<p> The search for effective teaching methods of Chican@/Latin@ students reached a new level of complexity when it was found that Chican@/Latin@ students who participated in the Mexican American/Raza Studies program (MARSD) in Tucson, Arizona were outperforming their White counterparts in academic achievement measures (Cabrera, Milem, Jaquette, &amp; Marx, 2014). Rather than praise the MAS program and direct educational researchers to learn and replicate the effective teaching strategies of the program, powerful educational stakeholders sent lawyers and passed legislation HB 2281 which created the legal rationale to terminate the program (Cabrera et al., 2014). This raises the question: How serious are we as a society, including the field of Education, about closing achievement gaps and learning about effective teaching strategies of Chican@/Latin@ students? History may have the answer. </p><p> We know that the field of Education has historically failed Chican@/Latin@ students and other working class students of color in general (Duncan-Andrade, 2005b; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Noguera, Hurtado, &amp; Fergus, 2013). Research in education of Chican@/Latin@/Chicano studies has extensive data illustrating school failure in the form of &ldquo;drop out&rdquo; or &ldquo;push out&rdquo; rates, low graduation rates, and low performance on academic achievement measures, for Chicano/a students (Luna &amp; Revilla, 2013; Yosso, 2006). When you add that in places like California, Chican@/Latin@ students represent more than 53% of students enrolled in public schools, understanding how to effectively teach the largest demographic population becomes an ethical concern (California Department of Education, 2013-2014). </p><p> This study examines effective teaching of Chican@/Latin@ students in Hope Valley (pseudonym). I use survey instruments to ask Chican@/Latin@ college students from Hope Valley Community College to identify the most effective teachers in their K-12 experience. This form of community nomination is unique in the educational research in that it honors the pedagogical knowledge of young adults, rather than the conventional sources of knowledge (e.g., teachers, parents, scholars, and other educational researchers). The results of the survey lead me inside the classroom of these community nominated teachers, where I use ethnographic methods to learn about their efficacy as identified by their former students. This study asserts that a strengths-based community responsive approach to understanding effective teaching of Chican@/Latin@ students increases local capacity for community members and educational stakeholders to build on the unique pedagogical strengths of their own community.</p><p>

<p> Using autoethnographic research for this study, I intimately explore my experiences in school as a Detroit Latino male and the relationship with my family, community, and school and how they intersected and helped me achieve academic success. I excavate the indigenous roots that characterizes my family&rsquo;s way of knowing and explore how that foundation laid the ground work for the values that have shaped my identity. I select a personal narrative that relies on memories, photos, school yearbooks, and news clippings to describe my journey within the southwest Detroit Latina/o community. I identify the community institutions and their influences on me that contributed to my sense of belonging and eventual academic success.</p><p>

<p> One in every four students in the United States is Latin@, yet approximately half of Latin@ students fail to complete a high school diploma within four years. By 2020, Latin@s will comprise approximately 50% of the population of the United States, which will lead to the &ldquo;Latinization&rdquo; of K-12 schools. Despite being such a large part of the U.S. population, only 13% of Latin@s graduate college (Irizarry &amp; Donaldson, 2012). </p><p> In Oregon, the graduation rate for the 2015-2016 four-year cohort was 73.8%; for Latin@s, the graduation rate was 67.4% (Oregon Department of Education, 2017). In 2015-2016, the River County School District had a graduation rate of 70.8% for the overall four-year cohort, but only 59.4% of the Latin@ students within that four-year cohort. Oregon mirrors the United States in that Latin@s continue to make up a growing percentage of the overall population in Oregon. Every day that Oregon public schools struggle to provide a high school education with high expectations for Latin@ students is another day of jeopardizing the future of Oregon. </p><p> This qualitative action research aimed to explore the development of critical consciousness in Latin@ ninth grade students at a comprehensive high school through a CRT and LatCrit lens. This study intended to change ninth grade, first-generation, U.S. born high school students&rsquo; position in their own education process, to empower students to consider their own educational point of view, to analyze their own and their peers&rsquo; points of view, and to organize opportunities to share their point of view with teachers and school district leaders in order to advocate for their educational needs and rights and to liberate themselves from marginalizing experiences in high school. The intention of this critical action research is to empower students to identify and advocate for their own academic success.</p><p>

