Among ethnic groups in California Latinos continue to have the lowest high school graduation rates and the lowest college completion rates. This study focused on understanding the role parents can play and ways schools and educators can support immigrant Latino parents to improve these rates. Framed with a funds of knowledge approach (Gonzalez, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C., 2005), this mixed-methods qualitative and quantitative study was conducted in a public charter high school in a low income area of Los Angeles where the student body was primarily Latino. The mission of the school was to prepare students for higher education at a four-year institution. The study results showed that it is possible for a school to engage immigrant Latino parents. With a better understanding of the aspirations, fears, and challenges faced by this community, the information can be provided in a form that is meaningful and that builds upon existing funds of knowledge. Critical components of the college outreach program were seeking parent input, developing a parent outreach plan, making information accessible, encouraging parent college visits, disseminating information beginning in middle school, providing personalized guidance, developing an undocumented student support plan, and creating a college-going culture. Implementing the the college access program encompassed gathering informal and formal feedback, presenting workshops, making documents available in Spanish as well as English, defining terms, arranging college visits, sending and displaying motivating communications, and engaging staff, students, and parents every step of the way.

No description available.

Colleges are struggling to retain students of color at four-year academic institutions (Kuh, 2005). The result is that while African-American and Latino students are entering college, fewer successfully complete their programs of study and obtain an undergraduate degree (ACE, 2006). For this reason, institutions are establishing supportive learning communities to not only recruit, but to retain this population.Learning communities have become welcoming places in the academy, and are designed to help students succeed in college by providing a formative, integrated academic experience that builds strength, perspective, and commitment. Employing Vincent Tinto`s (1975) student integration theory as a conceptual framework, this qualitative case study examined the relationship between student participation in a learning community, college persistence, and college retention. This research addressed the experiences of eight students of color who participated in the Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation (LSAMP) learning community program. Participant experiences were gathered through the administration of demographic questionnaires, in-depth interviews, a focus group, and a non-participant observation. The findings of this research study revealed that college persistence and retention is a function of four strategies, all of which are incorporated into the Louis Stokes Alliance Minority Participation Program: (a) Social Integration; strengthened connections amongst students of color and between students, faculty and staff (b) Academic preparedness; making sure students of color have the resources and skills needed in order to be academically successful (c) Group identity; helping students overcome feelings of isolation that are common on large college campuses (d) Providing both an academic and social atmosphere where students can succeed. The implications of this study assert that learning communities have a profound impact on positive student outcomes for both African-American and Latino students who attend predominately white institutions.

<p>To what extent do Black/African American (Black), Hispanic/Latinx (Latinx), and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) students have access to being identified with gifts and talents? In places where they have access to identification, how equitably are they identified? And, to what extent are they missing from identification with gifts and talents due to lack of access or underidentification? This study used the Civil Rights Data Collection for the years 2000, 2011–2012, 2013–2014, and 2015–2016 to investigate underrepresentation of Black, Latinx, and NHPI youth with gifts and talents, nationally and by state. The data in these years were census data, meaning data from every child who attends public school is included. Data were also examined by Title I and Non-Title I school status and by locale (i.e., City, Suburb, Town, Rural) to determine how school poverty concentration and/or school locale affect identification of Black, Latinx, and NHPI youth. All states were analyzed for Black and Latinx youth, but due to the small NHPI student populations in some states this analysis was limited to a 20 state sample. Nationally, and in 37, 31, and all 20 states analyzed, respectively, lack of access to identification was not a major contributing factor to underrepresentation. The disparity in identification percentages between schools by Title I status showed 45% fewer Black students, 21% fewer Latinx students, and 15% fewer NHPI students were identified in Title I schools. Additionally, in every state and setting, Black, Latinx, and NHPI youth were underidentified with 92%, 92%, and 67%, respectively, of the equity ratios and 92%, 93%, and 61%, respectively, of the representation indices less than the minimum criterion of 0.80. In 2015-2016, there were 276,840 Black students with gifts and talents identified with an estimated 469,213 (62.89%) to 771,728 (73.60%) missing from identification; 588,891 Latinx students with gifts and talents identified with an estimated 658,544 (52.79%) to 1,164,363 (66.41%) missing from gifted identification; and among the 20 state sample, 6,594 NHPI students with gifts and talents identified with an estimated 7,236 (52.32%) to 9,253 (58.39%) missing from gifted identification.</p>

Cubans arrive in the U.S. with more formal education than other Latino immigrants, and they arrive to communities with long standing networks of support. Though their baccalaureate degree attainment is better than their non-Cuban Latina counterparts, Cuban women still lag behind White, non-Latina women. The qualitative study aims to explore the principal influences and non-academic factors that 15 adult Cuban non-native English-speaking women in South Florida attribute to the successful attainment of their baccalaureate degree. There are many differences among the various immigrant Latino communities in the U.S., and Cuban women are largely absent from the research. Nearly 75% of Cuban women who start Miami Dade College with English as a second language course-work drop out within one year of matriculation. Understanding the principal influences and non-academic factors related to the baccalaureate attainment rate of this group may assist educators and administrators in providing the support these women need to enhance their degree completion. The literature says that the baccalaureate degree attainment of Latinos is influenced by age-at-the-time-of-immigration, country of origin, and gender, yet little research was found on the degree attainment specifically of female Cubans who entered the U.S. having already completed most of their education in Cuba. My dissertation explores the journey of 15 Cuban women who arrived in the U.S. as teens during the 1990s and had to learn English as a second language at an urban community college prior to completing a baccalaureate degree. The purpose of the research is to describe the principal influences and non-academic factors that these women attribute to their baccalaureate degree attainment.

Using a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study examined the perspectives of Latino parents and their involvement in the decision of their child to enroll in an advanced mathematics course in sixth grade. Since enrollment in Algebra I in high school is said to be a strong predictor of college attainment and with the growing number of Latino students across the nation, this study has the potential to help district and campus leaders establish whole-school systems for communicating with Latino parents to encourage their children to enroll in advanced mathematics courses at earlier grades. Participants in this study included four sixth-grade students enrolled in an advanced mathematics course, four enrolled in regular mathematics, their mother or father, two mathematics teachers, a school counselor, and two district administrators. Data analyzed included audio recordings of semi-structured interviews of each of the participants. The findings suggested that the district has proactively developed a systematic process of creating that includes six data points to create a student profile of students that will do well in advanced mathematics. This process is helping the district close the gap between total Latino school enrollment and the enrollment of Latino students in advanced mathematics. The findings also suggested that specific communication with parents about the importance of enrollment trajectories might influence the enrollment of students into advanced mathematics courses at earlier grades.