No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.
Introduction: Revisiting Albert Sidney Beckham
Historically, assessments of human intelligence have been virtually synonymous with practices that contributed to forms of inequality and injustice. As such, modern considerations for assessing human intelligence must focus on equity and fairness. First, we highlight the array of diversity, equity, and inclusion concerns in assessment practices and discuss strategies for addressing them. Next, we define a modern, non-g, emergent view of intelligence using Process Overlap Theory and argue for its use in improving equitable practices. We then review empirical evidence focusing on sub-measures of g to highlight the utility of non-g, emergent models in promoting equity and fairness. We conclude with suggestions for researchers and practitioners.
Ensuring a psychologically and physically safe learning environment for students and staff is necessary for students to learn and grow and for teachers to teach. However, for Black students and other marginalized students, the school environment is often physically and emotionally unsafe and they are targeted by anti-Black policies and practices, ultimately producing inequitable outcomes. As such, school safety must be reexamined and reconceptualized to promote a safe, secure, and welcoming environment for Black students. In this article, we will discuss the school-based experiences of Black students in American schools with a particular focus on Black students’ physical and emotional safety. Furthermore, implications and recommendations for establishing safe, affirming, and culturally relevant educational spaces for Black students are provided.
This study examined whether killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor in 2020 were followed by shifts in public sentiment toward Black people. Methods: Google searches for the names “Ahmaud Arbery,” “Breonna Taylor,” and “George Floyd” were obtained from the Google Health Application Programming Interface (API). Using the Twitter API, we collected a 1% random sample of publicly available U.S. race-related tweets from November 2019–September 2020 (N = 3,380,616). Sentiment analysis was performed using Support Vector Machines, a supervised machine learning model. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on a random sample of 3,000 tweets to understand themes in discussions of race and racism and inform interpretation of the quantitative trends. Results: The highest rate of Google searches for any of the three names was for George Floyd during the week of May 31 to June 6, the week after his murder. The percent of tweets referencing Black people that were negative decreased by 32% (from 49.33% in November 4–9 to 33.66% in June 1–7) (p < 0.001), but this decline was temporary, lasting just a few weeks. Themes that emerged during the content analysis included discussion of race or racism in positive (14%) or negative (38%) tones, call for action related to racism (18%), and counter movement/arguments against racism-related changes (6%). Conclusion: Although there was a sharp decline in negative Black sentiment and increased public awareness of structural racism and desire for long-lasting social change, these shifts were transitory and returned to baseline after several weeks. Findings suggest that negative attitudes towards Black people remain deeply entrenched.
The negative impacts of racism, including experiences of racial trauma, are well documented (e.g., Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2006; Carter, 2007). Because of the deleterious effects of racial trauma on Black people, interventions that facilitate the resistance and prevention of anti-Black racism are needed. Critical consciousness is one such intervention, as it is often seen as a prerequisite of resistance and liberation (Prilleltensky, 2003, 2008). To understand how individuals advance from being aware of anti-Black racism to engaging in actions to prevent and resist racial trauma, nonconfidential interviews with 12 Black Lives Matter activists were conducted. Using constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014) under critical-ideological and Black feminist-womanist lenses, a model of Critical Consciousness of Anti-Black Racism (CCABR) was co-constructed. The 3 processes involved in developing CCABR include: witnessing anti-Black racism, processing anti-Black racism, and acting critically against anti-Black racism. This model, including each of the categories and subcategories, are detailed herein and supported with quotations. The findings and discussion provide context-rich and practical approaches to help Black people, and counseling psychologists who serve them, prevent and resist racial trauma.
This commentary offers a reflection on Proctor's (2022) contribution to the special issue. In particular, it focuses on three primary threads: (a) centering Black voices in school psychology's history; b) applying an anti-racist lens to recruitment and retention research and practices; and c) recognizing the role of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in advancing school psychology. Future directions for school psychology research and practice are discussed.
