The intersection of culture and institutional support for Latino students’ academic success: Remediation or empowerment?

The study is framed by critical race theory to explore the intersection of cultural and institutional factors that influence Latino students’ completion of high school. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which factors related to students’ background, culture, socioeconomic status, and institutional-support such as participation in mentoring and/or dropout-prevention programs, can predict Latino students’ successful completion of high school. The overarching research question is: To what extent do family background, students’ educational aspirations, and institutional support programs predict whether Latino students’ complete high school? Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002), from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) with 2,217 Hispanic participants, the study used a logistic linear regression model for the analysis. The findings identified students’ gender, socioeconomic status, first language, educational aspirations as well as the aspirations of their parents, school poverty concentration, and school support programs to be significant predictors of high school completion. The logistic regression model correctly classified between 78%, 85%, and 81% of the cases included in the group for timely completion according to first-, second-, and third-generation respectively. A similar classification was found for high school completion-within-two-years. The discussion highlights marked differences between the effect of dropout-prevention programs and that of mentoring programs on Latinos’ high school completion. In addition, that the factors represented by individual and institutional variables might not operate in isolation but instead might intersect with socioeconomic and cultural factors that ultimately create barriers for this minority group.     

Language,high school leadership and the postsecondary outcomes of Hispanic students

This paper asks whether high school leadership activities play an important role in explaining the Hispanic college-completion gap. The analysis in this paper considers the role that English language fluency plays in a Hispanic student's leadership probability and in the student's future educational success. The main results in this paper are: first, after controlling for demographic and school characteristics, there are no major differences in high school leadership activities between Hispanics and non-Hispanics; second, high school leadership activities predict higher college attendance rates for all demographic groups; and third, high school leadership activities predict a higher probability of attaining a college degree among Hispanic students whose first language is not English. Importantly, this relationship is stronger among students whose first post-secondary institution is a 2-year college.     

A Longitudinal Investigation of African American and Hispanic Adolescents' Educational and Occupational Expectations and Corresponding Attainment in Adulthood

Adolescents' expectations about school and work may be key antecedents of adult attainment and this relationship may vary by specific racial, ethnic, and gender groups. This article examines how educational and occupational expectations change in adolescence and how expectations predict corresponding attainment in adulthood. Participants included African American and Hispanic females and males. Educational and occupational expectations were reported at ages 14, 16, and 18, and educational and occupational attainment at ages 20 and 26. Results indicated distinct developmental trajectories per racial or ethnic and gender group. Educational expectations were more nuanced for African American and Hispanic females than for their male counterparts; occupational expectations were more varied for Hispanic females than for other groups. Educational expectations positively predicted educational attainment for all participants, whereas occupational attainment was predicted just by educational expectations and for Hispanic females and males only.     

Race-Specific High School Course Intensity and Student’s Post-secondary Education Attainment

Post-secondary educational attainment is an increasingly important prerequisite to many valued outcomes. This paper examines the association of racially-specific high school course of study with student’s postsecondary educational attainment using ELS 2002–2012 and a comprehensive measure of course intensity derived from students’ patterns of course-taking. Results support a partial presence of racially-specific association of high school course of study. We also find that only Asian-American and American Indian/Alaskan Native students in the middle course intensity and Asian-American students in high course intensity ranges are more likely to obtain at least a 4-year college degree than same-race students in the low course intensity group. However, the same pattern is not evident for White, African-American, multi-racial, and Hispanic students, indicating that they do not experience the same benefit from academically rigorous courses of study. Also, educational expectations do not mediate the relationships among race, course of study, and postsecondary educational trajectory differently for students of different racial groups, i.e., they do not play a larger role in mediating the relationship between course of study and postsecondary educational trajectory for White students.     

Demographic Change and the New (and Not So New) Challenges for Latino Education

Abstract

Latino students now make up 1 in 4 public school students in the United States and are a rapidly growing population in nontraditional settlement areas. Yet -persistent racial and ethnic disparities in educational achievement and attainment are cause for grave concern, as high school graduation and postsecondary -education are increasingly necessary for success in a 21st-century knowledge economy. This essay discusses a major shift in demographics across the nation and the resulting urgent educational challenges.     

