Latino ELL Students

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the disparities in well-being among U.S racial and ethnic groups?

Findings:

Asian Americans in New Jersey, with the highest Index scores, experience levels of well-being that, if current trends continue, the country as a whole will reach in about fifty years. At the other end of the spectrum, Native Americans in South Dakota lag more than a half-century behind the rest of the nation in terms of health, education, and income. Asian Americans in New Jersey live, on average, an astonishing 26 years longer, are 11 times more likely to have a graduate degree, and earn $35,610 more per year than South Dakota Native Americans.
• Asian Americans live the longest (86.6 years), followed by Latinos (82.8 years);
• African American life expectancy today is on par with that of the average American three decades ago;
• Latinos outlive whites, on average, by over four years, and in all but four states, Latinos either equal or surpass the national average in life span.
• In no U.S. states do African Americans, Latinos, or Native Americans earn more than Asian Americans or whites;
• Asian Americans and whites earn the most; Latinos and Native Americans earn the least. Native Americans' median earnings are less than $22,000, while whites' are more than $30,000;
• African Americans in Maryland earn almost $16,000 a year more than African Americans in Louisiana.
• Nearly one in five Asian American adults has a graduate degree;
• Latinos lag in education; nearly four in ten adults age 25 and older did not complete high school;
• In Florida, Maryland, and Virginia, about one in five Latino adults age 25 and older have obtained at least a bachelor's degree.

• Read the Full Report

Lewis, K. & Burd-Sharps, S. (2010). A Century Apart: Revealing Alarming Disparities in Well-Being among U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups. Brooklyn, NY: American Human Development Project.

Tags: Asian ELL Students; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.);

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School, Post-Secondary

• Link to Full Report

Pew Hispanic Center. (2006). A Statistical Portrait of the Foreign-Born Population at Mid-Decade. Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, DC.

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What is the state of well-being among Latino children?
• What trends exist within this population subset and how do they affect equal opportunity and supports at a national, state, regional, and local level?

Findings:

• The conditions and situations of Latino children vary state-by-state, regionally, and generationally.
• Despite a hardworking population, the majority of Latino children live in poor and low-income families, and in high poverty neighborhoods which are more isolated from more affluent communities
• Most Latino children are U.S citizens yet many live in immigrant families resulting in barriers to services and potential separation of parents from children.
• Latino children are disadvantaged in the educational system (e.g., only 55% graduate with a high school diploma)

Policy Recommendations:

• There needs to be more research into the regional and other variations among the Latino population
• There is a need for clear targeted policies on health, education, juvenile justice, and poverty reduction.
• Need to use a holistic approach to assessing the present and future well-being of Latino children.

• Read The Full Report

Foxen, P., & Mather, M. (2010). America's Future: Latino Child Well-Being in Numbers and Trends. Washington, DC: National Council of La Raza.

Tags: Differentiated Instruction; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Placement;

Target Population: Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What can we learn from the the gap in ELL enrollment between charter schools and traditional public schools? What are the trends in this gap in New York City?
• Are students who attend charter schools are qualitatively different from those enrolled in district public schools?
• How does the racial/ethnic makeup of charter schools compares to traditional public schools?

Findings:

• In New York City, as in many other areas serving high numbers of ELLs (with a few exceptions), research focused on ELL student access to charter schools has been limited.
• At the school level, New York City charter schools appear to have a disproportionately low enrollment of ELL/LEP students.
• While findings from previous studies of New York City's charter schools suggest that location is a factor for limited ELL enrollment, many of New York's charter schools are located in neighborhoods with traditionally signficiant Hispanic and ELL populations such as the South Bronx and Harlem.
• Those charter schools that buck this trend actively strive to meet the needs of ELLs through ongoing professional development for teachers across the disciplines and active family engagement efforts led by the principal.

The authors of the report suggest the following possible reasons for limited ELL enrollment in charter schools:

• Parents of ELLs may not have adequate knowledge about charter schools; their reliance on (and deferral to) teachers and administrators to make academic decisions about their children's future contributes to this information gap.
• Charter schools face pressure to maintain high academic standards and may be reluctant to serve students who require additional resources. In fact, some funding mechanisms may create a disincentive to enroll higher number of ELL applicants at particular charter schools.

Policy Recommendations:

• More disaggretation of charter school data is needed that provides detailed information about ELL student enrollment, proficiency level, and performance.
• Researchers and policymakers need to reexamine, and in some cases revise, charter school funding mechanisms to ensure that they are not preventing charter school leaders from actively recruiting "at-risk" populations of students.
• Future research about ELLs in charter schools should include investigation of families' knowledge about charter schools and charter school lotteries, as well as of charter school practices regarding student recruitment and staff training and hiring.

• Read the Full Report

Buckley, J.& Sattin-Bajaj, C. (2010, April, 27). Are ELL Students Underrepresented in Charter Schools? Demographic Trends in New York City, 2006-2008. New York University. Retrieved July 27, 2010 from http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files/OP188.pdf

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Books and Other Reading Materials; Curriculum; Differentiated Instruction; Instructional Programs; Language of Instruction; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA;

Target Population: Middle and high school students, parents, teachers, administrators, and guidance counselors.

Research Questions the Report Poses: This article questions how important it is for higher education institutions, schools, states, and the federal government to help students prepare for post-secondary education and graduate successfully.

