This report describes the June 2000 White House Strategy Session on Improving Hispanic Student Achievement, which focused on developing effective strategies aligned with broad national education goals. The report outlines the challenges that the U.S. faces in increasing Hispanic student achievement, and it shares the many recommendations made by…

Noting the importance of kindergarten for establishing skills critical for school success, especially for today's diverse kindergartners who differ in the extent and types of early care and educational experiences they have had prior to kindergarten, this study focused on the gains in reading skills made by language minority and mainstream…

The 10 issues of IDRA Newsletter published in 2000 focus on education in Texas and on national and statewide educational issues concerning minority, low-income, or bilingual students. Feature articles include: "Musical Chairs and Unkept Promises" (reforming education to keep all students "in the game"); "The ENLACE…

This collection of papers reports research on the effects of bilingual learning on the ability to speak two languages and the ability to acquire full literacy in both. There are 12 chapters in 4 parts. Part 1, "Background," includes (1) "Assessing the Effects of Bilingualism: A Background" (D. Kimbrough Oller and Barbara Zurer…

This document shares a vision for a 4-year curriculum for Heritage Speakers of Spanish (HSS)/Spanish for Native Speakers (SNS), describing a course developed for SNS students within Mercy High School in San Francisco, California. The vision foresees an ever-increasing number of HSS and SNS students completing college level degree programs then…

The purpose of this study was to describe a research project that investigated an alternative service delivery model for infants, toddlers, and their families who were eligible for early intervention services under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These families were of Latino heritage and had Spanish as their…

This book about homelessness in the United States offers 16 chapters in three parts. Part 1, "History Definitions, and Causes," includes: (1) "Redefining the Cursed Word: A Historical Interpretation of American Homelessness" (Kim Hopper and Jim Baumohl); (2) "Homelessness: Definitions and Counts" (Martha R. Burt); (3)…

This document comprises the two 1997 issues of the journal. Articles include the following: "The Importance of Learning English: A National Survey of Hispanic Parents" (Michael La Velle); "The Languages of Immigrants" (Charles L. Glenn); "Follow-Up Study on the Bethlehem, PA School District's English Acquisition…

This study explored the implications of demographic trends on the quality of the future labor force and on public social expenditures. It also focused on the educational costs and social benefits of educational and immigration policy alternatives designed to close the gap in educational attainment between non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics and…

School segregation intensified through the 1990s, during which time three major Supreme Court decisions authorized a return to segregated neighborhood schools. Though the U.S. South is much more integrated now than before the civil rights revolution, it is moving backward. This report describes the background of school resegregation; public…

A large body of research, especially from the 1990s, demonstrates the positives of Career and Technical Education (CTE). The research shows that associate degree holders enjoyed average earnings 20-30 percent higher than high school graduates (while baccalaureate degree holders had average earnings 30-40 percent higher than those of high-school…

This paper seeks to understand the role of culturally-specific styles of discourse in the classroom. The paper uses and expands upon three categories of classroom language use (control, curriculum, and critique) to present data on how a Puerto Rican American teacher uses repetition and discourse styles that have African and African American…

Siempre Adelante, a support organization for Central American and Mexican immigrants and refugees in Los Angeles, provided adult Spanish literacy classes inspired by Freire's practice of critical pedagogy. A 13-month ethnographic study of intermediate Spanish literacy classes examined how "critical student agency" was fostered or…

This report uses data from the third follow-up of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study to project postsecondary outcomes of the high school class of 1992. Specifically, the study tracked, over a four-year period, the paths of college-qualified students who first enrolled in a…

This 3-year study evaluated a culturally and linguistically appropriate curriculum for 168 preschool children in a southwest Head Start program. Three yearly student cohorts (1997-98, 1998-99, 1999-2000) have participated in the study evaluating the Language Enrichment Activities Program (LEAP) as the curriculum. During Year 1, the English LEAP…