Examining a STEAM Academy Supporting African American Students, Families, and Communities Using a Healing-Centered Approach

• In Event: A Call to Re-IMAGINE Mixed-Methods Research in the Black Lives Matter Era

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine the wraparound supports and philosophies that school stakeholders used in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) academy, and to compare their levels of engagement in the school to African American/Black students at a comprehensive high school.

Perspectives
The practice of schools providing students with wraparound services is a promising initiative to meet the needs of youth in communities with limited resources (Fries et al., 2012). Wraparound is defined as the coordination of support services for the purpose of improving outcomes for youth with a wide array of needs and mental health challenges (Suter & Bruns, 2009). These resources are designed to support children within their homes, schools, and communities. Wraparound services is similar to providing systems of care. Researchers have noted that the implementation of wraparound services has resulted in positive outcomes, such as improved mental health conditions, reduced juvenile recidivism rates, better school attendance, and higher achievement (Bruns et al., 2008).

Method
Research Design and Participants and Data Sources
We used an exploratory sequential mixed methods research design to conduct this study (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2017). In the first phase, we collected face-to-face qualitative interview data to examine the wraparound supports and philosophies that the school stakeholders (n = 39) used to promote a sense of caring and community within the academy. In the second phase, we collected data using the high school survey of student engagement instrument to examine the behavioral, cognitive, and emotional dimensions of student engagement of STEAM academy students compared to those at a comprehensive high school.

Results
Our findings support the literature on the role and use of wraparound services to help students succeed in school through a collaborative and intentional focus on providing supports for students, families, and community (Fries et al., 2012; Valli et al., 2016). The local administrative leadership—rooted in the community—recognized that meeting student needs, beyond simply academics, was an essential condition to provide all students with equity and to demonstrate care for the lives of African American/Black academy students, thereby showing that Black Lives Matter. School administrators acknowledged the extent of poverty in the community, family, and health issues as the basis for applying for state funding and a designation as a trauma-informed school. School personnel and stakeholders shifted the mindset of trauma-informed to healing-centered leadership. They played a pivotal role in the motivation and socialization of their students (Fredericks et al., 2019), which is likely to have made a difference in the high academic engagement, behaviors, and psychological well-being of their students.

Significance
Our findings suggested that an economically advantaged, African American academy within an urban setting provided favorable conditions for the use of support services to help students’ socio-emotional outcomes, which translated into higher behavioral and cognitive engagement from students compared to their comprehensive high school peers.

Authors

• Edward C. Fletcher, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Tony Xing Tan, University of South Florida