Findings:

• For many students, the decision not to apply for college does not reflect a lack of higher education aspirations; instead, many students are discouraged by the application process and tuition rates.
• There is a growing consensus that high schools should be accountable for what their students' outcomes are after high graduation and that high schools and governments at all levels to increase the academic readiness.
• Proper guidance and easy access to available programs of financial aid and college admission application need to be highly promoted in all states, especially for low-income students.

Policy Recommendations:

The report authors identify three strategies that the federal government and states can potentially pursue in order to help all students enter and suceed in higher education:

• Create data systems that track college readiness and attainment and build accountability.
• Support and build the capacity of high school and college educators.
• Develop strong signals and clear incentives to students about the path to college.

The federal government is encouraged to take note of the recommendations made in this article on the economic, social, and academic factors that can prevent students from attending college. In addition, policymakers at the state and federal level are encouraged to create programs that facilitate the transition from high school to college by promoting students current and future college aspirations.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Center for American Progress 1333 H Street, NW, 10th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20005

Nagaoka, Jenny; Roderick, Melissa; Coca, Vanessa. (2009). Barriers to College Attainment: Lessons from Chicago. Washington, D.C. Center for American Progress.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Motivation;

Target Population: Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are ways to increase the number of Latino STEM graduates?

Findings:

• The U.S. Department of Education reports that nearly 60% of Latinos in the American higher education system are enrolled in a community college. Of these students, 56% attend Hispanic-serving community colleges.
• Recent data from NSF shows that nearly 44% of all STEM B.S. degree holders attend community college at some point in their career.

• Read The Full Report

Dowd, A.C., Malcom, L.E., & Bensimon, E.M. (2009). Benchmarking the success of Latino and Latina students in STEM to achieve national graduation goals. Los Angeles, CA: University of Southern California.

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: High School, Post-Secondary

Findings:

Demographics

• Latinos make up about 18% of all youths in the U.S. ages 16 to 25, with a high concentration of the young Latino population residing in New Mexico, California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, and Colorado.
• More than two thirds (68%) of young Latinos are of Mexican heritage, and they are growing up in families that on average have less "educational capital" than do other Latinos.

Identity and Language

• Asked which term they generally use first to describe themselves, young Hispanics show a strong preference for their family’s country of origin (52%) over American (24%) or the terms Hispanic or Latino (20%).
• By a ratio of about two to one, young Hispanics say there are more cultural differences (64%) than commonalities (33%) within the Hispanic community in the U.S.
• About one third (36%) of Latinos ages 16 to 25 are English dominant in their language patterns, while 41% are bilingual and 23% are Spanish dominant.
• Seven in ten (70%) say that when speaking with family members and friends, they often or sometimes use a hybrid known as "Spanglish" that mixes words from both languages.

Social Challenges

• Young Hispanic females have the highest rates of teen parenthood of any major racial or ethnic group in the country.
• About seven in ten (69%) Latino youths say that becoming a teen parent prevents a person from reaching one's goals in life; 28% disagree.
• About three in ten (31%) young Latinos say they have a friend or relative who is a current or former gang member. This degree of familiarity with gangs is much more prevalent among the native born than the foreign born — 40% versus 17%.
• Perceptions of discrimination are more common among native-born young Latinos than among those who are foreign born.

Education and Career

• Young Latinos are satisfied with their lives, optimistic about their futures and place a high value on education, hard work, and career success.
• Even more so than other youths, young Latinos have high aspirations for career success. Some 89% say it is very important in their lives, compared with 80% of the full population of 18- to 25-year-olds who say the same.
• Latinos believe in the rewards of hard work. More than eight-in-ten—including 80% of Latino youths and 86% of Latinos ages 26 and older—say that most people can get ahead in life if they work hard.
• Nearly three quarters of Latino youths who cut off their education before college cite financial pressure to support a family. About half cite poor English skills.
• When asked a question that presented a number of possible reasons that Latinos do not do as well as other students in school, more respondents blamed poor parenting and poor English skills than blamed poor teachers.
• The household income of young Latinos lags well behind that of young whites and is slightly ahead of young blacks.
• The poverty rate among young Latinos declines significantly from the first generation (29%) to the second (19%).

• Read the Full Report

Pew Research Center/Pew Hispanic Center. (2009). Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America, Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Reading;

Target Population: High school, post-secondary (non-collegiate)

Research Questions the Report Poses:

1. What is the policy background for the provision of ESL courses in California? What distinguishes adult schools from other providers?
2. How has the ESL target population changed throughout the state since 1980? What is the level of predicted enrollment and what demographic changes affect enrollment in ESL courses?
3. What are the trends in the provision of ESL courses by adult schools and community colleges statewide and in the different regions of the state? Does the adult school funding formula limit adult school enrollment? To what extent do adult school districts exceed their level of funding?
4. What do adult schools that exceed their funding limit forgo in terms of quality of adult education classes and future growth of adult education programs? How much does the redistribution of unused funding alleviate the challenges facing high-demand regions? How would adult education providers benefit from increased funding?

Findings:

• There is a $15.7 million gap between money spent by adult schools on ESL programs and money awarded to these schools by the state of California.
• Though the adult ELL demographic is growing across the state, it is growing at different rates in different parts of the state.
• Close to 60 percent of adult schools in California exceed their funding limit.
• Among adult schools that do over-enroll students, nearly 80 percent exceed their funding limit by over 2.5 percent.

