent when witnessing or hearing about racism. Themes that emerged from the qualitative phase of this study included: Fear of Talking about Race, and Lack of Preparation from Educational Leadership Programs to Address Matters of Race. Implications: School districts and educational leadership preparation programs should be intentional about professional development, curriculum, and experiences that support leaders in developing critical awareness about race, understanding positionality and its role in school leadership, critical policy analysis, and engaging in courageous conversations that center race.

Colorism as Historical Trauma: Exploring School Racial Context, Peer Dynamics, and Counternarratives Among Black Women

In the current qualitative study, we draw upon the colorist-historical trauma framework and misogynoir theory to explore Black college women’s peer-based messages of skin tone bias in school settings. We analyzed individual interview data from 26 ethnically diverse Black women (18–22 years) with consensual qualitative research methods to explore their beliefs and perspectives on their peers’ colorist messages in K-16 education. We focused on three main themes from the women’s narratives, including the critical role of school racial context, the harmful nature of colorist comments from Black men and boys, and the affirming nature of counternarratives from Black girlfriends. Consistent with past studies, peers’ colorist messages reinforced racialized social hierarchies and Eurocentric notions of beauty by privileging lighter-toned women compared to darker-toned women. The young women described how colorist messages from peers contributed to body surveillance and physical insecurities during childhood, and how they cultivated personal and collective counternarratives on beauty and self-worth in adulthood. Authors discuss colorism as a form of trauma among Black women and girls, with particular attention to identity development.

Teachers’ awareness of systemic and individual racial bias as a first step towards anti-racist schools

Fostering anti-racism in schools is critical for reducing the racial disparities that exist between White and racially minoritized students. To foster anti-racism schools, teachers' awareness of how racism works at systemic and their individual levels in perpetuating racism in schools are critical features for effecting change. Using open-ended responses, this study explored teachers’ awareness of schools as racialized systems as well as ways teacher complicity perpetuates racist practices. Of the 228 teachers (82% White; 78% female) recruited from five Southern school districts, 52% failed to acknowledge schools as racialized systems and 56% failed to identify any self-complicity in perpetuating racial inequities.

Spotlighting racism in schools: Teacher mentors and the mediating effect of school safety.

Youth are more likely to succeed when they feel safe at school and have access to caring relationships with adults. Systemic racism interrupts access to these assets. Within schools, racially/ethnically minoritized youth encounter policies rooted in racism, leading to decreased perceptions of school safety. Having a teacher mentor may mitigate some of the harmful effects of systemic racism and discriminatory practices. Yet, teacher mentors may not be accessible to all students. In this study, the authors tested a putative explanatory hypothesis for differences between Black and white children's access to teacher mentors. Data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used. Linear regression models were used to predict access to teacher mentors, and a mediational analysis was conducted to determine the effect of school safety on the relationship between race and teacher mentor access. Results indicate that students from higher SES backgrounds and those with parents who have greater educational attainment are more likely to have a teacher mentor. Furthermore, Black students are less likely than white students to have a teacher mentor, and school safety mediates that relationship. The implications of this study suggest that challenging institutional racism and structures may improve perceptions of school safety and teacher mentor accessibility.