Promoting Grit in Elementary School Students Through Culturally-Proficient Practices: Intervention and Evaluation This study aims to encourage culturally relevant teaching practices and help close the achievement gap through teacher training and consultation. Consultation will focus on integrating grit promotion and cultural responsiveness into teachers’ Student Learning Objectives (SLOs). SLO’s involve the teachers identifying goals, developing individual interventions, and progress monitoring for individual students in need of improvement. The study has three parts: focus group, training, and consultation.
The current project was initiated by a request from school administrators after receiving the results of our previous study in their school; they wanted to immediately follow up with an intervention. The project is being developed in close collaboration with school staff, administrative leadership, and the school county’s Equity Initiatives Unit to ensure that it focuses on the issues of greatest importance to the school and county as a whole.
Latina/o Values Affirmation Study The goal of the Values Affirmation study is to determine if a Values Affirmation intervention improves the math and literacy trajectories, in addition to school belongingness, of Latinx middle school students. This short-term longitudinal study is a collaborative project between Identity staff and University of Maryland (UMD) College of Education researchers.