Department of Psychology Howard University
Email: aboykin@howard.edu
A. Wade Boykin is a Professor and Director of the Graduate Program in the Department of Psychology at Howard University. He is also the Executive Director of Capstone Institute at Howard University, formally known as the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk (CRESPAR). Dr. Boykin has done extensive work in the area of research methodology; the interface of culture, context, motivation and cognition; Black child development; and academic achievement in the American social context. He is co-editor of the book Research Directions of Black Psychologists (Russell Sage Press), which was a finalist for the American Psychological Association’s Book of the Year. He is currently completing an entry for the Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education, entitled “Talent Development Model of Schooling”, and recently completed a co-authored book Creating the Opportunity to Learn: Moving from Research to Practice to Close the Achievement Gap(ASCD Press). In addition, Dr. Boykin has done research and evaluation projects and conducted workshops on topics such as school reform, culturally responsive pedagogy, and minority student achievement, for several school districts in this country and abroad.
Among his other selected professional experiences, he has served as a fellow at the Institute for Comparative Human Development and Adjunct Associate Professor, Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, Rockefeller University. He was Co-Director of the Task Force on the Relevance of the Social Sciences to the Black Experience, Yale University. Dr. Boykin is currently a member of the American Psychological Association Task Force on Educational Disparities. He is also presently a Research Advisory Panel Member for the National Minority Student Achievement Network and is on the Board of Directors for Project Grad USA, a national school reform organization. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Sage Publications Book Series on Race, Ethnicity and Culture and those of several scholarly journals. Dr. Boykin served on the President’s National Mathematics Advisory Panel advising the President and the Secretary of Education with respect to the conduct, evaluation, and effective use of the results of research relating to proven, evidence-based mathematics instruction in order to foster greater knowledge of, and improved performance in, mathematics among American students.
Selected Publications
- A Critique of Test Standardization (Orasanu, McDermott, Boykin, & LCHC, 1977)
- Rhythmic-movement facilitation of learning in working-class Afro-American children (Boykin & Allen, 1988).
- Cultural Values in Home and School Experiences in African American Students (Tyler, Boykin, Miller, Hurley, 2006)
- Educating the Whole Child: The Talent Quest Model for Educational Policy and Practice (LaPoint, Ellison and Boykin, 2006)
- The Influence of Contextual Factors on Afro- American and Euro-American Children’s Performance: Effects of Movement Opportunity 2nd Music (Allen & Boykin, 2007).
- Examining Culturally Structured Learning Environments With Different Types of Music-Linked Movement Opportunity (Cole, J. & Boykin, 2009)
- Human diversity, assessment in education and the achievement of excellence and equity (Boykin, 2014).
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