Grounded in new language policy studies (McCarty, Collins, & Hopson, 2011), this qualitative study examines two bilingual Latina preschool teachers' language views, experiences, skills, and goals in a Texas/Mexico border community to determine how these factors mediate their choice to use Spanish/English in their instructional practices with…

Family literacy studies have shown that the role of parental storybook reading has an impact on children's success in school-based literacy instruction. However, many children who are English language learners come from homes or cultures where storybook readings are not common practice. The purpose of this qualitative research study explored…

Students of color are often underrepresented in academic programs for gifted and talented students. This study explored the impact of The Teacher's Observation of Potential in Students (TOPS) tool on teachers' ability to systematically observe and document the academic strengths of 5-to 9-year-old students across nine domains. Teachers indicated…

In this pedagogical reflection, a White mathematics teacher educator describes what she learned from three Latina pre-service teachers who were recent immigrants from Mexico while they completed an elementary mathematics methods course. Using Rochelle Gutierrez's (2012) metaphor of a window and mirror, the author interrogates her own identity and…

Although biliteracy plays a vital role in academic achievement, there has been little research on the unique needs of female and male English language learners. Becoming biliterate is a complex process, compounded by other variables such as 1st-language background, class, culture, and gender. Among these variables, gender has been the least…

Science educators have suggested that, for minority and low-income students, gaps between home and school science cultures necessitate "border crossing" for successful learning in science. Our analysis used National Assessment of Educational Progress 2000 and 2005 data to assess the impact of U.S. state-level policy regarding…

This study focuses on 15 foreign-born students majoring in physics who are also racial/ethnic minorities. We address the research question: What are the acculturation experiences of foreign-born Students of Color majoring in physics? Berry's (2003) theory of acculturation and Bandura's (1994) theory of self-efficacy were substantive…

One of the enduring problems in education is the persistence of achievement gaps between White, wealthy, native English-speaking students and their counterparts who are minority, lower-income, or English language learners. This study shows that one intensive technical assistance (TA) intervention--California's District Assistance and Intervention…

Socioeconomic status and parental support play important roles in determining academic achievement and have been positively correlated with academic success. It is important to determine if students from low-socioeconomic-status (SES) families perceive less parent support than students from middle-SES families. The participants (n?=?54) were high…

In recent years, policy makers, researchers, and educators have focused on the preparation of individuals in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. One popular policy lever is STEM-focused high schools. The purpose of this study is to identify which student populations have access to STEM secondary schools. By comparing…

The current Georgia study examines middle-school-aged gang and non-gang members regarding the risk factors of gang membership and potential effects of these risk factors on academic achievement. Participants, 406 eighth grade students from a suburban middle-school, completed a 42-item survey assessing an array of demographic and risk factor…

North Carolina has a storied history of school integration efforts spanning several decades. In response to the "Brown" decision, North Carolina's strategy of delayed integration was more subtle than the overt defiance of other Southern states. Numerous North Carolina school districts were early leaders in employing strategies to…

Our nation is currently experiencing growing levels of income and wealth inequality, which are contributing to longstanding racial and ethnic gaps in education outcomes and other areas. This report quantifies the economic benefits of closing one of the most harmful racial and ethnic gaps: the educational achievement gap that exists between black…

This report is intended to provide a snapshot of the children in the ECLS-K:2011 cohort who were in kindergarten for the first time in the 2010-11 school year and advanced to first grade in the following year. Information is presented on selected child and family characteristics, such as poverty status and parental education (table 1), obtained…

In fields such as sociolinguistics and composition and rhetoric, communication is increasingly understood as translingual, that is, as negotiated socially across languages. Those of us engaged in community literacy can and should recognize the deeply multilingual nature of the communities in which we work, and we should understand, embrace, and…