User:Sigyn22/sandbox

== Possible Articles ==

Sector: Youth Mentoring
For this article I plan to add supplemental information that focuses on the community sector. The new information includes topics that discuss how mentorship aides the progress of Student’s education, and of how this positively affects the community as a whole. Moreover, the new sources presents a clear relationship that exists between mentorship and the community workforce: providing aid and support for those seeking stable career/jobs. The sources also describe how mentorship can minimize the gap that exists between high and low standing socioeconomic communities.

Area: Racial Inequality in the United States -> Racial achievement gap in the United States
For this article, I plan to focus on education. This means that I will be looking into how different racial communities have a prevalent gap that discourages the continuation of higher education for its members. The sources that will be included will discuss the racial formation theory, which argues that race is a socially constructed identity, and of how this contributes to the conversation of education and poverty. Additionally, the sources analyze the negative consequences that the gap causes: critical health, abysmal wages, and failing educational system.

Youth Mentoring
This article provides the vast definitions of mentorship depending on the various cases and scenarios where mentorship can be applied. Based on this, the article does a good job of covering the general information of mentoring, but severely lacking in the specialized approaches of mentoring. For example, the community based section of mentoring, should be much longer than a small paragraph in order to properly cover the information. The generalized style of the article is not necessarily bad, but fails to provide detailed sources and concrete data. Moreover, the amount of data provided for the approaches should also be approximately close to that of the effects. Throughout the article, very little information is expanded on the approaches, which I believe should be expanded to properly understand the effects of mentoring. Furthermore, the article needs to issue more examples, cases, and programs that put into practice use the methods of mentoring. The second part of the article discusses how mentorship is tackled in different countries. There are enough countries to appropriately compare mentorship across the globe; however, most of the data and information cited in the article pertains to the United States. What I mean about this is that more data should be supplied towards the different countries.

Racial Inequality in the United States -> Racial achievement gap in the United States
This article discusses how racism can be manifested through different sectors. The most prominent are wealth gap, poverty, housing, unemployment, and crime; on the other hand, education is a one paragraph annotation. This is why I decided to focus on the education sector due to its undervalue in the article. It seems hypocritical to undermine the relationship of education and racial disparity due to how it may lead to many of the other problems mentioned in the article. It could be argued that wealth gap, poverty, and unemployment disparities are direct results of the educational disparities experience by minorities. In addition, the educational section of the article only provides one source, and even then the information can be found elsewhere in the article. The section gives a link to the Racial achievement gap in the United States; however, this article still has issues, in regards, to the biased nature of the viewpoints. The sources that I've gathered do not have to necessarily fall in line with the racial achievement gap theory.

Youth Mentoring

 * “Previous research suggests that early mentoring relationship (MR) closures may have harmful consequences for the health and well-being of youth participating in community-based mentoring programs… This study examined patterns and correlates of early versus on-time MR closures among 569 youth participating in Big Brothers Big Sisters community mentoring programs. Thirty-four percent of youth experienced an early MR closure prior to the end of the program's 12 month period of commitment. The probability of closure was highest at 12 months into the MR.” (DeWit).
 * “Not all youth who qualify for formal mentoring services are mentored by an adult mentor and among those that are several months may pass before a suitable match is found. In 2009, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Canada. Estimated that 10,000 young people across the nation were on a waiting list to be paired to an adult mentor with some waiting as long as two years.” (3)
 * Because most mentoring organizations rely on corporate, government, and private donations to survive, there is an expectation on the part of funders and other key stakeholders that qualified youth who apply for services are matched to an adult mentor as quickly as possible. Program funding may be jeopardized when these expectations are not met. Long wait times also constitute a significant drain on mentoring program resources (e.g., wait list activities for non-mentored youth) that might have otherwise been allocated to serving new clients or strengthening program infrastructure (3).
 * “Evidence suggests that mentored youth enrolled in community-based mentoring programs experience greater health and social benefits compared to non-mentored youth.” (Dubois).
 * When long wait times occur, there is an increased risk that parents and youth will become discouraged causing some to end their relationship with the mentoring organization. (Buckley).





