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Youth of color represent over half of the school-aged population (kindergarten through twelfth grade) in public schools in the United States. This creates a need for evidence-driven approaches that address the pervasive Black-White achievement gap. A new longitudinal study shows that African American youth who receive positive messages about their racial group in school achieved better school grades one to two years later.
The findings were published in an article written by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh that appears in
Child Development, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development. African American youth who received positive messages from educators and school personnel about their racial group had better grades up to 1-2 years later, said Juan Del Toro, postdoctoral research scientist at the University of Pittsburgh. Our results suggest that African American youth are more likely to be successful in school when they feel a positive sen