The School District of University City, just minutes from WashU’s Danforth campus, is one of the first public school districts in Missouri to adopt a strategic plan focused on equity and antiracism, with an emphasis on the well-being of students, staff, and families. 

For Seanna Leath, an associate professor in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, the district offered a rare opportunity to explore a central question: What would it look like to measure educational success not only through achievement, but through joy?

A developmental psychologist by training, Leath has spent her career studying resilience in Black youth and families. When she arrived at WashU in 2022, her own family, including two school-aged children, became part of the University City school community. The connection made the district feel not just like a research partner, but like the ideal place to examine how schools can center Black children’s emotional well-being and sense of belonging as pathways toward educational justice and thriving.

In April, Leath’s research partnership with the School District of University City received a Provost Impact Award from WashU’s Confluence Collaborative for Community Engagement. The William H. Danforth St. Louis Confluence Awards honor faculty research that advances WashU’s impact in the region through innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and deep community engagement. Leath’s project received the Provost Impact Award, which recognizes exceptional community-engaged scholarship by early-career faculty.

The project, “Black Children’s Joy and Educational Justice: A Portraiture Study on Effectiveness of a School District’s Strategic Plan around Antiracism and Wellbeing,” is co-led by Leath and SynClaire Arthur, a graduate student in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, in collaboration with Sharonica L. Hardin-Bartley, superintendent of the School District of University City.

According to Leath, although racial disparities in education have been widely documented, we know less about how we might “reimagine classrooms as places where Black children’s joy is nurtured, protected, and celebrated as a core part of education,” Leath said. “The work UCity schools was already doing seemed like an excellent opportunity to do this research.”

Specifically, the project builds on the district’s nationally recognized “Learning Reimagined” strategic plan, which emphasizes racial equity, social-emotional wellness, authentic relationships, and student voice. Since launching the plan in 2017, the district has expanded trauma-informed and anti-racist professional development, introduced district-wide well-being assessments for students, staff, and families, strengthened community partnerships, and increased student-led initiatives focused on entrepreneurship, sustainability, and social justice.

The researchers sought to center children’s voices by exploring how they experience joy, belonging, and emotional well-being at school. Across four elementary schools, the team interviewed students in kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as teachers and caregivers, to better understand relationship-building, student empowerment, and emotionally responsive practices. Students were invited to draw the places where they felt happiest and most supported, while teachers shared photographs and reflections on classroom spaces and activities designed to foster student joy.

A key takeaway from the research, Leath said, was that even deeply committed teachers and district leaders often must navigate larger systemic constraints — including resource inequities, competing educational pressures, and broader social conditions — that can complicate efforts to sustain joyful, emotionally affirming learning environments for Black children.

Leath credits Arthur, her co-lead on the project, with helping keep the work grounded in social justice and centered on how communities can support young people as they come to understand themselves within larger structural and systemic forces. Arthur’s perspective, she said, helped ensure the project continually returned to questions of equity, identity, and the broader social conditions shaping youth experiences.

Arthur emphasized the importance of the relational aspect of community-engaged research, focusing on building trust. 

“When interviewing students, faculty, and families, many are justifiably mistrustful, due to historical marginalization of Black students and families,” Arthur said. “In doing this project, I was reminded how important it is to humanize the people you are speaking with. How do you make space for people to share?”

As meaningful as it is to be recognized with the Provost Impact Award, Leath said the project reflects years of sustained relationship-building and community partnership. In addition to having children who attended school in the district, Leath served as a volunteer there, leading a Lego club and coaching Girls on the Run for three years. 

Leath plans to leverage the findings to continue strengthening the resources and emotional support structures available to Black children, as well as other students. She also hopes the research will help school districts secure additional funding to expand “joy and justice” initiatives nationwide.

“It’s important to remember that our relationship with the school district and these students isn't a one-off,” Leath said. “The data collection may have ended, but the work is ongoing.”