Racial Inequality in the United States -> Racial achievement gap in the United States

 * "Our findings are suggestive of the fact that students’ understanding of racism is often limited to individual acts of racism rather than an understanding of racism as a system of oppression. (Alemanji).
 * "Skin color affects pedagogy. For example, in a qualitative study of White nursing teachers, Holland (2015Holland, A. (2015). The lived experiences of teaching about race in cultural nursing education. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, found that the whiteness of the participants inhibited their ability to understand and teach about race. Lawrence and Tatum (Lawrence, S., & Tatum, B.). White racial identity and anti-racist education: A catalyst for change. Retrieved from Teaching for Change surmise that in order for White teachers to become competent in teaching this topic, they should become aware of their whiteness. On the other hand, several studies have also highlighted the challenges of teaching about race and racism for people of color" (Constance-Huggins).
 * "Schools and educators must be culturally responsive. Misperceptions hinder their appreciation of and respect for multicultural education and, thus, the adoption of culturally responsive practices is infrequent and/or met with reservations. Several misperceptions are share accompanied by counterarguments." (Ford).

Plans

 * Many studies have pointed out that enrolling the youth into mentoring programs tend to have a higher health quality, along with social benefits, when compared to other students who are not mentored (Dubois).
 * Many of the mentoring programs rely on private funding from various companies to organizations, this tends to place stress on the mentoring programs because the programs have to meet expectations from their donors, or they will suffer from budgetary cuts. In addition, this removes focus from the mentoring activities into the financial issues that the programs may be suffering. This can cause for staff, materials, or hours to be cut from the program, or may limit the amount of students that may be accepted as mentees.
 * Through mentorships, mentors gain clinical skills that help increase their confidence, they learn more about themselves, and they feel as if their work helps mentees in their life’s. Many of these mentors apply to mentoring programs in order to receive credit, but their commitment goes beyond simple class work. Mentorships that use more experienced mentors, such as college graduates and professionals, offer more intervention and prevention strategies for high-risk students. There are many mentoring programs that prefer to use graduate mentors since they offer more time for students who need intense supervision (United States).

Contributions

 * About one third of female mentees’ mentorship was terminated earlier than males. The termination occurred before eleven months; by twelve months an estimated of 46% females had terminated their mentorship. On the other hand, males had an average of two years of mentorship (DeWit).
 * 55% more likely to enroll in college.
 * 78% more likely to volunteer regularly.
 * 90% are interested in becoming a mentor.
 * 130% more likely to hold leadership positions.
 * Community engagement statistics states that mentees after mentoring programs are 55% more likely to enroll in college, 78% more likely to volunteer regularly, 90% are interested in becoming a mentor, and 130% more likely to hold leadership positions.


 * Successful mentorships promote positive health through the improvement of academic education, positive self-worth, and social acceptance. Likewise, mentorships can decrease high-risk violent behaviors, usage of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs (Coller).
 * The progress of mentees is enhanced when mentors place attention to cultural, sporting, and extra-curricular actives, not only to academics. Working on these factors of a student’s life can improve their self-esteem, mental health, and create new relationships, and this in turn helps the students transition out of mentorships and in to higher academics. Mentees are usually overlooked and their potential can be accidentally neglected by unexperienced mentors. This is why professional mentors can offer the best mentorship for mentees in order to get the best out of tutoring sessions. However, mentoring is the most successful when mentoring is built on the shared enthusiasm between mentors and mentees (Gilligan).
 * A survey questioning 1,101 mentors through 98 mentoring programs found that school-based mentoring programs had fewer contact hours than community-based mentoring programs. Community-based mentors also self-reported to be “very close” to their mentees, while school-based mentors reported to be “close”. This survey used nine factors to benchmark the developing relationships. These factors are “(1) engaging in social activities; (2) engaging in academic activities; (3) number of hours per month spent together; (4) decision-making shared by mentor and mentee; (5) prematch training; (6) postmatch training; (7) mentor screening (only important relationship development in community-based programs); (8) matching; and (9) age of the mentee” (Herrera). The conclusion of this study is that school-based programs is a good compliment to community based mentoring programs, meaning that schools should strive to have a variety of mentoring programs in order to give students the best resources that fit to their needs.
 * Children of Latino, Native, and African American heritage arrive to kindergarten and first grade with lower levels of oral language, reading, and mathematics skill than Caucasian and Asian American children. It is estimated that the achievement gap could drastically be shortened if the performance gap at school entrance is addressed (Philips, Crouse, and Ralphe).
 * Racial disparities in the educational system is decreasing, and it is believed that wealth disparities will become the new barrier for equal education. A student that is enrolled in a school district where racial, poverty, financial, and academic segregation is unable to receive equal education. Despite the fact that there are successful student that do overcome segregation disparities, many schools still fail to meet educational standards (Californians for Justice Education Fund).
 * Oakland students that come from low socioeconomic families are less likely to attend schools that provide equal education as wealthier schools that come from major American cities. This means that only two of ten students will go to schools that have a closing achievement gap (Garrett-Pate).
 * The Oakland achievement gap grew by 11 percent between 2011 and 2013. This rate is alarming because it is a quicker pace than 80 percent of other major nationwide cities. This means that Oakland’s achievement gap is larger than half of California’s cities (Garrett-Pate).



