Year 2

Our Efforts

Year 2 (2024–25)

To start the year, UMD entered formal agreements with our partner districts to move into the research phase of the project and UMD researchers joined the team. Long term, the goal of the research is to understand the characteristics of PK–12 spaces in which Black boys thrive. The research team designed a project with two distinct phases: an exploratory phase in which the team sought to identify PK–12 spaces in each partner school district in which Black boys thrive and a deep-dive phase in which researchers seek to understand the characteristics, structures, functions, and features of such spaces. Over the course of Year 2, the research team moved from a problem of practice to research questions for the first, exploratory phase of the research. The initial phase includes collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. 

The quantitative side of the research team has accessed and analyzed data from the Maryland Longitudinal Data System.

The qualitative side of the research team is working with community-based partners to assemble 6 focus groups, each composed of 6–10 Black young men (ages 18–23), to gather data on the ways they define and experience “thriving.”

Phase 1 Research Questions:

• How do Black males who were or are enrolled in our partner districts define “thriving”?

• Where are Black males thriving in partner school districts and where are they not?

• What challenges to thriving in these school districts do Black males voice?

The Racial & Social Justice Collaborative hosted a book club (Spring 2024) and carefully selected four books to read and discuss with the UMD community, fostering a safe space to discuss anti-racism, social justice, and the state of schooling in the U.S.

Core Tenets of Book Club: We believe that…

• Racial and social justice are the preeminent challenges facing education today.

• Building a community of trust is essential in working towards racial and social justice.

• Hard conversations are inevitable; we will assume good intent and hold each other accountable.

We link our discussion protocol below in case you want to follow along after hours!