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Georgia Professor Receives $505,000 Grant for Study

Georgia Professor Receives $505,000 Grant for Study
Of African-American Achievement Gap in Atlanta Suburb

ATHENS, Ga.
A University of Georgia education researcher hopes a new, four-year study of the experiences of African-American adolescents in a predominantly Black Atlanta suburb will help explain the reasons behind a persistent achievement gap between African-American and White students.

“Adolescence is a period of time when young people are attempting to gain an integrated sense of self,” says Dr. Jerome Morris, an associate professor of social foundations of education and a research fellow at UGA’s Institute for Behavioral Research. “For African-American youth, this process can be further complicated by race, gender and class status.”

Morris has received a $505,000 grant from the Spencer Foundation to investigate issues of identity formation and negotiation in a project beginning in January 2006 called, “African-American Adolescents in a Black Suburb in the U.S. South: A Social Study of Schooling, Identity, and Achievement.”

Morris will explore the role of class status and context as mitigating factors to improve the educational experiences of Black students. Unlike previous studies that have looked at Blacks in either urban, low-income areas or predominately White and affluent areas, this one focuses on African-American adolescents in a predominately Black middle-class suburb.

“This study attempts to find out what might be different in the more middle-class Black suburbs and schools and how that might influence African-American adolescents’ understanding of school achievement and identity,” says Morris.

Based in DeKalb County — often called “the heart of Black Mecca” because of its burgeoning predominantly Black population — Morris’ study will employ sociological and anthropological research methods to follow adolescents over a four-year span as well as evaluate the school district and county.

Morris and his family live in DeKalb County’s Stone Mountain area, where he has collected anecdotal information from neighbors about the county’s schools for the past three years. In addition, an American Educational Research Association grant for $15,000 has enabled him to collect preliminary data for the study.

“The preeminent scholar on race in the 20th century, W.E.B. Du Bois, believed it was critical for researchers who study African-American culture, institutions and communities to spend an extended period of time living in African-American communities,” Morris says.

In addition to his research, teaching and service, Morris also has served as president of UGA’s Black Faculty and Staff Organization and led efforts to create a senior-level administrative position that focused on diversity and equity, resulting in the creation of the Office of Institutional Diversity.



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