Turnaround Policy and Practice: A Case Study of Turning Around a Failing School with English-Language-Learners

In an era of school reform and high stakes accountability, the major challenge in education is to turnaround the nation’s lowest-performing schools. National policy provides abundant resources with often restrictive prerequisites. Research indicates that quality principals and teachers are the most important factors for turning around the lowest performing schools; however there is little research in how to turnaround failing schools with high enrollments of students in poverty, who are English-Language Learners, and who are Hispanic. The purpose of this study is to understand how demography, policy and practices affect the educational edge of students in poverty, who are English-Language Learners, and who are Hispanic. How do the practices of a school leader who is professionally/culturally/linguistically responsive affect turnaround for a failing schools? How does the personal and professional background of a Latino principal affect student performance in a failing school? This research conducted a qualitative case study to include principal interviews, principal observations, teacher interviews, and the use of state and school archival data. Analyses included organizing data into data themes and triangulating data themes, using principal background, principal professional/cultural beliefs and practices, school context, teacher data, and archival data. Conclusions confirm the need to conduct research to document and define the performances for professionally/culturally/linguistically responsive principal models and their effect on student performance in historically failing schools. In addition, policymakers need to consider the organizational contexts of professional/culturally/linguistically responsive leadership and teaching models as turnaround school models.     

Fostering the academic success of their children: Voices of Mexican immigrant parents

Latinos, particularly Mexican immigrants, are the fastest-growing population in the United States but lag behind others in educational attainment. Parent involvement in their child's education has been linked to positive student academic outcomes, but few studies have focused specifically on Latino/a parents. To identify and promote culturally salient parent involvement approaches for Mexican immigrant parents, this qualitative strength-based study investigated motivations, actions, and culture of 11 Mexican immigrant parents of students who attended a selective college preparatory high school. The study found that a parent's effort to help their children succeed is not dependent on high levels of parent education or income. Rather, the home-based strategies, many of which are rooted in the Latino culture, and specific outreach by educators influenced parent involvement.     

Promoting Financial Literacy and Latino Males’ Success at Community Colleges

Latino males across the country enroll in community colleges with the purpose of obtaining an educational degree, which could lead to accomplishing professional and personal aspirations. Even if Latino male students enroll in post-secondary education, they continue to be disenfranchised, vanished, and often rejected through the higher education pipeline. Research regarding access to education shows that money matters to the success of Latino students. Through a metasynthesis, this practice briefly identifies that there is little to no empirical research conducted that explores how Latino male community college students elicit, engage, and explore financial literacy programs. This paper makes recommendations for post-secondary institutions, practitioners, and policymakers to promote Latino males’ success at community colleges.     

A study of culturally syntonic variables in the bilingual/bicultural science classroom

The purpose of this study was to conduct a needs assessment of bilingual/bicultural elementary science classrooms in order to determine if the current instructional environment addresses the educational needs of Hispanic/Latino children. This study examined 57 randomly selected elementary bilingual/bicultural science classrooms in a large metropolitan area of the southwestern United States in terms of culturally syntonic variables (i.e., culture-of-origin beliefs and/or practices that impact the teaching/learning process). Findings from this study indicate that Hispanic/Latino children are receiving science instruction: (a) with culturally asyntonic printed materials, teaching strategies, and supplementary materials, (b) in classrooms that do not use the child's native language, familia learning groups, peer tutoring, or manipulative materials, and (c) with oral and verbal instruction that lack culturally syntonic role models, examples, analogies, and elaborations. Findings from this study imply that changes are needed in pre-service and in-service teacher training, in science textbook formats, and in the scope and focus of elementary school bilingual/bicultural science curriculum and instructional strategies.     

Exploring the nexus between community cultural wealth and the academic and social experiences of Latino male achievers at two predominantly White research universities

Latino males are grossly underrepresented at four-year postsecondary institutions in the United States. This phenomenological study seeks to address this emergent educational crisis by focusing on the experiences of two Latino male achievers at predominantly White research universities. Community Cultural Wealth is used to explore how Latino male collegians with a cumulative grade point average (GPA) above 3.75 employed linguistic, resistant, and navigational capital to enhance their academic and social experiences during college. The reports offered by participants in this study are intended to advance knowledge regarding the experiences of Latino male collegians as well as to enhance research, policies, and practices that increase the educational attainment of Latina/o students within higher education.     

