This qualitative study focused on African American and Latino high school students perceptions of standardized admission tests, including the Scholastic Assessment Tests (I and II) and the ACT Assessment. Students enrolled in college preparatory classes were interviewed about these tests individually and in focus groups in fall 1998 in their…

This report examines the growing Latino population in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County (Tennessee), focusing on demography, Latino workers in the local economy, and a study of the needs and concerns of Hispanic immigrant women. The Hispanic population increased by 229 percent in Shelby County in the 1990s. In 2000, about half of the county's…

This guide provides Texas teachers and administrators with guidelines, goals, instructional strategies, and activities for teaching Spanish to secondary level native speakers. It is based on the principle that the Spanish speaking student is the strongest linguistic and cultural resource to Texas teachers of languages other than English, and one…

To explore possible sources of the underrepresentation of minority groups in law school, this paper brings together existing data that describe the participation of members of different racial/ethnic groups, especially African Americans and Hispanics, at successive points along the way to employment in the law. It focuses on the process by which…

This Congressional hearing on the Bilingual Education Act examines current law and changes necessary to ensure that it provides limited English speaking students with the best possible educational opportunities. After opening statements by Chairman Michael Castle and Representative Carlos Romero-Barcelo, both of the Subcommittee on Early…

A series of four policy seminars was held in 1999 to discuss suggestions to ensure that Latino children reap the benefits of standards-based accountability and to illuminate related issues for the educational system. This report summarizes those seminars. The first was "Educational Standards, Assessment and Accountability: A New Civil Rights…

A researcher who is also a college teacher reflects on the personal meaning of research and the relationship between researcher and subject. As teacher-researchers embark on the process of discovery, they engage in relationships with informants. Developing these relationships requires implicit moral and ethical responsibility, mutual respect, and…

This digest summarizes the effective bilingual strategies described in a commissioned paper, "Transforming Education for Hispanic Youth: Exemplary Practices" by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood and Walter G. Secada, and the recommendations of the Hispanic Dropout Project (U.S. Department of Education) for transforming bilingual education at all…

This report explores how sociocultural factors affect reading engagement, literacy learning, and achievement among a diverse group of learners. The report examines previous theory and research on motivation in the area of reading (reading engagement) from a sociocultural perspective. It describes a study that examined the issue of reading…

An original goal of Chicano Studies was to promote improvement of social and economic conditions in the community, with Chicana and Chicano scholars at the forefront of community struggles. Within this perspective, research is problem-based and part of the community action process. Chicano community groups want to work with researchers and…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the ways in which the experiences and concerns of a predominantly African American and Hispanic community affect how they view environmental issues. Their views are intended to serve as a guide in the development of an environmental education program that is being developed at one of the local parks.…

This document consists of four separately-published fact sheets providing information, derived from U.S. government sources, about the condition of Hispanics in the United States. The first, "Hispanic Children, Poverty, and Federal Assistance Programs," describes the status of Hispanic American children and the federal programs designed…

Despite recruitment efforts, San Antonio community college was experiencing a marked decrease in Latino enrollment, particularly from neighborhood high schools that traditionally had been their feeder schools. The Intercultural Development Research Association examined the problem and found that the college, like many two- and four-year…