Kyrah K. Brown

The Empowering Schools Project: Identifying the Classroom and School Characteristics That Lead to Student Empowerment

In an education system marred by inequity, urban schools in the United States are faced with the challenge of helping students from marginalized groups succeed. While many strategies have been tried, most are built on deficit-based models that blame students and teachers for a lack of achievement and ignore the role of power within the school setting. Building on the body of research on school climate, critical pedagogy, and empowering settings, the present study developed a model of student empowerment using a case study of an ethnically diverse urban high school in the midwestern United States. Participant observation, focus groups, and interviews were utilized to identify classroom and school characteristics related to student empowerment. Students reported equitable teacher–student relationships, integrated student leadership, and shared decision making. Similarly, school staff reported high staff empowerment and sense of community. The Student Empowerment Model is a useful framework for school improvement, adding “power” to the broader literature on school climate and extending the work on empowering settings to schools.

The Power of Student Empowerment: Measuring Classroom Predictors and Individual Indicators.

ABSTRACT Despite spending more money per student than almost all developed nations, the United States lags behind in educational indicators with persistent disparities between privileged and marginalized students. Most approaches have ignored the role of power dynamics in predicting student performance. Building on the existing literature in school climate and empowering settings, this study explored the construct of student empowerment to identify both environmental factors that predict increased empowerment and outcomes associated with empowerment. A survey was administered to 381 students from five urban high schools. Results suggest that intrapersonal student empowerment is predicted by equitable power use by teachers, positive teacher–student relationships and a sense of community in the classroom. Highly empowered students reported better grades, fewer behavioral incidents, increased extracurricular participation and higher educational aspirations than students who were less empowered. Limitations are discussed alongside implications for educational practice and future research.

Youth empowerment implementation project evaluation results: A program designed to improve the health and well-being of low-income African-American adolescents

ABSTRACT Adolescent obesity is a major health issue facing today’s youth. This may be the first generation to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. The Youth Empowerment Implementation Project’s (YEIP) goal was to increase fruit and vegetable intake, lower junk food consumption, and increase physical activity among low-income African-American youth living in the Midwest. Thirty middle school aged youth participated in an evidenced-based program (i.e., Botvin’s Life Skills Training) and were engaged in health education and physical activities. The results from baseline to follow-up demonstrated a reduction in junk food intake for participants and an increase in fruit and vegetable intake but not for physical activity. The health behaviors of participants improved for three out of four indicators following the intervention. Limitations, future research, and implications for future programs are also discussed.

Is Timing of Enrollment Associated with Birth Outcomes? Findings from a Healthy Start Program in Kansas

Objective The Sedgwick County Healthy Babies Healthy Start (HBHS) program provides community-based services (including care coordination, interconception care and home visiting) aimed at reducing racial/ethnic disparities in poor birth outcomes. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the Sedgwick County HBHS program by comparing the birth outcomes of program participants who enrolled prenatally and those who did not participate while pregnant. Methods In this retrospective cohort study, we used data drawn from the Sedgwick County HBHS program. The sample included 280 clients who were enrolled in the Sedgwick County HBHS program between September 2014 and December 2015. We performed logistic regression analyses to assess the associations between enrollee type (prenatal enrollee vs. interconceptional enrollee) and birth outcomes (low birth weight, preterm birth). Results The majority of the sample consisted of racial/ethnic minority women (32.1% non-Hispanic black, 31.8% Hispanic). After adjusting for covariates, women who enrolled in the Sedgwick County HBHS program prenatally were less likely than women who were not enrolled during pregnancy to have a preterm birth (OR 0.19, [CI 08, 0.43]) and deliver a low birth weight infant (OR 0.31, [CI 0.10, 0.97]). Conclusions for Practice Women, particularly minority women, who participate in the HBHS program experienced better birth outcomes than women who did not participate in the program during pregnancy. However, findings also suggest that interconceptional enrollees may stand to benefit from continued participation in the program.

Exploring the Experience of Life Stress Among Black Women with a History of Fetal or Infant Death: a Phenomenological Study

IntroductionDisparate birth outcomes among Black women continue to be a major public health problem. Whereas prior research has investigated the influence of stress on Black women’s birth outcomes, few studies have explored how stress is experienced among Black women across the life course. The objectives of this study were to describe the experience of stress across the life course among Black women who reported a history of fetal or infant death and to identify stressful life events (SLE) that may not be represented in the widely used SLE inventory.MethodsUsing phenomenological, qualitative research design, in-depth interviews were conducted with six Black women in Kansas who experienced a fetal or infant death.ResultsAnalyses revealed that participants experienced multiple, co-occurring stressors over the course of their lives and experienced a proliferation of stress emerging in early life and persisting into adulthood. Among the types of stressors cited by participants, history of sexual assault (trauma-related stressor) was a key stressful life event that is not currently reflected in the SLE inventory.ConclusionOur findings highlight the importance of using a life-course perspective to gain a contextual understanding of the experiences of stress among Black women, particularly those with a history of adverse birth outcomes. Further research investigating Black women’s experiences of stress and the mechanisms by which stress impacts their health could inform efforts to reduce disparities in birth outcomes. An additional focus on the experience and impact of trauma-related stress on Black women’s birth outcomes may also be warranted.