Increasing student financial aid programs: A misdirected means of expanding access?

Federal and state student financial aid programs have increased substantially in past years. Such programs have clearly provided greater access to postsecondary education for low income and minority students.However, data recently collected in Los Angeles indicate that additional financial aid may have a diminishing impact on increasing access. The Los Angeles study, commissioned by the California Legislature, revealed that low levels of academic achievement, inadequate information, and inflexible admission policies are greater barriers to college for the poor than financial need.Educational opportunity programs, which provide counseling, tutoring, and information services, should become increasingly important in addressing nonfinancial barriers. Yet such programs are often politically unattractive to legislators and administrators who view student grant programs as simpler and less costly.     

DAP in the ’hood: Perceptions of child care practices by African American child care directors caring for children of color

This paper presents a qualitative analysis concerning child care practices by six African American directors of subsidized child care centers located in a low-income, racial ethnic minority area of Los Angeles, California. These programs are traditionally African American programs that experienced an influx of Latino immigrant enrollment. Using the integrative framework for children of color proposed by Garcia Coll et al. [Garcia Coll, C., Crinic, K., Lamberty, G., Wasik, B., Jenkins, R., Garcia Vazquez, H., et al. (1996). An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. Child Development, 67, 1891–1914], which places racial ethnicity in the center, we examined how these directors integrated professional standards of practice (developmentally appropriate practice) with community understandings of the role of preschool/child care in this community; the function of social stratification on their articulated practices; and their understanding as to how they include the Latino immigrant families. We discovered patterns that reflect a community-interpreted understanding of developmentally appropriate practice.     

论我国少数民族高等教育体系的建立与完善

随着我国经济社会的不断发展,少数民族高等教育体系得到了确立与完善。民族院校和少数民族地区高等学校成为少数民族人才培养的主要基地、少数民族科学研究的重要基地和少数民族地区社区文化建设的重要力量。与此同时,我们还应从少数民族地区实际需要出发注重各院校的层次和特色发展,加大其开放程度,促进体系的完善和发展。     

COMMUNITY COLLEGE ENROLLMENT AS A FUNCTION OF ECONOMIC INDICATORS

This study investigated the ability of national economic trends to predict enrollment in community colleges. Data from government documents and source books were used in a correlational analysis to explore the relationship between the national economy and enrollment in community colleges. The results indicated that Unemployment Rate, Gross Domestic Product, Dollars Disposable Income, and Personal Consumption Expenditures are good indicators of trends in community college enrollment. The Consumer Price Index and the Average Hourly Earnings of Production Workers were not significantly correlated to Total Enrollment or to Per Capita Community College Enrollment.     

Interaction Effects of Campus Racial Composition and Student Racial Identification

Drawing upon a sample of 13,025 students who attended the nine majority minority colleges of the Los Angeles Community College District, this study examined the interaction effects of the racial composition of the colleges on student persistence. Special attention was given to variables that paired students’ race to the racial demography of the campus (Majority African American, Majority Latino, or No Racial Majority). Multivariate regression analyses included a range of demographic, environmental, engagement, and satisfaction variables, and a measure of student persistence. Findings revealed multiple significant and varied results according to the pairing of student race to institutional composition. The effect sizes for these variables were small but consistent with those for academic preparation as reflected in the lowest level of math, English, and English as a Second Language (ESL) courses taken, and stronger than the effects for the engagement and satisfaction scales that we utilized. Implications for policy and practice are introduced and discussed.     

少数民族地方高等院校开展宗教学课程教学的策略

在我国少数民族地方高等院校中开展宗教学课程教学很有必要。这对于少数民族地方高等院校学生了解现实国情、认识民族文化现状、正确对待民族宗教关系、提高少数民族大学生自身人文素质等具有重要的作用和意义。对此,少数民族地方高等院校宗教学课程教学可以在教学内容、教学理念及教学方式等方面进行有益的探索。     

The Los Angeles County response to child abuse and deafness: a social movement theory analysis

There is increasingly strong evidence that children with disabilities are at higher risk for maltreatment when compared to children without disabilities. There is also concern about the adequacy of child welfare services for children and parents with disabilities, particularly those disabilities that result in a communication impairment. This article describes a successful community practice effort in Los Angeles County that resulted in the establishment of a comprehensive array of linguistically and culturally competent child abuse prevention and treatment services for the maltreated deaf child and for the deaf parent at risk for child abuse perpetration. Social movement theory is used to analyze a change effort that was developed and implemented by a broad coalition of members of the Deaf and hearing communities. Elements of the problem, social movement theory, the coalition, the change strategy, and the results are described.     

It takes a village: supporting inquiry- and equity-oriented computer science pedagogy through a professional learning community

This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers’ professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers’ professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science.     

美妙世界——洛杉机

阳光明媚的洛杉矶位于美国加利福尼亚州西南海岸,分为好莱坞和市中心（人们工作的地方）,以及郊外（当地人称为“山谷”）等几个地区。     

Hollywood

To many people, the word Hollywood has two meanings. Hollywood is an area in Los Angeles. Hollywood is also the American movie industry.     

