A Critical Co-Constructed Autoethnography of a Gendered Cross-Cultural Mentoring Between Two Early Career Latin@ Scholars Working in the Deep South

Multicultural mentoring has been suggested to support Latin@ faculty success in their careers, yet current literature on effective mentorships of Latin@ faculty is limited. This critical co-constructed autoethnography draws on critical race theory (CRT) and latin@ critical race theory (LatCrit) frameworks to highlight the lived experiences and key elements of an effective gendered cross-cultural mentoring relationship in a Latin@ pretenure faculty dyad working in a predominantly White institution of higher education located in the Deep South of the United States. Drawing upon a methodological rhythm of sorts, a Black scholar acts as a muse providing testimonios and interpretations of a relationship existing among Latin@ scholars in predominantly White intellectual spaces. Findings from this critical co-constructed autoethnography note that a safe colored space supports effective mentoring, familismo, personalismo, enabling effective cross-cultural mentorship.     

Culturally familiar tasks on reading performance and self-efficacy of culturally and linguistically diverse students

Grounded in the theoretical frameworks of constructivism and social cognitive theory, this study examined utilising culturally responsive pedagogy through a Latino themed reading task with the intention of increasing reading achievement and reading self-efficacy beliefs for culturally and linguistically diverse students. The research was conducted in an urban middle school in the south-western United States with 43 seventh grade students whose age ranged from 12 to 13 years. The majority of participants in this study reported to be Hispanic or multiracial with Hispanic origins. This study’s findings added to the existing knowledge base regarding the effectiveness of culturally responsive teaching practices. More specifically, culturally responsive pedagogy was utilised in the form of a reading task to examine its influence on students’ recall and reading comprehension performance. Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest that a culturally familiar reading task may increase reading self-efficacy beliefs. Implications for primary and secondary teachers, administrators, parents, and students pertain to the importance of utilising culturally responsive pedagogy as a teaching method to increase reading achievement and reading self-efficacy for culturally and linguistically diverse students.     

Coloring the College Pathway: A More Culturally Responsive Approach to College Readiness and Access for Students of Color in Secondary Schools

Considering the current structural challenges that exist for students of color (SOC) in accessing a higher education, an epistemology is needed that better represents the complex process SOC endure in this pursuit. College access literature either proposes stages (Hossler and Gallagher in Coll Univ 62(3):207–221, 1987), contextual layers (Perna in Higher education: handbook of theory and research. Springer, Amsterdam, 2006) or a pipeline approach (Horn in Confronting the odds: students at risk and the pipeline to higher education. National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, D.C., 1997; Cabrera and LaNasa in Understanding the colleges choice of disadvantaged. Jossey-Bass Inc, San Francisco, 2000a) that do not consider the additional resources and skills SOC must possess in navigating their educational pathways. This paper presents findings from two larger studies to propose an approach that colors outside the standard college access and readiness frameworks and uses a more culturally responsive approach to consider the complex and auspicious ways in which SOC navigate their college pathways. Culturally responsive recommendations for increasing college readiness and access for SOC in secondary schools will be provided based on the perspectives of SOC themselves.     

Using growth models to monitor school performance: comparing the effect of the metric and the assessment

This paper investigates whether inferences about school performance based on longitudinal models are consistent when different assessments and metrics are used as the basis for analysis. Using norm-referenced (NRT) and standards-based (SBT) assessment results from panel data of a large heterogeneous school district, we examine inferences based on vertically equated scale scores, normal curve equivalents (NCEs), and nonvertically equated scale scores. The results indicate that the effect of the metric depends upon the evaluation objective. NCEs significantly underestimate absolute individual growth, but NCEs and scale scores yield highly correlated (r >.90) school-level results based on mean initial status and growth estimates. SBT and NRT results are highly correlated for status but only moderately correlated for growth. We also find that as few as 30 students per school provide consistent results and that mobility tends to affect inferences based on status but not growth – irrespective of the assessment or metric used.