The need for mental health services for Latinx communities is growing due to shifting demographics in the United States and increased immigration from Latin America (Provencio Vasquez et al., 2011; Torres & Vallejo, 2015). Unfortunately, Latinx people in the U.S. face disparities in both access to and quality of mental health treatment (Davis…

This memorandum provides information pertinent to the participation and performance of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examinations for 2021 graduates in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In 2021, 66.6 percent of MCPS graduates took one or more AP exams, a rate that was 23.0 and 31.7 percentage points higher…

It has been shown that Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is beneficial in schools with a wide range of populations because of its emphasis on academic achievement for all students, cultural competency, and social justice issues. This study focused on teachers' perceptions about how to use a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy model in the classroom.…

Experiential group training builds group counseling skills among counselors-in-training. The current study examines Latino master's students' perceptions of experiential group training that started in person but shifted to a virtual platform during the Covid-19 pandemic. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 11 Latino graduate counseling…

Reducing barriers to graduate and professional education may reduce racial inequities in high-status professions. In 2020, one-quarter of law schools accepted the GRE in place of the LSAT, reflecting an effort across educational domains to revisit standardized test requirements. We use a generalized difference-in-differences design to investigate…

The current study examines the association between risk behaviors and victimization and race-based victimization amongst U.S.-born and foreign-born Asian, Black, and Latinx adolescents. Data were derived from the U.S. subset of the 2009-2010 Health Behavior in School-aged Children study. Samples include 662 Asian, 2413 Black, and 3188 Latinx…

Given the growing proportion of students receiving special education services who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), there is a critical need to understand the experiences of Latinx immigrant parents of children with disabilities. This qualitative study sought to understand the perspectives of nine Latinx immigrant parents of…

The language practices of Heritage Learners (HLs) of Spanish are frequently regulated and stigmatized in academic and community settings when their Spanish is perceived as deficient. By ignoring institutional structures that accelerate Spanish loss, the "inadequacy" of Latinxs' Spanish is regularly perceived to be the fault of…

Many science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) community college students do not complete their degree, and these students are more likely to be women or in historically excluded racial or ethnic groups. In introductory courses, low grades can trigger this exodus. Implementation of high-impact study strategies could lead to increased…

Mental health continues to be a pressing issue in society as people continue to struggle with social misperceptions about what is mental health or the label of having a mental health diagnosis. These are some of the variables that continue to feed into the stigma associated with mental health that prevents college students from seeking services.…

Schools have made efforts to improve outcomes for poor, Black, and Latino students, but disparities persist. Education policies in the United States are not addressing the structural inequities in schools and any external influences that contribute to the low achievement of Black, and Latino students living in poverty. The research in this study…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how Latin(x) STEM faculty in the southwestern United States describe their use of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) to navigate barriers to graduate socialization encountered during STEM doctoral education. The models that serve as underpinnings for the following two research questions…

In this dissertation, I empirically investigate the changes in the market structure after new entrants, and how these changes affect the welfare of market participants. In Chapter 1, using records for public and charter schools in New York City, I empirically show that public schools adjusted after charter schools entered the neighborhood. I…

Hispanic college enrollment in the U.S. will surpass 4.4 million students by 2025, far exceeding the growth rate of any other racial or ethnic group. Hence, the number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) identified by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) increased to nearly 570 in 2020 and is likely to accelerate…

Health inequities by race are ubiquitous and persistent in the U.S., and structural racism is understood to be the cause. However, there has been relatively little research on structural racism as an exposure. This dissertation will describe three ways to conceptualize and measure structural racism with the end goal of intervening to reduce health…