Albert Beckham, who was the first Black school psychologist in the U.S., frequently used intelligence tests with Black children. This usage required clinical decision making to explain the results obtained from psychoeducational assessments. In their discussion of this aspect of Beckham’s work, introduce the concept of Culturally Relevant Clinical Judgement. This paper discusses issues related to the continued use of cognitive assessment instruments as it relates to clinical judgment in special education eligibility decision-making in comparison to alternatives such as Response-to-Intervention (RtI).
This article reflects on key ideas in Graves (2009) that are relevant to recruitment, retention, and inclusion of Black people in school psychology. The article begins with a critique of the field's lack of engagement with the ideas Albert Beckham introduced in the 20th century. Then, the article discusses issues that Black school psychologists are engaging today through their research and practice to illustrate the critical need for inclusion of Black thought and Black people in school psychology. Next, the article offers a brief review of extant research related to the recruitment and retention of Black people in school psychology. The article concludes with implications for the recruitment, retention, and inclusion of Black people in school psychology.
Albert Sidney Beckham was the first African American to hold the title school psychologist. This article examines the life and professional career of Beckham in the context of his contributions to the field of school psychology. It explores his graduate education, the founding of Howard University's Psychological Laboratory and his research and practice as a school psychologist at the Institute for Juvenile Research and Chicago Bureau of Child Study. While much has been written on individual contributors to the field of school psychology, there is virtually no mention of any practitioners of colour. Thus, the purpose of this article is to begin a process of inclusion by mainstreaming the work of a pioneer in the field of school psychology.
Several persons in this study have not faced any humiliation based on race prejudice. Of those who have had such humiliating experiences, the average age for the first experience was eleven for both the delinquent boys and the non-delinquent boys and girls. The average age at which the adults received a first humiliation was twelve. The most common effect with the adults and the non-delinquent children was resentfulness; with the delinquent boys the most frequent effect was mixed emotional states as sadness, regret, fear, pain, etc. The most frequent changes brought about within the individuals, based on this humiliation, was for the adults the actual attempt in their own way to put into effect a program that would enlighten other races on the futility of race prejudice. With the non-delinquent children, the desire for personal achievement is foremost. Delinquent boys became aloof and antagonistic. The most frequent occurrence that caused a first racial humiliation was, for all three groups, a disagreeable personal experience rather than a group experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
An inadequate social drive conditions personality and produces a high degree of receptivity for over-suggestive influences. The over-suggestible boy and girl who come in conflict with the law are usually considered unstable. The gang is the predominant influence for most delinquent boys. They continue again and again to commit the same acts, partly because they want to and partly because they are told. Many of these young delinquents would do otherwise if removed from the group. The education of over-suggestible children must be carefully planned in the attempt to build up healthy mental attitudes. Training in better control of the emotions and the conditioning of habits is very important. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The Lewerenz Tests in Fundamental Abilities of Visual Art were given to 100 intellectually superior school children, 100 art pupils, and 100 randomly selected pupils. The results indicate that intelligence is an important factor in many of the art test items. A few of the items showed significant age differences, "The girls were superior in two important test items, while the boys showed a superiority in four." Boys surpassed girls in line drawing; the superior girls excelled in recognition and placing of colors. Children of laborers achieved high scores about as often as did children of semiprofessional or professional parents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study is concerned with intraracial differences. 100 intellectually superior, 100 unselected, and 30 musically superior Negro children were given the Kwalwasser-Dykema music tests. The data was analyzed in terms of the IQ differences between groups, music ability and age, and music instructions vs. no instructions. The author summarizes: "The teachers' opinions of musically superior children coroborate test results. The musically superior picked by teachers outrank the intellectually superior. Intelligence was not an important factor in making high musical aptitude scores. Age as a factor was only slight." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Typescript. Thesis (Ph.D.)--New York University, School of Education, 1930. Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 82-85)