Juan Del Toro University of Minnesota Ming-Te Wang University of Chicago “Police Stops and School Engagement: Examining Cultural Socialization From Parents and Schools as Protective Factors Among African American Adolescents” American Educational Research Journal, Volume 60, Issue 1, November 2022.
The recipients of the 2024 Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award are Juan Del Toro and Ming-Te Wang for their article, “Police Stops and School Engagement: Examining Cultural Socialization From Parents and Schools as Protective Factors Among African American Adolescents,” published in February 2023 in the American Educational Research Journal. This article is a model of interdisciplinary research, integrating research from criminology, sociology, psychology, public health, and education to conceptualize the relationships among police surveillance, racial socialization, and school engagement in two samples of African American students. It finds that youth with police encounters have lower school engagement but demonstrates how cultural socialization via conversations about racial identity and navigating a discriminatory world can serve as a protective factor. This article stands out for its methodological creativity, timeliness, and relevance for both policy and practice.
The Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award is presented annually in recognition of the most outstanding article published in an AERA journal. The elements of an outstanding article include: (1) significance of the contribution to advancing knowledge, (2) methodological sophistication and rigor, and (3) uniqueness in terms of problem specification or approach. Articles published in any one of the following AERA journals are eligible for consideration: AERA Open, American Educational Research Journal (AERJ), Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA), Educational Researcher (ER), or Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics (JEBS), except those articles that emanate from AERA public lectures. The selection committee considers all research articles published from October 1 of a given year to September 30 of the next year, preceding the year in which the award is conferred. The award is granted based on substantial merit, as determined by the selection committee.
The Call for Nominations for 2026 AERA Awards will open by mid-August 2025. The deadline will be October 9, 2025, at 11:59 PM PT. Award winners will be announced in early 2026 prior to the AERA Annual Meeting.