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 RSJC Bright Spots Community Forum centers equity-driven work emerging from Anne Arundel County Public Schools through sustained collaboration between educators, district leaders, researchers, and community partners. Designed as a space for shared learning and celebration, the forum elevates programs and practices that advance racial and social justice across local school systems.

Featured initiatives include Equity Learning Visits, a districtwide professional learning model that supports educators in developing equity awareness, building relationships across school communities, and applying an equity lens to instructional and leadership practices. 

Through structured learning visits, cross-school collaboration, and shared accountability, this work challenges deficit-based narratives and fosters collective responsibility for more just and inclusive school environments. Student panels embedded within the visits further elevate student voice as an essential component of equity-centered change.

The forum also highlights The SEAT of Power, AACPS’s student leadership initiative that ensures students, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, have meaningful opportunities to inform and influence equitable practices and decision-making. By positioning students as advisors, advocates, and emerging leaders, SEAT demonstrates how authentic student voice strengthens school communities and policy outcomes.

Together, these initiatives illustrate how intentional partnership, reflective practice, and student-centered leadership can move equity from aspiration to action, offering tangible examples of what is possible when equity is treated as a shared, ongoing commitment.

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!