Language assessments are often framed as benign mechanisms needed to objectively classify people's linguistic proficiencies. In this article, I argue for the need to critically re-examine how purportedly objective institutional language assessments and our participation in them deceptively reify historical and contemporary inequities. I offer the…

This testimonio explores the story of three hermanas and their connections to comunidad, familia, and self-esteem through Mexican folklórico. Each testimonio is positioned within a Latin Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) framework and further explored through Yosso's (2005) community cultural wealth framework. The stories within this paper allow each…

The present study examined the relation between self-esteem and temperament in a sample of 646 Mexican-American early adolescents (mean age = 10.4). Findings show that (a) early adolescents with high self-esteem exhibit higher levels of Effortful Control but, contrary to findings in adult samples, do not differ from low self-esteem adolescents in…

Analyzing three waves of data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey, this article explores the process of language assimilation among second-generation Latinos. Although previous studies have focused on the shift from mother tongue to English across immigrant generations, few have examined change in language proficiency over time…

This article examines the terms "culturally deprived" and "disadvantaged" in light of their popular use in the sixties and following decades, particularly in the ethnic and mainstream press. These expressions represented an effort to explain differences in educational attainment and academic achievement along lines of social…

In this article we examine a theoretical concept: cultural citizenship. Educators of color typically advance this theoretical perspective because it provides a way of probing into ways students' differing linguistic and cultural resources can be made visible and effectively included in literacy events both in and outside of school. Through this…

This study explored ethnic identity and self-esteem among 1062 Mexican-origin adolescents who were attending one of three schools, which varied in their ethnic composition (i.e., predominately Latino, predominately non-Latino, and balanced Latino/non-Latino). Significant relationships emerged between ethnic identity and self-esteem among…

This study assessed the emergent literacy skills of 48 4-year-old migrant Mexican American preschoolers in their dominant language and evaluated the amount of literacy exposure in the home and the Head Start program. Results suggested that although both environments influence emergent literacy skills, the home literacy environment has the greatest…

The study with 37 bilingual, bicultural Mexican Americans found a significant relationship between acculturation and measures of both adaptive behavior and verbal-cognitive processes, suggesting that language-based measures are influenced by acculturation. Sensory, motor, and memory assessment procedures did not seem related to acculturation. (DB)

This study examines the way in which young people from diverse American ethnic backgrounds express autonomy and relatedness in their responses to disagreements with parents and the factors that influence their responses. Adolescents and emerging adults (N = 240) aged 14 to 22 years from four ethnic groups (European American, Mexican American,…

Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans have had different geographical and cultural experiences. Problems specific to each group, and educational strategies to solve them, are presented to promote cultural pluralism in the schools. (JN)

This study reports the percentage of whites, blacks, Mexicans, and Puerto Ricans who, as children, adolescents, and teenagers, lived in one or more of several family types (e.g., mother-father, mother-only, mother-stepfather). Unlike previous analyses of the topic, the present one looks at Mexicans and Puerto Ricans separately, treating them as…

Representation of Chicanos and Latinos in the United States' professoriate is lowest of all racial and ethnic groups when their proportion in the general population is considered. Restriction to limited roles and devaluation of their academic and community contributions maintains this pattern, compounded by institutions' unwillingness to examine…

The recruitment of respondents belonging to ethnic minorities poses important challenges in social and health research. This paper reflects on the enablers and barriers to recruitment that we encountered in our research work with persons belonging to ethnic minorities. Additionally, we applied the Matching Model of Recruitment, a theoretical…

This paper examines basic skills competencies developed by Mexican immigrant adult learners through participation in (although not always completion of) adult basic education programs conducted by the Mexican, Instituto Nacional para la Educacion de los Adultos (INEA). The comparison provides the conceptual basis for configuring instructional…