Policy Recommendations:

The authors recommend:

• Increased overall funding to adult ESL programs
• More mechanisms for distributing funds for ESL programs to areas and schools that have high demand
• Increasd enrollment caps so that schools do not have to pay out of their own pocket to have adult ESL programs

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Public Policy Institute of California 500 Washington Street Suite 800 San Francisco, California 94111

Gonzalez, A. California's Commitment to Adult English Learners: Caught Between Funding and Need. (2007). San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.

Tags: Asian ELL Students; Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA;

Target Population: Preschool

Research Questions the Report Poses: None; instead makes the case that newcomer families and the children within them are, and will continue to be, a significant demographic in American education.

Findings:

• 25 percent of children from newcomer families have a parent who was born in the United States.
• Two-thirds of children from newcomer families have parents who have lived in the United States for ten or more years.
• 80% of children from newcomer families are US citizens
• Almost 60% of children have at least one parent who speaks English exclusively or very well
• Three-quarters of children from newcomer families speak English exclusively or very well
• Almost half of newcomer children speak both English and another language fluently or close to fluently
• Approximately a quarter of newcomer children are from linguistically isolated households
• Children from newcomer families going to pre-school with lower prevalence than children from native born families

Policy Recommendations:

• More resources need to be devoted to getting good early education to children from newcomer families
• A re-examination must take place of education policy toward language instruction, especially views of bi-literacy and bilingualism
• Education programs can and should improve outreach to newcomer parents

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Child Trends
Bonnie Wahiba
4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 350
Washington, DC 20008
E-Mail: bwahiba@childtrends.org
Phone: (202) 572-6136
Fax: (202) 362-8420 (third floor, Suite 350)

Hernandez, D., Denton, N., and Macartney, S. (2007, April). Child Trends and Children in Immigrant Families - The U.S. and 50 States: National Origins, Language, and Early Education. Albany, NY: Center for Social and Demographic Analysis at SUNY-Albany

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are the trends regarding racial demographics and distribution over the past few decades?
• what are they expected to be in coming years?
• What implications does the shifting demography have on the U.S.?

Findings:

• More children live in the United States than ever before, but they represent the smallest share of the population in U.S. history.
• Children are the most diverse racially and ethnically of any age group now or in the country's history, accounted for especially by immigrants from Asian and Latin American countries.
• Immigrant youth—those who migrated to the U.S. or who were born to immigrant parents—currently account for about one–quarter of all children.
• Four of every five immigrant children are U.S.-born; three–quarters of the children of unauthorized immigrants are also born in the United States.
• Children of immigrants live in every state, but their numbers and shares differ dramatically from state to state. Three–fourths of immigrant children live in just ten states:Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Washington. Nearly half of all immigrant children live in just three states (CA, TX, and NY), and CA alone is home to 28 percent of this group).
• Within about 25 years, immigrant youth will represent about one–third of an even larger number of children.
• Because of their numbers and the challenges facing the country, immigrant youth will play an important role in the future of the United States. Their integration into American society and their accumulation of human capital require continued attention from researchers, policy makers, and the public at large.

• Read the Full Report

Passel, J.S. (2011). "Demography of Immigrant Youth: Past, Present, and Future." Immigrant Children 21 (1). The Future of Children. Retrieved from: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=539.

Tags: Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: How can data be used to determine ways to improve students’ success in community colleges in California?

Findings:

• Students who followed certain enrollment patterns did much better (i.e. earning at least 20 credits within the first year.) Unfortunately few students followed those patterns; therefore efforts should be made to encourage those habits/trends.
• There are bleak disparities between races/ethnicities (i.e., even lower success rate among blacks and Latinos) and given demographics trends (i.e., increase in Latinos) solving this problem is critical for our nation.
• Too many students fail to attain their 2-year degree. (After 6 years of enrollment 70% of students-80% of Latinos had not finished, and only 15% were still enrolled.)
• Transfer success is low. (Only 23% ultimately transferred to a 4-year university; and of Latinos specifically only 14%).
• Completion rates and levels of disparity vary widely across comparable colleges; therefore some colleges do actually find ways to promote completion, while others are lacking.
• For-profit sector's role is growing. (More students are transferring into for-profit sector.)

Policy Recommendations:

• Collect data and act upon it.
• Create a public agenda for higher education.
• Develop a reward system for student success.
• Maintain transfer function of community colleges so successful students will continue on to a state university.

• Read the Full Report

Moore, C. & Shulock, N. (2010). Divided We Fail: Improving Completion and Closing Racial Gaps in California’s Community Colleges. Sacramento, CA: California State University’s Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy.

Tags: Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• How does the educational attainment vary among subgroups of immigrants?
• What factors account for these differences?
• What barriers do some immigrant students face? What is the payoff to postsecondary education in U.S. society?

Findings:

• Mexican and Latin American immigrants have, on average, relatively low rates of participation and success in postsecondary education.
• Language barriers and lack of familiarity with U.S. social institutions create difficulties, but it is not immigrant status per se that explains the unsatisfactory outcomes for these immigrant populations.
• Overall, immigrants and their children are actually more likely than natives (of the same countries of origin) to earn college degrees.
• The gaps among groups from different countries of origin are large. Those from China, Japan, and many African countries have high success rates. Those from Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, Laos, and Cambodia fare less well.
• The children of immigrants who benefited from postsecondary education in their countries of origin are likely to succeed in the United States. The children of parents who are not in a position to help them prepare for and navigate the postsecondary system are likely to struggle.

