Students in the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) Class of 2012 continued to outperform Maryland and the nation on Advanced Placement (AP) examinations based on the "AP Report to the Nation" released by the College Board on February 20, 2013. In 2012, 67.3 percent of MCPS graduates took one or more AP exams. A striking…

The purpose of the study is to explore the identity development and organizational culture of a student organization, the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations council (NALFO) by implementing a community of practice approach at a large, public university in southwestern United States. The objective is to construct a sustainable…

When one effectively employs the strategies of exploratory-learning, wait-time, intervention, guided reading, meaning, and phonological-morphological-syntactical awareness-for infants and on up-to 3rd grade students-all-in a Montessori-like-learning-literacy-setting replete with semantical interactions with phonology, syllabology, morphology, and…

Despite the significant presence of Cuban children in the U.S. public schools since the late 1950s, no historical interpretation of their educational experiences exists. This essay is the first to develop such an interpretation. It sketches, in broad strokes, the role that Cuban exiles and Cuban Americans played in shaping their children's…

President Obama's 2009 graduation initiative has emphasized the shift in the national academic focus from access to higher education to graduation, making degree attainment one of the most important factors of measurement and accountability for institutions of higher education. Students of color, in particular, Hispanic males, have not fared well…

For this qualitative study, I used the lens of the Social Cognitive Career Theory to investigate the lived experiences of Latina women navigating their career paths into the roles of public high school principals. Latina women are underrepresented and in some states they are not represented at all. Few Latina women have secured the position of…

The WCPSS dropout rate for grades 9-12 fell to 2.83 % in 2011-12, down from 3.2% in the previous year. The NC overall rate decreased in 2011-12 to 3.01% from 3.43% in 2010-11. Other large school districts in North Carolina, including Durham (3.55%), Forsyth (3.38%), and Mecklenburg (3.20%), had higher dropout rates in 2011-12 than did WCPSS, while…

Given the increasing ethnic and language diversity within the United States, this study examined practices that acknowledge and promote diversity in pre-Kindergarten classrooms. Findings indicate that acceptance of diversity is a component of positive environments for young children, particularly in classrooms with high poverty levels where there…

This study examined the confluence of developmental assets, ethnic identity, and acculturative stress in the prediction of thriving among Hispanic adolescents. Thriving is used to encompass youth who are not only doing well now but who are also on the trajectory toward overall success. Study participants included 130 self-reported Hispanic middle…

This study used latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify acculturation profiles. A three-profile solution fit the data best, and comparisons on demographic and psychosocial outcomes as a function of profile yielded expected results. The findings support using LPA as a parsimonious way to model acculturation without anticipating profiles in…

This study examined whether and how survey response differs by race and Hispanic origin, using data from birth certificates and survey administrative data for a large-scale statewide experiment. The sample consisted of mothers of infants selected from Oklahoma birth certificates using a stratified random sampling method (N = 7,111). This study…

Research has linked parents' educational expectations to children's educational attainment, but findings are inconsistent regarding differences in educational expectations by race and ethnicity. In addition, existing studies have focused on school-age children and their parents. In this study, we use a state representative sample to examine…

Historically, minority and low-income populations have faced numerous challenges in achieving a higher education particularly students of Latino descent. Gandara and Contreras (2009) explain that Latinos are the fastest growing population in the United States and yet academically, they are further behind than any other ethnic group in the nation.…

"Latino College Presidents: In Their Own Words" is a collection of autobiographical-professional essays by leading Latino and Latina presidents of colleges and universities across the country. Each has written a chapter based on their personal education and professional lives. The presidents divide their essays into three sections: (1)…

This research examines how high-school-aged undocumented immigrant Latinas/os and their families resist being marginalized in schools and in communities. These young people and their families are part of a university intergenerational participatory action research collective, Family School Partnership (FSP), located within an urban high school in…