Increasing Educational Attainment and Aspiration in an Underserved Community: The Perspective of Urban-Community Leaders

Latino students are significantly underrepresented in higher education. As the largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic population in the US, this is cause for national concern. Additionally, this rapid population growth is a call for community and school leaders from underserved communities to assess their service areas and focus on interventions to increase the college-going rates of youth. Maywood is a city located in Southeast Los Angeles. Like many other urban areas, Maywood’s largely Latino population is underrepresented in higher education. This research focused on interviewing Maywood’s community and school leaders (n = 24) to gain insight into their perceptions of their role and responsibility to address issues surrounding their community’s low levels of educational attainment. A key theme emerged revealing that leaders understand their community’s educational issues but do not see their role as leaders to directly address this issue to build a college-going culture. Implications for practice in strengthening community partnerships and developing a college-going culture are provided and a series of recommendations for the creation of a college-going culture are discussed.     

Capturing the Complexity of Alternative Schools: Narratives of Latino Males in an Overlooked Educational Space

 This study discusses the needs and challenges associated with Latino males’ treatment in public schools. The primary concern is how nationally, only one in two Latino males graduate from U.S. high schools (Schott Foundation for Public Education in Black Lives Matter: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males, http://blackboysreport.org/, 2015). However, a growing body of research has emerged, heightening Latino males’ social and academic needs in traditional K-12 educational settings. In this paper, we highlight the need to focus on alternative school settings through the narratives of four Latino males enrolled in two alternative public schools. Our findings describe the nuances in alternative schooling experience for Latino males. It explores the school context's differences to (re)engage youth back into school and the various factors that shape their future aspirations. We discuss implications for research and practice to improve alternative schools' conditions to better serve Latino males in this overlooked sector in the educational pipeline.

     

Exploring Resilience in Latina/o Academic Outcomes: A Latent Class Approach

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between various protective factors with academic outcomes of Latina/o high school students. We use two groups of protective influences, individual and family, and their relationship to 12th grade mathematics achievement, dropout rates, and enrollment in post-secondary education. Latent class analysis was used to identify academic protective profiles, or latent groups/classes, among high school Latina/o students (N?=?1610) and assess group differences with respect to gender, SES, immigrant status, student’s native language, preschool attendance, and 10th grade mathematics. Results indicated the presence of four academic protective groups, which differed with respect to academic discussions with parents, and attitudes about mathematics. The four classes are compared with respect to academic outcomes and differences are discussed as well as implications for practice.     

School Context, Precollege Educational Opportunities, and College Degree Attainment Among High-Achieving Black Males

Access to high-quality educational opportunities is central to growing postsecondary degree attainment. This study employs secondary data analysis of the public-use National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS:88/00) to examine how school context and precollege educational opportunities influence college degree attainment among high-achieving Black males. Findings show that approximately 40 % of high-achieving Black males attained a bachelor’s degree or higher 8 years after high school. Binary logistic regression analysis indicates that attending an urban school decreases the likelihood of bachelor’s degree attainment. Attending a private school, on the other hand, has the opposite effect—it increases the likelihood of bachelor’s degree attainment. Results also indicate that although participating in a gifted and talented program increases the likelihood of bachelor’s degree attainment among high-achieving Black males, participating in Advanced Placement has no effect. Implications for educators in K-16 educational settings are discussed.     

STEM Doctoral Completion of Underrepresented Minority Students: Challenges and Opportunities for Improving Participation in the Doctoral Workforce

This article is a result of the analysis of student-level enrollment records from twenty-one research universities in the United States, and it contributes to a more robust understanding of timely completion of STEM doctorates by underrepresented minority students. Using multivariate logit regression models, findings indicated that Hispanic/Latino and students from other underrepresented groups complete at higher rates than do their Black/African American counterparts. Findings also indicated that prior master’s degrees and institutional participation in doctoral completion programs positively correlate with STEM doctoral completion. We conclude by offering insights and recommendations for graduate schools about how to increase the STEM doctoral attainment rate of students from underrepresented groups.     

增加公共教育经费有助于改善教育的代际流动性吗?