Policy Recommendations:

• Because immigration has become such a divisive political issue in the United States, focusing on the benefits to society of opening doors to higher education for all is the most promising strategy.
• Sometimes, changes in motivation and behavior resulting from financial incentives, rather than the extra funds themselves, can be central to improved postsecondary success. Judith Scott–Clayton, for example, found that West Virginia's state grant program increases college completion rates by establishing clear academic goals and providing incentives to meet them.
• Policies to improve the elementary and secondary school experiences of all children are likely the most important components of a strategy to improve the postsecondary success of immigrant children.

• Read the Full Report

Baum, S., Flores, S.M. (2011.) "Higher Education and Children in Immigrant Families." Immigrant Children 21 (1). The Future of Children. Retrieved from: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=545.

Tags: Intervention; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: High School, Post-secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the current statistics for Latinos, high school dropouts and the GED?

Findings:

• As of 2008, Hispanic adults with a GED had a higher unemployment rate than Hispanic adults with a high school diploma - 9% versus 7%.
• However, Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a GED had about the same mean annual earnings ($33,504) as Hispanics full-time, full-year workers with a high school diploma ($32,972).

• Read the Full Report

Fry, R. (2010). Hispanics, High School Dropouts and the GED. Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved January 7, 2011 from: http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/122.pdf

Tags: Content Areas: Math; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners?

Findings:

• The ELL achievement gap widens at higher grades.
• Nationally, ELL students tend to trail further behind their peers in reading than in math.

Policy Recommendations:
None given

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
n/a

Fry, R. (2007). How Far Behind in Math and Reading are English Language Learners? Pew Hispanic Center: Washington, D.C.

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Curriculum; Instructional Programs; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.);

Target Population: This article targets the general population, especially those Latino and minority groups in high school or first year in college.

Research Questions the Report Poses: This article raises the question of students' academic preparation to transition from high school to postsecondary education.

Findings:

• Poor academic performance during high school due to poor academic preparation for college can predetermine the failure of students during college.
• Current research shows that to make a different in academic preparation, school administrations and teachers have to create a rigorous academic program that needs to be continuous and based on rich coursework.
• Organizations like Achieve, ACT, and the Education Policy Improvement Center are providing feedbacks for students to better their transition from high school to college.

Policy Recommendations:

• Policymakers should begin to address the importance of academic preparation for students, especially in high school, entering college.
• The federal government should be responsible of distributing and communicating the general public the steps to take to gain greater academic preparation and skills in schools.
• Policymakers should propose and manage the strategies implemented to guarantee the success of the programs.

• Read the report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Center for American Progress 1333 H Street, NW, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20005

Chait, Robin and Andrea Venezia. (2009). Improving Academic Preparation for College: What We Know and How State and Federal Policy Can Help. Washington, D.C.: Center for American Progress.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Placement; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: This issue brief is designed to help inform future dialogue on assessment and accountability. The brief examines the progress and manner in which states have implemented the federal law's accountability and testing provisions with respect to ELLs.

Findings:
NCLB implementation with respect to ELLs has failed to live up to the law's promise. State and district accountability systems not only must include ELLs, they must be implemented in a way that effectively closes the existing academic achievement gap for ELLs.

Policy Recommendations:

• The U.S. Department of Education should increase research and investment in the development of a range of appropriate assessments and testing accommodations, including native-language and simplified English tests for ELLs.
• The U.S. Department of Education should provide firm guidance to states regarding the law's directive to assess ELLs "to the extent practicable, in the language and form most likely to yield accurate data."
• With enforcement by the U.S. Department of Education, states and districts must continue to assess ELLs and include them in AYP determinations.
• The Administration and Congress should fine-tune the definition of AYP for ELLs.
• The U.S. Department of Education and Congress should enhance accountability measures for secondary ELLs, particularly late-entrant ELLs. The U.S. Department of Education, states, and districts should improve reporting of assessment data and other AYP indicators to parents of ELLs.
• The U.S. Department of Education and Congress should ensure equitable access to supplemental services for ELLs.
• The President and Congress must increase the federal investment in English language learner programs (Title III).
• The U.S. Department of Education should increase its investment in the development of assessments for ELLs The President and Congress should increase federal support for Parent Assistance Programs.
• States should ensure fiscal equity in their education finance systems, with adequate inclusion of resources for ELLs.

• Go to full report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Attention: Office of Publications
Raul Yzaguirre Building
1126 16th Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20036
Tel: 202.785.1670
Fax: 202.776.1794

Lazarín, M. (2006). Improving Assessment and Accountability for English Language Learners in the No Child Left Behind Act. National Council of La Raza: Washington, DC.

Tags: Comprehension; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Placement; Writing;

Target Population: Middle, High School, Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What issues should states consider to improve schooling for English language learners?