An elementary survey of the reading process

This article is a study of the social construction of school desegregation in Los Angeles, California. Particular emphasis is placed on how magnet schools were presented to area residents in the local press over a period of 3 decades. I use quantitative and qualitative techniques with 355 newspaper articles. I find that magnet schools were originally discussed as part of a larger desegregation program, but that references to desegregation declined steadily. Magnet schools are now discussed as providers of academic excellence, and desegregation issues are largely ignored. This follows the current trend in political and academic circles, in which the rhetoric surrounding education is increasingly focused on standards and accountability rather than equality and access.     

THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGES: MISSISSIPPI'S SYSTEM OF COMMUNITY AND JUNIOR COLLEGES

Mississippi's system of public community and junior colleges developed as a response to changing educational needs in the state. The need to provide secondary education to rural areas of the state led to the agricultural high school movement in 1908. Time diminished the need for these schools, so the state's educational leadership proposed using the facilities to offer college‐level coursework. In 1928, Mississippi counties were authorized to join together in forming junior college districts. The colleges began as agencies of local government and continue so to the present. A state‐level office with coordinating responsibilities was established at the State Department of Education. The state's system of 2‐year colleges began just 1 year before the national economic depression. Easy access and low costs made the junior colleges attractive to Mississippians then and now. The junior college mission was to offer university transfer programs to students. After World War II, the junior colleges expanded their missions to include vocational and technical training. This was in response to the demands of business and industry as well as the needs of veterans returning to the workforce. Postwar industrial development in the state gave the junior colleges a greater role in workforce training. Mississippi's two‐year colleges have experienced demographic and technology changes that reflect national trends. In contrast to most other states, Mississippi's community and junior college leadership continues to identify university parallel programs as their primary mission.     

加强新疆高职院校少数民族学生国家意识教育的特殊意义

在探查新疆高职院校少数民族学生特点的基础上,有针对性地探讨了增强新疆高职院校少数民族学生国家意识的特殊意义,以期为进一步增强新疆高职院校少数民族学生国家意识培育提供有益的理论借鉴。     

The perceived role of the Teach For America program on teachers’ long-term career aspirations

In urban school systems, the percentage of teachers that leave the profession is disproportionally high. Part of the driving force for this high rate of teacher turnover are alternative certification programmes, like Teach For America (TFA) which recruits teachers only for a short-term teaching commitment. This study contributes a novel perspective on these teachers’ decision to stay or exit the classroom after this two-year commitment by analysing extensive open-ended qualitative interviews with 30 TFA participants in Los Angeles. Within this sample, a majority enter the programme without viewing teaching as a long-term career option, though they are willing to extend their initial two-year teaching commitment for several years, though not much longer after that. Only a minority of these teachers entered TFA as a means of becoming long-term classroom teachers. No teachers changed their long-term career plans as a result of their participation in TFA. Implications are discussed.     

Gaps in educational outcomes: analysing national examination performance of Singaporean Malay and non-Malay students in the past 20 years

Singaporean students generally perform very well in international tests of mathematics and science. Nonetheless, in multi-cultural Singapore, there exist gaps with the Malays, a minority group in Singapore, systematically lagging behind the other ethnic groups of the Chinese and Indians in many educational performance indicators. While there have been previous qualitative assessments of this issue, rigorous statistical analyses are lacking. In this article, I analyse data from 1991 to 2011 of aggregate percentage passes in national examinations for the different ethnic groups in Singapore. Using time series techniques and regression, I uncovered two major findings. First, the Malay trends in percentage passes for the last two decades were strongly correlated with the non-Malay, national trends. Second, despite the correlation, there remained fluctuations around the national trend by Malay cohorts in the past two decades. Malay cohorts tended to perform better during an upward national trend, but also performed worse during a downward national trend, indicating systematic volatility in performance. The implications of these findings are discussed in the light of current research on educational gaps and three decades of community self-help to improve the educational achievement of the minority Malays in Singapore.     

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.     

民族文化传承中民族聚居区高校的作用分析——基于西北四所民族院校调研报告

民族文化传承的主要工具是教育。民族聚居区高校作为我国少数民族高等教育的一部分,在文化取向上具备＂二重性＂的同时,相对于其他非民族聚居区民族院校,在民族文化传承和发展方面具有其自身的作用,是民族文化在教育系统中的主传承场。     

The Association Between a Community College’s Teacher Education Program and the 4-year Graduation Rates of Black and Hispanic Teacher Education Students

ABSTRACT

In response to a shortage of qualified Black and Hispanic teachers, community colleges (CC) have developed certificate programs and Associate of Arts degrees in teacher education to address shortages of minority teachers in the nation’s classrooms. We examined one CC’s effectiveness in transferring Black and Hispanic students to university teacher education programs and the association with Black and Hispanic students graduating with a bachelor’s degree. We compared enrollment and transfer student data for the 2003 community college teacher education program cohort to graduation data for native-to-university students of two 4-year universities. Data were analyzed using chi square and phi coefficients. The CC Black and Hispanic students graduated at the same rates as the native-to-university students and higher than their peers of the same races, regardless of major, who began at 2-year colleges at the national level. We encourage CC teacher education programs to invest resources to increase enrollment of Black and Hispanic students to address the growing need for minority teachers to serve in urban communities.