1)
Coller, Ryan J., and Alice A. Kuo. “Youth Development Through Mentorship: A Los Angeles School-Based Mentorship Program Among Latino Children.” Journal of Community Health, vol. 39, no. 2, 2013, pp. 316–321., doi:10.1007/s10900-013-9762-1.

This research is studing the development and evaluation of the Youth Empowerment Program (YEP), a program designed to aid Latino and students with low socioeconomic status to achieve academic success. The YEP program is designed to help students by connecting them with university student-mentors, throughout the program’s time the mentors and mentees will establish a bond that will encourage mentees to be successful in their academic endeavors. This research is helpful to me because it provides a clear link between mentorship and academic success. In addition, the program provides concrete data from which its conclusion was drawn from. This is different from other sources because it is the only one who has numerical data from its research.

2)

Dutton, Hilary, et al. “Distal and Experiential Perspectives of Relationship Quality from Mentors, Mentees, and Program Staff in a School-Based Youth Mentoring Program.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 85, 2018, pp. 53–62., doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2017.12.008.

In this essay, Hilary uses surveys to question the staff and teachers from a school that is participating in a mentorship program. This study is different from other sources because the surveys from all of the participants and observant are used to create a wholesome analysis of mentor-mentee relationship and of how this affects mentees academic success. Hilary notes that from her surveys mentors, mentees, and teachers have different perspectives of how the mentorship is advancing. This helps in my study because it is the first essay that take different perspectives into account, and adds additional dimensions to mentorship programs.

3)

Garrett-Pate, S. (Ed.). (2016). Oakland's Achievement Gap Is Large and Growing. Education Equality Index. Retrieved from http://www.educationequalityindex.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/EEI-Oakland-Press-Release-FINAL.pdf

This source is from the Education Equality Index, in which it states that Oakland’s achievement gap has been substantially increasing, and since the gap keeps on growing the report also states that it will take many years for Oakland to recover from this education discrepancy. This source is significant for my practice experience because it established the needed background for my practice experience, and how a previous discriminatory past may still be negatively affecting schools and communities. In addition, this source also provides good examples of schools whose major student body come from low socioeconomic status, and I could use these examples as a framework of what my practice experience could be in regards to the foreseeable future.

4)

Gilligan, Robbie. “Enhancing the Resilience of Children and Young People in Public Care by Mentoring Their Talents and Interests.” Child and Family Social Work, vol. 4, no. 3, 1999, pp. 187–196., doi:10.1046/j.1365-2206.1999.00121.x.

This article discusses the main point that young people and children can improve their progress and resilience through sporting, hobbies, and cultural activities. This progress can be achieved through mentoring; a successful mentorship bond between mentees and mentors will result in a greater potential, self-esteem, mental health, and foster new social relationships. However, the article notes that the most significant result of mentorship is in the successful transition of the mentee out of the mentorship programs and into the educational system. I chose this article because it focuses non-academic results and consequences of mentoring. This means that the youth is greatly affected by mentoring programs in their growth not just academically.

5)

Herrera, Carla, et al. “Mentoring School-Age Children: Relationship Development in Community-Based and School-Based Programs.” Journal of Research in Education, Eastern Educational Research Association. George Watson, Marshall University, One John Marshall Drive, College of Education and Professional Development, Huntington, WV 25755. e-Mail: Eerajournal@Gmail.com; Web Site: Http://Www.eeraorganization.org, Apr. 2000, eric.ed.gov/?id=ED441066.

           This study explores the relationships that exist between the mentors and mentees in two types of mentorships: school-based and community-based. This paper seeks to compare both mentorships, and determine its differences and which are more beneficial to mentees. It was determined through a survey that mentors in community-based mentorship are older, from 22 to 49, have more contact and are closer with their mentees. The reasoning behind this is that community-based mentorship provides more social activities, where mentees can grow beyond their academic limitations. This source is valuable for my practice experience because it shows the differences between different mentorship programs, and the weaknesses and strengths of each. This source also gives me a better understanding of how my practice organization can improve.

6)

Katz, M.B.. (2015). What kind of a problem is poverty? The archeology of an idea. Territories of Poverty: Rethinking North and South.

This source was pulled from the reading, and it shows the various terms and definitions that poverty can take. This source offers a unique view of poverty because it raises question on the nature of what poverty is and its source of origin. This is useful to my practice experience because it helps me expand my limited knowledge of what I believe poverty to be, and of how these terms and definitions can help me better understand my practice experience and how it is that they can better help in solving localized poverty.