Findings:

• ELLs need high quality instruction focused on advanced literacy skills and not just on language acquisition; and
• Immersion-only programs lead to increased special education placements
• Latino ELLs are overrepresented in special education and lower tracked classrooms;

Policy Recommendations:

• States and districts need to redesign literacy work for ELLs in high schools to change from remediation to academic enrichment; and
• States and districts need to ensure that ELLs participate in rigorous, college preparation courses and receive support so that they can succeed in these courses

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
n/a

Koelsch, N. (2006). Improving literacy outcomes for English language learners in high school: Considerations for states and districts in developing a coherent policy Framework. National High School Center .

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: General

Research Questions the Report Poses:

What are the correlations between Latino children's generational status and socioeconomic and legal status, family structure, and English proficiency?

Findings:

• Hispanics now make up 22% of all children under the age of 18 in the United States — up from 9% in 1980 — and as their numbers have grown, their demographic profile has changed.
• A majority (52%) of the nation's 16 million Hispanic children are now "second generation," meaning they are the U.S.-born sons or daughters of at least one foreign-born parent.
• Many social, economic and demographic characteristics of Latino children vary sharply by their generational status. A Pew Hispanic Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that first and second generation Latino children are less likely than third or higher generation children to be fluent in English and to have parents who completed high school. They are more likely to live in poverty. But they are less likely than third or higher generation Latino children to live in single parent households.
• Another characteristic that separates Latino children along generational lines is their legal status. Building on earlier research, the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 7% of all Hispanic children are unauthorized immigrants, with dramatic differences based on generational status.
• Projections by the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that by 2025, nearly three in ten children in this country will be of Latino ancestry.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Pew Research Center 1615 L Street, N.W. Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20036

Fry, Richard and Jeffrey S. Passel. (2009). Latino Children: A Majority are U.S.-Born Offspring of Immigrants. Washington, D.C. Pew Hispanic Center: Pew Research Center.

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Transfer of Literacy Skills;

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How do the structures of Latino families influence Latino children’s cognitive development?

Findings:
In short, Latino children are teaching researchers much about the situated dynamics of child development—especially the mechanisms through which particular norms, forms of participation, and requisite cognitive demands are pressed in multiple contexts. Much work remains to understand how Latino parents deploy heritage and novel practices to advance child development, and how their activities and practices differentially shape cognitive and social– emotional vitality. We are just beginning to learn how the multiple contexts of children and adolescents vary across Latino subgroups and how they rival or reinforce the family’s influence. Ideally, researchers could capture the processes occurring inside the home—providing children with beneficial cognitive tools and engaging solidarity—and then observe how children carry these into other settings, like schools and peer groups. Some institutions, especially schools, often fail to recognize the social assets with which Latino children arrive, from respect for adults and vibrant social skills to serving their family by getting ahead in school.

• Read the Full Report

Fuller, B., & Coll, C.G. (2010). Learning From Latinos: Contexts, Families, and Child Development in Motion. American Psychological Association. Retrieved January 14, 2011 from http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/dev-46-3-559.pdf

Tags: Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Fluency; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Pre-school, Elementary, Middle, High School, Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: How long can immigrant populations be expected, on average, to remain fluent in their languages of origin?

Findings:

• The probability is 97% that a great grandchild of Mexican immigrants will not speak Spanish
• Mexican Spanish can be expected to have a life expectancy of 3.1 generations
• Guatemalan and Salvadoran Spanish can be expected to have a life expectancy of 2.8 generations
• Spanish spoken by other Latin Americans can be expected to have a life expectancy of 2.6 generations

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
N/A

Rumbaut, R.G., Massey D.S., and Bean, F.D. (2006). Linguistic Life Expectancies: Immigrant Language Retention in Southern California. Population and Development Review, 32(3), 447-460.

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA;

Target Population: High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How do female high school Latina students overcome obstacles in order to graduate from high school?

Findings:

Latinas have high aspirations and goals but often are unable to reach them because of academic and social barriers such as:

• Poverty
• Immigration status
• Language barriers
• Lack of parental involvement
• Teenage pregnancy

Policy Recommendations:

• Invest in the future of Latinas. Congress should put more money into providing child care, early childhood education, health care, nutrition assistance, and tax benefits.
• Provide Latina girls with role models and set up programs that help them reach their goals. More money should be put into mentoring programs, school counseling, and college access programs.
• Make sure that all Latina girls are prepared for any post-secondary education opportunity.
• Ensure that schools are free of racial and gender discrimination. Schools should also make sure that they enforce and promote dual language programs for ELLs.
• Aid in gaining more Latino parental involvement. The government and schools should fund more programs to help parents become more active in schools.
• Fund more efforts to prevent teenage pregnancy, including implementing sex education programs.
• Support students who are pregnant or who are currently parenting.
• Schools should require better data collection and promote school accountability.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
MALDEF: http://maldef.org/contact/

National Women’'s Law Center & Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. Listening to Latinas: barriers to high school graduation. (2009, August). Retrieved from: http://maldef.org/assets/pdf/ListeningtoLatinas.pdf

Tags: Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Reading; Transfer of Literacy Skills; Vocabulary; Writing;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• Who are immigrant students and students who do not speak English well?
• Where are they from, and what is their family background (social, economic, linguistic, etc.)?
• How well do they do in school?
• Do their literacy levels prepare them to take part in higher education and a skilled workforce?"