<p> This embedded case study explored and described the delivery of career development activities by high school counselors (n=9) at predominantly Latino high schools within a Southern California school district. Using the ASCA National Standards as a guide, participants were queried about their adherence to said standards. The following themes emerged: (a) The Need for Parental Involvement in Students&rsquo; Education, (b) Counselors&rsquo; Barriers to Delivering Career Development Activities, (3) Perceptions of a Potential Career Development Course, (4) Career Exploration, (5) and Lack of Accountability for ASCA Standards. The results from the questionnaire highlighted inconsistency among the participants&rsquo; delivery of career development competencies. Limitations include a small sample size and questionnaire flaws. Implications include the need to track fidelity for ASCA National Standards, improve parental involvement, reduce non-counseling tasks, and reduce the student-to-school counselor ratio. Recommendations for future research for educators in predominantly Latino high schools are provided.</p>

<p> Health literacy among the elderly Hispanics is a problem for 44% who read at the lowest level due to issues with recognition, cognition, or vision. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent that elderly Hispanics have problems with medication adherence due to health literacy. The social cognitive theory was the framework for this study. Inclusion criteria consisted of being 65-75 years of age, and speaking and/or reading English and/or Spanish. Questionnaires from 156 individuals were completed in Cobb County/Atlanta GA and analyzed using multiple regression to determine the relationship between health literacy and medication usage. Medication adherence was the dependent variable and independent variables were gender, age, Hispanic origin, education, income, income means, health insurance, health literacy, and medication usage. Statistical significance was noted in medication adherence, health literacy, and working full-time. Results were based on the correct answers from health literacy questions, which showed an association between medication adherence and health literacy and a reduction in medication adherence problems among elderly Hispanics who worked full-time. These findings showed a significant association between medication adherence and health literacy level among elderly Hispanics. No medication adherence problems were noted among participants who had good health literacy, unlike participants with poor health literacy. A larger ethnic group may show a variation of problems in future studies. Implications for social change could include recommendations for the use of Spanish language hotlines and reading materials to provide care, knowledge, and medication information assistance.</p>

<p> This study examined the role of guilt among Latino first generation college students and their educational journey as they leave their family and community to pursue higher education. For first generation college students, going to college is breaking away from the norm of not going to college, which for many family members who have no college experience, they cannot understand the reason why their loved one is separating themselves from their close nit family and community. This notion of leaving their family and community behind can elicit feelings of guilt for not being physically available due to distance or the demands of being a college student. This study looked at the lived experience of six participants and their feelings of guilt. The conceptual framework used was a combination of Critical Race Theory and Survivor Guilt to fully understand the stories of the six participants. This qualitative study used was a narrative design to fully understand the lived experiences. </p><p> The findings revealed that guilt was caused when the participants put their needs before the needs of their family and attended college. Another significant finding was that for the females in the study, they all stated that guilt was brought on due to the physical distance between them and their families. As for the males who left home to go to college, they felt financially guilty for either causing financial problems at home or not being able to support their family with the bills. This study is intended to bring forth the guilt that Latino first generation college students face from leaving home and how colleges should be aware. This study also address recommendations for policy and practice that can better support Latino first generation college students and their families at home and in a college setting.</p>

