Although increasing the racial and ethnic diversity on college campuses is a key component of any broad policy agenda aimed at reducing structural inequality, access to higher education does not always equate to graduation and equal labor market opportunities. For colleges, students, and society to reap the benefits of diversity, there needs to be…

This study aims to understand the role that reading motivation plays in middle school reading achievement (including achievement gaps) by analyzing the 2015 grade 8 NAEP reading data. The study focuses on identifying the unique effects of student-level reading motivation and aggregated school-level mean reading motivation on reading achievement.…

Latino degree attainment and skill development are important to the nation's need for a competitive workforce and strong civic leadership. To help Latino students enter and be competitive in the workforce, trendsetting institutions are adapting their efforts to support students' strengths and meet their needs. Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)…

With the immense growth of Latinos dual language programs are frequently and rapidly being implemented in school at all levels across Pk-12. Currently, without requirements of specializations or certifications to demonstrate expertise in Bilingual or bicultural education, administrators are left to lead dual language schools using only what they…

An extensive body of empirical evidence shows that math skills at school entry are the strongest predictor of later academic success and educational attainment, but many children lack the opportunity to build the math skills needed for future success. Children who begin school with relatively low levels of math knowledge are at risk of falling…

This dissertation explores community-based learning (CBL) in university Spanish education. Although Spanish education continues to construct Spanish as a foreign language (Leeman, 2014), recent trends such as changing demographics in the US have led to calls for Spanish education to focus more on US Latinx communities (e.g., Torres, Pascual y…

This chapter discusses a mixed-methods study of personal and programmatic factors that affected persistence of Latina graduate engineering students at a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI). The study's findings enabled us to share recommendations that may be useful to HSIs and other colleges and universities.

Intervention research is essential to help Hispanic American adolescents avoid drug use. This article describes an intervention research program aimed at preventing drug use among these youths. Grounded in salient epidemiological data, the program is informed by bicultural competence, social learning, and motivational interviewing theories. The…

The present study employed phenomenology in order to understand how Hispanic nontraditional students describe academic persistence. Using purposeful sampling methods, 10 Hispanic nontraditional students in their last semester of a bachelor degree program were recruited from two Hispanic Serving Institutions in the southeast United States, each…

Background: Youth suicide is a serious public health problem in the United States. School environments, and the attention of school adults, are promising but minimally studied avenues for promoting mental health among students. Methods: The 2013 New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey data were analyzed to identify ways in which the school…

This study explored how administrators at community colleges conceptualized change related to resource allocation and managing competing priorities to support targeted programming for Latino men. The study included the perspectives of 39 administrators from seven community colleges across Texas using concepts associated with institutional change…

Based on the Eccles' expectancy-value theory, the objectives of this study were (1) to examine the longitudinal relations between Latino parents' science beliefs, parents' science support, and high school students' science motivational beliefs, and (2) to test whether these relations varied by familism values and adolescent gender. Multi-informant…

Bryson Valley Elementary School's population is changing, formerly consisting of students, 72% of whom identified as White, but now only 53% of students do so; 26% of its 800 students identify as Latinx,1 the largest minority group in the school. The school's new Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted (AIG) teacher, Judith Hunter, notices a…

This study examined the role of school personnel on the education of immigrant Latino families and their children in North Central Indiana. An ethnographic research design was used to examine the relationship between a Midwestern U.S. school district and immigrant families and its impact on the education of Latino children. Specifically, over the…

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of empowerment, reframing it in critical terms and in a precise and useful way. I approach this exploration through two participatory action research studies. "Why are our teachers racist?" took place over an 18-month period from 2012 to 2014 at a mid-sized high school in a rural…