Findings:

• ELL populations are growing faster than general student populations
• The growth of ELL populations in different states varies widely
• Students in California are more likely to be "linguistically isolated" than students across the country or in the other three states studied
• 57% of ELLs across the country were born in the United States
• 70% of ELLs in grades 6-12 speak Spanish
• NAEP data examined for 8th grade ELLs shows that only 4% and 6% of ELLs scored proficient in reading and math, respectively
• ELLs performed radically different on state math and reading assessments from state to state
• There is a wide achievement gap between ELL and non-ELL students on the 8th grade NAEP as well as state standardized tests
• Former ELL students and non-ELL students scored roughly the same on NAEP and state assessments

Policy Recommendations:

• "Reexamine whether Census data accurately capture the [ELL] population"
• "Examine how varying state exclusion rates for ELL students affect NAEP results"
• "Explore the literacy trajectories of former [ELL] students"
• "Document how states vary in their testing and monitoring practices for ELL students who parents opt out of language instruction services"
• "Leverage the research opportunities that multi-state English proficiency tests offer for analyzing ELL outcomes"

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/index.php

Batalova, J., Fix, M., and Murray, J. (2007). Measures of Change: The Demography and Literacy of Adolescent English Learners. Migration Policy Institute, Carnegie Corporation of New York: New York, NY.

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: General

Research Questions the Report Poses: Immigration Statistics

Findings:

• 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the United States in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970
• Mexicans account for 32% of all immigrants in the U.S.
• 55% of the Mexican immigrants are unauthorized
• About 11% of everyone born in Mexico is currently living in the U.S.
• Mexican immigrants are younger than either other immigrants or the U.S.-born population.
• A higher percentage of Mexican immigrants are male than either of the other group, and they are more likely to be married.

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• Read the Full Report

Pew Hispanic Center. (2009). Mexican immigrants in the United States. Retrieved from: http://pewhispanic.org/files/factsheets/47.pdf

Tags: Intervention; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Placement;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: Do "excellence gaps" exist? (differences in achievement between subgroups of students performing at the highest levels)

Findings:

• There are in fact notable and statistically significant excellence gaps between student subgroups, the largest being between native English speakers and English language learners; the smallest being between male and female.
• Proficiency scores indicate the gap is worse in math, while percentile comparisons suggest reading. National data is more reliable and standardized, though state data also suggests the presence of excellence gaps.
• While test scores are increasing overall, high-performance students fall, in disproportionate numbers, into the "overrepresented" categories (i.e., white, affluent, English-proficient.)
• The results suggest that focus on minimum competency gaps (i.e., No Child Left Behind Act) put high-performing students at a disadvantage, and further increases the excellence gap.

Policy Recommendations:

• Make closing the excellence gap and promoting advanced academic programs a priority at the national and state levels (not just local, where they are pushed aside.)
• Consider performance of advanced students in common standards, rather than focusing on minimum competency.
• Conduct more research on talent development; specifically U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation could allot preexisting money for it.

• Read the Full Report

Plucker, Burroughs, Song (2010). Mind the (Other) Gap! The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education. Center for Evaluation & Education Policy: Bloomington, Indiana.

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Comprehension; Latino ELL Students; Transfer of Literacy Skills;

• Download Executive Summary (96KB PDF)*
• Order copy of full report

August, D. and Shanahan, T. (2006). Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Center for Applied Linguistics, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: Mahwah, NJ.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Rights, Students;

Target Population: High school

Research Questions the Report Poses: How well served are out-of-school immigrant youths in the state of California in general? How well served are out-of-school immigrant youths who receive services and resources from California's Migrant Education Program (MEP)?

Findings:

• Though the California Migrant Education Program's attempts to offer educational resources to OSYs, its limited funds and eligibility requirements only allow it to service about 80,000 OSYs.
• California OSYs are some of the most disadvantaged individuals in the state because their legal statuses often make access to public services difficult.
• California OSYs are very eager to continue their education, but they are often unable to do so because of a need to work.
• Approximately 80% of OSYs said their families depended on their incomes to survive.

Policy Recommendations:

• Increase funding to the California MEP
• Change eligibility requirements for receiving MEP funds so that more OSYs are able to receive them
• Offer educational opportunities that allow OSYs to both work and learn

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Public Policy Institute of California
500 Washington Street
Suite 800
San Francisco, California 94111
E-Mail:merina@ppic.org
Telephone: (415) 291-4400
Fax: (415) 291-4401

Hill, Laura., and Hayes, Joseph. (2007). Out-of-School Immigrant Youth. San Francisco, California: Public Policy Institute of California.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Latino ELL Students; Phonics; Reading; Struggling Readers; Transfer of Literacy Skills; Vocabulary;

Target Population: Preschool

Research Questions the Report Poses: What steps can be taken to increase access to pre-K and early childhood programs for ELLs, particularly Hispanic ELLs?

Findings:

• Hispanic students have been achieving more and more over the past three generations.
• o Hispanic students born in the US do better on achievement tests than immigrant Hispanic children
• Hispanic students are still overrepresented among low-achieving students.
• Achievement among Hispanic students varies widely according to country of origin. South Americans and Cubans perform almost as well as White and Asian students, while Mexican-American students are far below White achievement levels
• High quality infant/toddler programs, pre-K programs, and K-3 schooling can contribute to meaningfully higher levels of school readiness and school achievement among low SES students, including low SES Hispanics.
• R&D is needed to provide better early childhood education for Hispanics. This includes developing and testing new programs, methods, and approaches that are tailored to fit the needs of Hispanic students.

