There are over 32 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and of this population, over 1.5 million are children (Palmer & Davidson, 2011). These children grow up in the US, achieve primary and secondary education, and when they are ready to pursue postsecondary education, it becomes harder for them to achieve. In this paper,…

Although current and former English Learner (EL) or "ever-EL" students comprise one of the fastest-growing K-12 populations, we still know relatively little about the factors that influence their college-going. Using Perna's seminal college-going model as a launching point, we propose a policy-driven empirical approach to explore how…

In this two-paper dissertation, I examine U.S. Census data from the Current Population Survey Merged Outgoing Rotating Groups to understand how undocumented-student high-school-diploma, college-enrollment, associate's-degree, and bachelor's-degree attainment odds have been impacted by the Illegal Immigrant Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act…