近年来,越来越少的农村学生能够进入我国的顶尖高校,农村孩子的教育问题引起了社会的广泛关注。随着我国不断加大在农村地区教育经费的投入,家庭背景是否仍是制约农村学生教育抉择的关键因素是目前迫切需要回答的问题。我们通过中国住户收入分配数据库,分析了从1988年到2007年间家庭背景对子女上高中的影响趋势。结果发现在控制了一系列相关变量后,家庭背景对农村子女上高中的影响程度呈现倒U型变化,在最近几年开始呈现下降趋势,但父母受教育程度的影响一直很稳定,没有显著变化。此外,将孩子分成不同年龄组的回归结果,得到了相似的结论。本文构建了一个两阶段的教育选择模型,从教育经费的视角对此现象进行了剖析。发现当公共教育经费增加时,父母收入对孩子受教育程度的影响会减弱,而父母受教育程度的影响与公共教育经费无关。上述结论意味着,公共教育经费的增加,可以在一定程度上减弱家庭背景的影响,增加社会阶层的流动性,但当公共教育经费增加到较高水平时,对家庭背景的影响可能会非常微弱。这些结论具有很强的政策含义。我国政府在21世纪初对义务教育投入了大量的经费,经验分析的结果表明,家庭收入对孩子接受高中教育的影响在2007年左右已经不显著。分不同年龄组的回归结果显示,家庭收入对1986年以后出生的孩子的影响在显著下降,说明我国公共教育经费的投入取得了显著的成效。同时,这也隐含地表明今后的教育投入应该有所侧重,对贫困地区、中西部落后地区增加义务教育阶段的公共教育经费,可能会提高孩子的受教育程度;但对于发达地区,增加义务教育阶段的公共教育经费的效果可能会不明显。     

Financial Aid and Attainment Among Students in a State with Changing Demographics

Using event history analysis, this study investigated to what extent differentiated forms of aid affected the educational attainment of various student populations with particular interest on the Latinos/as within this emerging settlement state: Indiana. Findings suggest that the effects of aid are moderated by race and ethnicity. State grants, primarily need-based, played a significant if not modest role in encouraging persistence among Latino students, more so than peers from other racial/ethnic groups. No significant direct relationship was found between federal grants and loans for Latino students with respect to graduation.     

Using grounded theory and action research to raise attainment in,and enjoyment of,reading

This paper describes a small‐scale, qualitative research project that critically reflects on the process and impact of using both grounded and action research to enhance attainment and enjoyment of reading, in such a way as to raise awareness at an individual and whole school level. The purpose of the project was to ascertain if the selected research methodology has the potential to provide a framework for the process of embedding new practice in schools.

A primary school was selected as a case study and a systematic, constructivist grounded theory methodology used in order to examine the school in relation to its success in meeting the needs of the school community in the attainment and enjoyment of reading. The research design involved the gathering of multiple sources of data by conducting a series of solution focused interviews, direct observation, and teacher assessments of reading within the school.

The interviews were coded and theoretical questions developed from the data. These were reflected back, on an ongoing basis, to the participants and the whole staff during service training. The questions and theory progressively emerged throughout the period of the research. The findings identify a number of constraints pertinent to the school which include issues such as time constraints and lack of personal involvement in the process of embedding initiatives. Key issues within the primary school involve leadership style, management and communication.

Initial findings suggest that this is an effective approach to raising individual awareness across the school and has the potential to affect whole school functioning if used as a long‐term process. It is a particularly enriching method for educational psychologists to use to facilitate a reflective problem‐solving approach which keeps ownership and responsibility within the school.     

Examining the Success Factors of High-Achieving Puerto Rican Male High-School Students

This article works to dispel the myth that Latino urban high-school students are not capable of performing at high academic levels. Whereas much educational research emphasizes the academic underachievement of urban Latino students, this article counteracts this research by describing the four success factors that three working-class Puerto Rican male high-school students attribute to their high academic achievement. These success factors are: (a) the acquisition of social capital through religiosity and participation in school and community-based extracurricular activities, (b) having a strong Puerto Rican identity, (c) the influence of these students' mothers/sisters on their academic achievement, and (d) the potential for caring and sincere teachers and other school staff to influence high academic achievement. These findings have implications for Latina/o education and recommendations are provided.