Policy Recommendations:
Recommends that State Governments:

• Expand and increase infant/toddler programs in their states that serve or could potentially serve large numbers of Hispanic families.
• Continue to expand state-funded pre-K initiatives in an effort to have voluntary universal pre-K systems in most states within 10-20 years.
• Increase efforts to disseminate information to Hispanic parents about available pre-K programs.
• Increase funding for voluntary multi-year summer programs for students with low SES.
• Create programs to draw more ELL and bilingual educators.
• Increase pay and benefit levels for pre-K teachers and administrators so that they are equal to their public school counterparts.

Recommends that the federal government:

• Expand the Head Start and Early Head Start programs.
• Invest resources to designing, testing, and evaluating pre-K and K-3 language and literacy development strategies.
• Fund program testing that will yield more bilingual and ELL teachers.
• Create assessments for ELLs at the pre-K level in both Engish and Spanish.
• Increase longitudinal studies on Hispanics and other groups who achieve below US norms.
• Increase US participation in international assessments.

Recommends for private foundations:

• Fund long-term efforts to design, test, and evaluate pre-K and K-3 language and literacy development strategies for Hispanics from all SES levels and from immigrant/nonimmigrant families.
• Create foundations that can help provide the above funding.

Recommends that Hispanic organizations:

• Create recommendations for new approaches to infant/toddler, pre-K, and K-3 programs for Hispanic students.
• Create proposals on how state governments can increase their ELL/bilingual educators.
• Create literacy development information, materials, and other parental supports.

• Read the Full Report

Para nuestros niños: Expanding and Improving Early Education for Hispanics. (2007). National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics.

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: Are Hispanic students well-informed about their financial aid options for higher education? How does knowledge about financial aid affect Hispanic students' choices to pursue higher education?

Findings:

• 98% of respondents in the survey said that they felt it was important to have a college education
• 38% of respondents did not feel the benefits of college outweigh the costs
• Not being able to work and incurring debt were the opportunity costs associated with going to college
• The opportunity costs associated with going to college were not being able to work and incurring debt
• More than 50% of the respondents incorrectly thought students have to be U.S. citizens to apply for college financial aid
• Few respondents could accurately estimate the cost of attending either the University of California or California State University
• Overall, respondents demonstrated a lack of familiarity with government grants for education

Policy Recommendations:

• Students need to be better informed about the "less tangible, but real, social status differences that exist between the college-educated and the non-college educated" so that they feel that the opportunity costs of attending college are worth paying
• Because of misperceptions about how much college actually costs, Latino students may continue to be underrepresented on college campuses. To this end, perceptions must be corrected by presenting students with information about the realistic costs of attending college.
• Latino students need to be better informed about Cal Grants and Pell Grants, as well as other grant and loan opportunities available through state and federal government.
• Students and their parents both need to be educated about the system of college finances, including scholarships, loans, grants, and government guaranteed loans.
• Student perceptions about the significance of legal residency status vs. U.S. citizenship status need to be corrected, especially given the citizenship status of many students' parents

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
n/a

Zarate, E.Z., and Pachon, H.P. (2006). Perceptions of College Financial Aid Among California Latino Youth. Tomas Rivera Policy Institute: Los Angeles, CA.

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Fluency; Instructional Programs; Intervention; Language of Instruction; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Phonics; Phonological Awareness; Reading; Struggling Readers; Vocabulary; Writing;

Target Population: Elementary School, Middle School, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: What students are classified as being English Language Learners? How are they best identified, and what recommendations should be made to more adequately instruct possible ELL students to prevent further learning difficulties?

Findings:

• Statistics for ELLs may be hard to obtain or may be inaccurate since many ELL students go without being properly identified
• ELL students can better from more individualized instruction
• Mastery of academic language is necessary for academic success, which can prove to be difficult even for English speaking proficient ELLs
• In order to provide effective support of reading comprehension to ELLs educators must have an understanding of the child's individual needs
• In addition to reading comprehension it is crucial for students to become proficient in mathematics

Policy Recommendations:
While the article did not have any specific policy recommendations the recommendations listed in the article could be taken as such and thus included in this section.

Recommendations for Reading Instruction and interventions:

• ELLs need early, explicit, and intensive instruction in phonological awareness and phonics in order to build decoding skills.
• K-12 classrooms across the nation must increase opportunities for ELLs to develop sophisticated vocabulary knowledge.
• Reading instruction in K-12 classrooms must equip ELLs with strategies and knowledge to comprehend and analyze challenging narrative and expository texts.
• Instruction and intervention to promote ELLs' reading fluency must focus on vocabulary and increased exposure to print.
• In all K-12 classrooms across the U.S., ELLs need significant opportunities to engage in structured, academic talk.
• Independent reading is only beneficial when it is structured and purposeful, and there is a good reader-text match.

Recommendations for Mathematics Instruction:

• ELLs need early explicit and intensive instruction and intervention in basic mathematics concepts and skill.
• Academic language is as central to mathematics as it is to other academic areas. It is a significant source of difficulty for many ELLs who struggle with mathematics.
• ELLs need academic language support to understand and solve the word problems that are often used for mathematics assessment and instruction.