7)

Lakind, Davielle, et al. “Youth Mentoring Relationships in Context: Mentor Perceptions of Youth, Environment, and the Mentor Role.” Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 53, 2015, pp. 52–60., doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.03.007.

This source demonstrates a different side of the mentorship relationship. This essay insinuates that mentors may have preconceptions of their mentees and the mentees’ environment, this preconception may negatively affect how the mentors will bond with their mentees. This can have two different directions: either mentors will see themselves as an antidote to the mentees’ negative environment, or mentors will take a more detached approach towards their mentees’ academics. These blurred lines of the mentorship bonds create challenges towards the mentorship roles.

8)

Rhodes, Jean, et al. “The Role of Gender in Youth Mentoring Relationship Formation and Duration.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, vol. 72, no. 2, Apr. 2008, pp. 183–192., doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2007.09.005.

Rhodes and her colleagues in this article discuss and come to the conclusion that gender plays a decisive factor in the formation and duration of mentorships. This study examined and based its data on the random assignments of mentors and mentees in Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America (BBSA). This study found out that girls in general reported in lower levels of parental trust; however, the same girls also had longer lasting mentorships than boys, and girls who only had short-term mentorships. The girls with longer-lasting mentorships were in higher need of positive guiding relationships due to the fact that their parental relationships were having rough relationships with their parents. This paper is important to my practice experience because it demonstrates the gender disparities that exist in the mentorship programs, and gives me an idea of the challenges that I will encounter in my practice experience.

9)

United States, Congress, US National Library of Medicine, et al. “Mentoring Children in Foster Care: Impact on Graduate Student Mentors.” HHS Public Access Author Manuscript, vol. 89, 2014, pp. 17–32.

This government-funded research paper examines the effects that mentorship has on mentors. This paper is different from others because the mentees in the mentorship are children who are in foster care, these children have different needs than mentees from other mentoring programs. The prominent difference is that these children come from backgrounds where they have suffered from maltreatment. This is the reason why the mentors must be graduate students, for they will have more maturity, knowledge, and professionalism to handle foster care children. The survey has also indicated that this mentorship helped mentors understand children’s perspective, gain sensitivity for mentoring children in high-risked, and the skill to handle challenging situations. This research paper is significant because it has a high credibility, as it was government funded and approved. Moreover, this paper presents the mentor’s perspective on mentorship, and this perspective is rarely shined upon because the results of mentorship is best demonstrated through the academic success of the mentees.

Racial Inequality in the United States -> Racial achievement gap in the United States
1)

Californians for Justice Education Fund. ''Still Separate, Still Unequal: A Look at Racial Inequality in California Schools 47 Years After Brown V. Board of Education. Expanded Edition''. Californians for Justice Education Fund, 2001.

This source describes the research that focuses on educational equality in three school districts in California. Most of the data was compiled using a computerized survey tool, along with the Racial Justice Report Card, this report card evaluates the school districts based on critical issues, such as racial equality. This is significant to my study because it helps me to analyze and compare different school districts in regards towards race. The report card will aid in establishing patterns as to whether racial disparities among schools affect student’s academic success.

2)

Conchas, Gilberto Q., and Briana M Hinga. "Inequality, Power and School Success: Case Studies on Racial Disparity and Opportunity in Education". Edited by Michael A Gottfried, New York, NY ; Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2015.

This source describes the process that helps students to not only thrive academically but also socially, and the existing viable patterns that parents, teachers, and students take to endure the leadership of school failures, and the dominating class. This source has special focus on racial formation theory. This source helps connect my two different areas of focus: mentorship and race. This study establishes that racism in educational environments affects students with low socioeconomic status and this in turn affects their academic standing. This study also includes how parents, teachers, and school staff affect the research.

3)

Delgado Chela Myesha. “Framing the Gap: Education Reform and Conceptions of Racial Equity.” EScholarship, University of California, 21 Nov. 2015, escholarship.org/uc/item/0tg797bn.

Delgado in her research essay states that the achievement gap that plagues students of color is due to the persistent inequality that exists in the national schooling system. Delgado even goes so far as to insinuate that the academic and educational reforms will not help in decreasing the achievement gap because reformers do not understand the achievement gap in the first place. In Delgado’s words, the best educational reform that can be implemented is to ground it in racial framings that will shape the reform, and to analyze the effects that racial justice has on the educational system. Likewise, from my last source, this essay also establishes a connection between racism and the educational disparities that affect students of color. This will help my study by drawing conclusive data and examples from other cases that can support my study.

