At the two-year mark, foster-care outcomes (continued court supervision, kinship placements, adoption) were examined for 1,038 African American, Latino, and White infants, prenatally exposed to drugs and removed from their mothers at birth, and 203 infants similarly removed but not drug-exposed. Discusses policy and practice implications in terms…

Documents the largest shift back toward school segregation since Brown v. Board of Education (1954). It explains this trend through Supreme Court rulings and demographic changes due to immigration and the growth of suburbs. Hispanics, seen as the future predominant minority population in the United States, are already reported to be more…

The quality of performance estimates from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) long-term trend assessment for Black and Hispanic students was evaluated. NAEP estimates of these trends are imprecise to the point that their usefulness for policymaking is arguable. Long-term trend assessment results also differ from main assessment…

Describes social, economic, and family structure variables that place specific Latino subgroups at risk, synthesizes available data on Latino children in the child welfare system, and discusses a direction for ethnic-specific child welfare policy for vulnerable Latino groups. Concludes that family services must promote economic and social…

Describes a project that invited immigrant speakers who were developing English-language proficiency to visit elementary classrooms to read aloud a story they had shared with their own children. Despite differing levels of formal schooling and first- and second-language proficiency, every participating parent had a successful experience as a…

Project 1000, based at Arizona State University, is attempting to recruit, admit, and graduate Latino and other underrepresented minorities in graduate programs around the country. With 1 application, a student may apply without charge to 7 of 80 participating institutions. The program has recruited over 3,000 Latinos, African Americans, Native…

Reports a study conducted in the Los Angeles Unified School District that examined the extent of student transiency; its disruptive impact on instructional continuity; the statistical relationship between interschool transiency rates and average school site academic achievement; and school administrative policies related to support services for…

A study of depression in Afro-Latino adolescents used national longitudinal data on over 12,000 secondary students in 134 schools, with oversamples of Black, Chinese, Cuban, and Puerto Rican adolescents. All groups of adolescent females, especially Afro-Latino females, showed higher levels of depression than adolescent males, and older adolescents…

A study analyzed the narratives of 24 predominately English-speaking Latino children (ages 3-5) enrolled in a federally subsidized preschool. The length of narrative did not differ significantly by age. However, older children produced stories that contained longer sentences, a higher proportion of grammatically acceptable sentences, and more…

Investigated Hispanic, black, and white women's conceptions of beauty and perceptions of cultural standards of beauty, noting whether they were engaged in similar social comparison processes (denial of personal disadvantage). Surveys of female college students highlighted major differences in the women's relationships with their bodies and their…

A study of acculturative stress in children who served as language brokers surveyed 36 bilingual Latino fifth graders from a Southern California elementary school. The least acculturated children reported higher frequencies of language brokering and greater discomfort in doing so. High levels of acculturative stress were associated with increased…

In order to improve the enrollment and retention statistics of Latino students, colleges and universities need to evaluate their approach toward Latino students and use culturally sensitive methods to asses how well students' needs are being met. This research focused on the relationship between ethnic identity and acculturation, which illustrates…

Reviews the demographic characteristics of Latinos in higher education, arguing that educational institutions must commit to achieving multiculturalism in curricula and pluralism in administrative structures. Describes the approach of Hostos Community College (New York), providing bilingual instruction and professional development. Highlights…

Expanding the definition of "Asian" to include Amerasians of Latino, African, and Native American origins challenges the Asian American community to deconstruct race and examine the racism inherent even in Asian communities. The multiracial experience continues to expand the dynamic construction of Asian identity. (SLD)

Discusses the validity of a rating scale created by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages for the purpose of measuring the oral language proficiency of bilingual professionals who are speakers of English and Spanish. Notes that this scale measures various levels of competence and features of an individual's speech. (14…