The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of some of the problems of the Latin-American schools, survey one such school in operation, and study some proposed remedies for any inequalities that might exist.

Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Curricular and Instructional Studies-Secondary Education, 2006. / "December, 2006." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 04/07/2008) Advisor, Denise Stuart; Committee members, Isadore Newman, Carole Newman, Lynn Smolen, Sajet Zachariah; Interim Department Chair, Bridgie A. Ford; Dean of the College, Patricia A. Nelson; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-164).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--George Mason University, 2009. / Vita: p. 122. Thesis director: David Brazer. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed June 10, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-121). Also issued in print.

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The purpose of this study is to determine what opportunities the public schools of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas are offering to Latin-American students, how they are meeting the students' needs, and what changes, if any, could be made to adjust their curriculum to meet these needs.

The US Department of Education projects that by the year 2030 the total English Learner (EL) population in US schools will exceed 40 percent. Currently, by the time ELs make it to high school, after 6 or more years in English Language Development (ELD) programs, the majority (59 percent), are Long Term English Learners (LTEL). LTEL students represent a variety of ethnicities and language groups, but the focus of this qualitative study is LTEL students who identify as Latino LTEL. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and explain recently graduated Latino LTEL's perceptions of the impact of their school's culture on their academic and affective acculturation. As schools look to improve the educational outcome of Latino EL, listening to voices of former LTEL as they share their high school experiences can provide insights into ways to support the affective learning needs, academic success, and acculturation of Latino EL. Through 10 in-depth interviews with former Latino LTEL and employing qualitative coding analysis, this research explored and analyzed recently graduated Latino EL's perceptions of the impact of school culture on their academic acculturation. Even though schools have for many years attempted to address the needs of their linguistically diverse students, the results of this study indicate that the participants' high schools did not do enough to support their academic and affective learning needs. This lack of support impacted participants' self-perceptions of themselves as learners. To bridge Latino LTEL acculturative gaps, the findings support the need for school cultures to address the affective learning needs of their bi-cultural and Latino EL.

This research grew from concerns relative to the mathematical performance of Spanish-speaking limited English proficient (LEP) public school students. This investigation studied the effects of the sheltered mathematics class on eighth-grade Spanish-speaking LEP students with regard to mathematical achievement, attitudes toward mathematics, the dropout rate, and the number of math credits earned in high school. The enrollment of a sheltered mathematics class was limited to LEP students. The purpose was to compare Spanish-speaking LEP students enrolled in sheltered mathematics classes with Spanish-speaking LEP students enrolled in regular mathematics classes. The research hypotheses were that achievement, mathematical attitudes, the dropout rate, and high school math credits earned would favor enrollment in sheltered mathematics classes. The data for achievement, dropout information, and mathematics course work completed were drawn from student records in the school district data bank. A mathematics attitude survey was given to a sample from the 1995-96 eighth-grade advanced level Spanish-speaking LEP students. The research hypotheses were not accepted. All of the populations did show an academic deficit. However, they did have more positive attitudes than negative attitudes toward mathematics. To improve achievement, staying in school, and a higher rate of inclusion in mathematics related careers the following recommendations were made: 1. Research should be done to write standardized mathematics tests that would be accurate and fair for Spanish-speaking LEP students. 2. Further research should be done into teaching strategies and classroom management particularly suited to Spanish-speaking LEP students. 3. Attitude measures should be used as pretest and posttest to study the effect of sheltered mathematics classes on LEP students in relation to attitudes toward mathematics and motivation to continue schooling. 4. Recruit and train qualified mathematics teachers to teach English as a second language (ESL) mathematics.

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