4)

Drake, Sean. “Academic Segregation and the Institutional Success Frame: Unequal Schooling and Racial Disparity in an Integrated, Affluent Community.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, vol. 43, no. 14, 2017, pp. 2423–2439., doi:10.1080/1369183x.2017.1315868.

Drake states in his essay that the American schooling system still suffers from independent racial segregation. Drake places a focus in the racial segregation that is caused by wealthy neighborhoods and affluent schools in Southern California suburbs. Drake states that affluent schools will have an overwhelming Asian and Caucasian populations, and that these schools establish racial segregation by encouraging students-of-color to attend a different school whose population is overwhelmingly Black, Latino, and working-class. The implications from this is that this segregation will cause ethnoracial and socioeconomic problems for the different schools and districts later on. This helps my study because it will support my hypothesis that racially divided districts will cause a large difference in student’s academic success.

5)

Elmendorf, Christopher S., and Darien Shanske. “Solving 'Problems No One Has Solved': Courts, Causal Inference, and the Right to Education.” SSRN Electronic Journal, 2017, doi:10.2139/ssrn.2886754.

This source is long with many arguments as to the educational improvement; however, for this study we will be focusing on the second chapter: “Problems No One Has Solved” (698). This source states that geographic differences can affect children’s academic success. Many of the geographic differences that are shown in the essay are based on race. A child will have more academic success in a wealthier school with a major Caucasian population, but another child will be negatively affected if they come from a school district that is poor and with an overwhelming Black population. This supports my study because it reinforces the fact that different schools with vastly different socioeconomic status will result in academic gaps between those two different populations.

6)

Farkas, George. “Racial Disparities and Discrimination in Education: What Do We Know, How Do We Know It, and What Do We Need to Know?” Teachers College Record, vol. 105, no. 6, Aug. 2003, pp. 1119–1146., doi:10.1111/1467-9620.00279.

George Farkas discusses the racial disparities that negatively affect low-income children of African American, Native Americans, and Latinos. Farkas also suggests that these racial disparities place minorities at a disadvantage when compared to white and Caucasian students. In addition, Farkas states that racial disparities in education begins when minority students are unprepared to begin school in Kindergarten and first grade. Farkas also states that there are three requirements that minority students fail to achieve: opportunity to learn, effort to learn, and skills needed to perform in the school environment. I chose this source as evidence for my Wikipedia article because it presents detailed data and comparisons between different education sections that are absent in other sources. The data is compiled from five different topics: language, pre-reading, pre-mathematics, general knowledge, and school-related behaviors. Finally, this source concludes that racial disparities in education can be found as early as kindergarten, and this affects the student’s education for the rest of their school career because the early stages of education serve as the basis for higher education.

7)

Ford, Donna Y., et al. “Gifted Education and Cultrurally Different Students.” Gifted Child Today, vol. 36, no. 3, Oct. 2013, pp. 205-208., doi:10.1177/1076217513487069.

Ford and her colleagues that African American and Latino students find it harder to move and rise to gifted classes or programs due to the prejudice that teachers and staff have towards them. In the study, it was revealed that many teachers and staff do not mean to purposefully discriminate against minority students, but their perceived notions regarding the educational capabilities of minority students. This is problematic in the educational institution because teachers and educational staff are the ones who recommend and refer students to advanced gifted programs, meaning that the teaches and staff are the gatekeepers as to who receives a better education and who advanced towards higher education. This is impactful to minority students because the limitation towards gifted classes and programs limit their opportunities to attain higher education, since many of the gifted classes and programs serve as the basis for higher education. I chose this source because it clearly demonstrates the innocuous systematic discrimination that takes place in education. Another reason would be because this source explains how systematic discrimination takes away the limited amount of opportunities that minority students have and places these students into a pipeline where their educational-capabilities are measured by their socioeconomic status and race.

8)

Sung, Kenzo K. “‘Hella Ghetto!’: (Dis)Locating Race and Class Consciousness in Youth Discourses of Ghetto Spaces, Subjects and Schools.” Race Ethnicity and Education, vol. 18, no. 3, 2013, pp. 363–395., doi:10.1080/13613324.2013.792799.

This source examines how young students define the word “ghetto” and what it means to live in a neighborhood that carries this label. These young students carry a consciousness insight from living in their neighborhood and from carrying the discrimination of their status. This internal view on how the youth feel in regards to their socioeconomic status provides a sense of resistance, dislocation, and ideology that explores a new understanding of communities. This source helps my study because it presents a point of view by the students who live through discrimination challenges day-to-day.