Complicating the Utility School Connectedness: A Critical Examination of the Construct for Black Youth

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Sixteen
  In Roundtable Session: Theoretical and Research Paradigms: Critical Examinations of Black and Afrocentric Epistemologies (Table 12)

Abstract

This study examined perceptions of school connectedness across racial subgroups and the relationships between student perceptions of school connectedness and school-level variables of racial composition, teacher racial composition, and socioeconomic status across Black and white groups. This two-part, study employed one-way analysis of variance and multilevel modeling for statistical analyses. Results indicated that perceptions of school connectedness are not significantly different across racial groups. Gender had a weak association with connectedness across African American and white racial groups. Connections to school decrease as students advance in grades, above and beyond other school- and individual-level factors included in the study. Findings are discussed in terms of the challenges facing racial equity in understanding, contextualizing, and developing culturally sensitive measures of school connectedness.

Author

• Adrian Neely, Morehouse College
  Presenting Author