<p> At a critical time in educational transformation, NCLB incorporated the notion that parents would assume power and engage with schools around this monumental shift for accountability concerning the success of all students. Now the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, upholds this task and calls for parent and family engagement in district and school improvement processes and the development of parent and family engagement policies. Traditional notions of parental engagement have rarely addressed partnerships for educational reform and policy change (Cooper, 2009). Furthermore, narratives regarding parents of color are dominated by a deficit discourse of what families &ldquo;lack,&rdquo; described as, &ldquo;empty vessels&rdquo; that need to be &ldquo;filled&rdquo; with knowledge to be able to engage in schools like their White middle-class counterparts (Lightfoot, 2004).</p><p> This qualitative study examines a counternarrative definition of parental engagement according to Latino parents in a particular community in which White privilege contributes to and perpetuates the marginalization and continued exclusion of particular groups. I employed a critical race methodology to focus on the lived experience of Latino families through counterstory that challenges the dominant narrative created and sustained by White privilege and traditional White educational discourse.</p><p> Findings in this study centered on Latino families&rsquo; limited access to the school, school programs, and institutional knowledge and power; systemic barriers maintained by White privilege; the cultural funds of knowledge and expertise of Latino parents as educators and advocates; a critique of the system from participants&rsquo; perspectives; and recommendations participants had for change in current practice. Through the findings, major implications for practice surfaced, including an examination and elimination of systemic barriers, the use of counterstory to disrupt deficit narratives of families of color, and educators&rsquo; and educational leaders&rsquo; utilization of practices to structure venues for authentic dialogue for reform.</p>

<p> This study focused on the perceptions of 16 Latina students regarding their cultural school climate as well as the thoughts of two administrators and six teachers at an all-female Catholic high school. Students revealed that, while they felt very supported by the school&rsquo;s faculty and administration, they revealed that their culture was not fully embraced and/or represented in their educational curriculum and school&rsquo;s practices. Students also alluded to deliberately choosing and valuing to spend their free time with their family over their classmates. Further, they felt disconnected from their school&rsquo;s mission, which emphasized sisterhood among students. Furthermore, bicultural students provided a unique perspective often not fitting the Latina and/or dominant culture at the school.</p>

<p> The United States (U.S.) Army and the nation have a growing population of Hispanics. Yet Hispanics are still lagging in filling white-collar positions in the U.S. and Army. The Army has taken notice and implemented the Hispanic Access Initiative (HAI) through its Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at colleges and universities that are classified as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). It has done this in order to recruit more Hispanic Officers into its Officer Corps.</p><p> This study follows seven Hispanic students and discusses their experiences with ROTC at an HSI. They faced the same issues many Hispanic students deal with when attending an institution of higher learning. In addition, they also had the added responsibility of completing all the required work for ROTC. In an effort to become leaders in the Army, these students overcame traditional challenges Hispanics face, and they graduated from college.</p><p> A qualitative study was conducted with the seven students to understand what made them successful in completing their four-year college degrees. Their phenomenological experiences highlighted four main themes from their responses: (a) challenges, (b) benefits, (c) support system, and (d) role models. These themes surfaced at one point or another throughout their education. In the end, the goal to graduate and be commissioned into the U.S. Army was reached by each of the former students.</p><p> As a result of this study, colleges and universities can look to ROTC to increase their graduation rates among Hispanic students. Since the Hispanic population is continuing to increase, it is in the interest of colleges to graduate more Hispanics in order to provide highly qualified graduates for a large number of white-collar jobs.</p>

<p> Hispanic patients in the United States had increased incidence of cardiovascular disease as compared to non-Hispanic whites. The purpose of this project was to implement an evidence-based educational program to improve the health knowledge of adult Hispanic patients who have had percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) living in a community in the desert southwest. An educational improvement program on medication comprehension was in need to improve the healthcare continuum for adult Hispanics at risk post-PCI. Non-adherence to dual anti-platelet therapy (DAPT) could have resulted in stent thrombosis, a potentially fatal event. The human caring theory and the cultural care theory were the theoretical frameworks for this project. Adult Hispanic patients at a cardiac catheterization lab in the southern United States near the border were screened and 12 out of 33 eligible patients were enrolled. The questionnaires were conducted pre-procedure, followed by an investigator administered educational program. The same questionnaire was given to post-PCI patients prior to discharge to measure improvement in knowledge post-education. There was a statistically significant difference in the pre-/post-education scores following the education program with a <i> p</i>-value of &lt; 0.05. This improved understanding could increase medication adherence to DAPT medication for post-PCI patients, thereby reducing morbidity and mortality for these patients by reducing stent thrombosis rates. Inexpensive and highly efficacious, education should be emphasized as part of any procedural preparation. </p><p>