INTERACTIVE HOMEWORK: CONTEXTUALIZING BLACK GIRLS’ MATH IDENTITIES IN A FAMILY-SCHOOL PARTNERSHIP by Shannon Caroline Jeter A dissertation submitted to Johns Hopkins University in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education. Baltimore, Maryland November, 2019 © 2019 Shannon C. Jeter All Rights Reserved Abstract This research addressed family-school partnerships and parents’ self-efficacy with supporting their daughters’ math learning—2 factors identified in a needs assessment as being likely to contribute to the problem of math underperformance of Black girls. The needs assessment was situated at a public Montessori charter school in a Mid-Atlantic city; the pre/postembedded exploratory design intervention occurred in a traditional school in the same city. In this embedded exploratory research design, biweekly, interactive homework was given to a treatment group of approximately 40 fourth-grade students. No comparison group was available. The interactive homework contextualized math learning within key areas of students’ lives, including family and school. This research explored how contextualizing learning within these key relationships would support parents’ self-efficacy with supporting their daughters as math learners, increases in math scores, and increases in students’ sense of themselves as math learners. Keywords: Black girls, math underperformance, family-school engagement, public Montessori, parent self-efficacy, TIPS interactive homework Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Yolanda Abel ii Dissertation Approval Form iii Dedication I dedicate this work to my mother, Guenivere Robbins. Thank you for modelling how to respect and explore diverse perspectives without becoming someone other than who yourself. And thank you for a lifetime of good food, rich texture, garden tours, and abundant opportunities. I love you so much! iv Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge some of the many good people who have helped me complete this undertaking. First, thank you to my committee. Dr. Darryl Corey, thank you for your willingness to support the work of a fellow Raider so many years after high school. Dr. Camille Bryant, I will never forget the patient kindness that you showed while helping me untangle various design and analysis messes. Thank you, Dr. Yolanda Abel, I am grateful for your calm but persistent manner of keeping me focused on the task at hand and that you gave me space to grow as your teaching assistant. I also am grateful to Joyce Epstein who shared her Teachers Involve Parents in Schoolwork (TIPS) protocols with me and who gave me valuable feedback during the early stages of the research process. This process would not have been as much fun had it not been for fellow cohort members. Dr. Felicia Jones, the best comps study partner ever, you are my self-efficacy role model. Elizabeth Colon-Fitzgerald, Rae Lymer, and Erin Browder—thanks for academic and moral support on late night Facebook chats, and beyond. Bradley Brock, I am grateful for the biweekly, then daily support phone calls as we made our way down the home stretch. Dr. Tiveeda Stovall, I thank you for that study break at the DOJ, and for going out of your way to make my younger child feel seen and appreciated. I am also grateful for my therapist, Sue Brown, who keeps me on track, and who has offered anecdotal and empirical evidence that good things can happen in this world. Thank you, Nami Kimura for your cosmic perspective, and for verifying the translations used in this intervention. Thanks also to Sarah Knapp and the women in my Krav Maga class for the weekly reminder that the brain is part of the body and that testing physical limits can bring mental clarity. Thank you also to Rachel Guglielmo for editing this and for three decades of friendship; the years do have feet (Dickinson, 1924). A special thanks goes to Ms. Vader, an exceptional math teacher. Her students adore her, and their attitudes about math learning reflect her high expectations for them. I am thankful for the students and parents who v participated in my intervention, and I especially enjoyed meeting the focus group participants. If the future belongs to Cardi, Kitty, Leila, and Rainbow Unicorn, I am confident that everything will work out just fine. Finally, I thank my children, Joni and Tzipporah. My involvement in this program has sometimes added stress to our lives, yet you have both been supportive. Thank you for giving constructive feedback as needed, and for the occasional mug of peppermint tea. I am proud of you both, and humbled by the way that you, each in your own way, strive to “let your lives preach” (Fox, 1831, p. 194). vi Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... ii Dedication ................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... v List of Tables .......................................................................................................................... xvi List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ xvii Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 1 The Math Underperformance of Black Girls ...................................................................... 2 Needs Assessment .............................................................................................................. 3 Research Context ................................................................................................................ 4 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................ 5 Research Questions ............................................................................................................. 5 Implementation ................................................................................................................... 5 Research Design .......................................................................................................... 5 Participants .................................................................................................................. 6 Process ......................................................................................................................... 6 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................... 7 Research Findings ....................................................................................................... 8 Research Question 1. ............................................................................................ 8 Research Question 2. ............................................................................................ 8 Research Question 3. ............................................................................................ 8 Discussion ........................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1 The Problem of Practice ............................................................................................ 9 Problem of Practice Within the Professional Context ...................................................... 10 Rationale for Problem of Practice ..................................................................................... 11 Theoretical Frameworks ................................................................................................... 12 Critical Race Theory .................................................................................................. 12 vii Cultural Reproduction ............................................................................................... 14 Potential Underlying Causes and Factors Related to the POP ......................................... 16 Gender and Math Learning ........................................................................................ 16 Federal Policy Supporting Educational Equity for Girls ........................................... 19 Title IX. .............................................................................................................. 19 Sexual assault policy in elementary school. ....................................................... 20 Relevance of the Dear Colleague Letter to learning math. ................................ 21 Math Learning Related to Race ........................................................................................ 22 Intersection of Race and Gender ....................................................................................... 27 Synthesis of Research Literature Related to Underlying Factors ..................................... 28 The Montessori Method ............................................................................................ 28 Four planes of development. .............................................................................. 28 Sensorial learning. .............................................................................................. 29 Socioculturally constructed learning. ................................................................