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
N/A

Francis, David J., Mabel Rivera, Nonie Lesaux, and Hector Rivera. (2006). Research-Based Recommendations for Instruction and Academic Interventions. Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners, Retrieved April 11,2008, from http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/ELL1-Interventions.pdf

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Latino ELL Students; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Reading;

Target Population: Preschool

Research Questions the Report Poses: How does Pre–K education positively impact the Latino population?

Findings:

• Despite education being prominent and important in many Latinos' home countries, many Latinos in the United States do not have their children enrolled in Pre-K programs.
• Pre-K programs are often cost-prohibitive for Latinos or unavailable in their areas.
• Research shows that disadvantaged children who receive Pre-K education stand to make the biggest gains from that education.

Policy Recommendations:

• Outreach to parents needs to be more effective. Parents of ELLs need to know about the options available to them in terms of Pre-K programs available.
• Pre–K instruction needs to be available in the home language of minorities, especially ELLs.
• In conjunction with the above, critical staff at Pre-K programs need to be bilingual to accommodate more ELL students' language needs.
• Enrollment and eligibility requirements both need to be modified so as not to discriminate against ELLs or hinder them from getting into Pre–K programs.

• Read the full report (128KB PDF)*
• Download Executive Summary in Spanish (7KB PDF)*

Garcia, E.E., Gonzales, D.M. (2006). Pre-K and Latinos: The Foundation for America's Future. Pre-K Now Research Series: Washington, DC.

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Curriculum; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Placement; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population:

• All students in preschool, elementary, middle or high school in the Latino community.
• Parents of students attending preschool, elementary, middle or high school in the Latino community.

Research Questions the Report Poses: This article raises the question of the importance of the No Child Left Behind Act to improve the education for limited English proficient students in the Latino community.

Findings:

• Limited English Proficiency students are the fastest growing population in elementary schools in the US.
• Limited English proficient students are concentrated in a few states but are spreading rapidly throughout the nation.
• While five states—California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois—are home to almost 70 percent of all LEP students in elementary school, growth in this student population has been more rapid in other destinations.
• The majority of LEP elementary school students are concentrated in a small number of schools: nearly 70 percent of the nation’s LEP students enroll in only 10 percent of elementary schools.
• The incidence of poverty and health problems is significantly higher in high-LEP than in other schools.
• Instructional contexts vary significantly across schools: high-LEP schools are more likely to offer support and remedial programs (pre-K, enrichment, after-school, summer school).
• Native language instruction is more prevalent in high- than low-LEP schools. The difference in use of other LEP-targeted instructional techniques, though significant, is less marked.
• High-LEP schools face more difficulties filling teaching vacancies and are more likely to rely on unqualified and substitute teachers than schools with few or no LEP children.
• High-LEP schools are more likely to be involved in parental outreach and support activities than schools with lower concentrations of LEP students.
• Teachers in high-LEP schools are more likely to hold ESL/bilingual certification in addition to their main certification.
• Teachers in high-LEP schools are more likely to have provisional, emergency, or temporary certification than are those in other schools.
• High-LEP schools have more new teachers than schools with fewer or no LEP students, and these teachers are substantially more likely to be uncertified than those at other schools.
• Teachers in high-LEP schools tend to report receiving more professional development than do teachers in other types of schools.
• There was a great deal of variation in the way districts with high-LEP schools implemented NCLB testing requirements in both subject areas and ELP (English Language Proficiency).
• Parents of ELL students in high-LEP enrollment schools professed to have very little knowledge of the requirements of NCLB.

Policy Recommendations:

• The U.S. Department of Education should make the development of an appropriate English language proficiency test a national priority and require its use by all states and districts.
• States should ensure that (a) policies are in place to conduct subject matter testing of ELL students using appropriate tests and accommodations and (b) reasonable exemptions are granted.
• The inclusion of pre-K education should be considered in the reauthorization of NCLB. While it is evident from our study that NCLB is changing pre-K education in high-LEP schools, including this component of the educational system in the law would enforce and standardize these changes across all districts and states.
• The NCLB provisions for school choice and Supplemental Educational Services (SES) should be reexamined. These provisions do not seem to be having the intended effect and their feasibility and effectiveness should be studied.
• Teacher Quality
• Districts should assume responsibility for the training and professional development of teachers—including bilingual/ESL teachers—to assist them in meeting the NCLB requirements for high-quality teachers. This assistance might include working with local colleges to increase the production of high-quality bilingual/ESL teachers and to offer courses in areas where current teachers need to acquire credits for certification. Local colleges and alternative certification programs should be encouraged to incorporate courses on ELL instruction as part of the required general teacher education curriculum. These courses should be required for certification or employment of all teachers, at least in high-ELL-enrollment districts but preferably in all districts.
• More effective strategies are needed for conducting parental outreach and information efforts with parents of ELL students. Districts and schools must acquire a greater understanding of effective strategies to reach this group of parents, who face many barriers to understanding the requirements of NCLB and their role in supporting its goals.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The Urban Institute 2100 M Street N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037

Consentino de Cohen, Clemencia and Beatriz Chu Clewell. (2007). Putting English Language Learners on the Education Map: The No Child Left Behind Act Implemented. Washington, D.C. The Urban Institute.

Tags: Instructional Programs; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Preschool; Elementary; Middle; High School; Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the issues facing Hispanic students? How can educators, researchers, communities and policy-makers help Hispanic students overcome these barriers?

Findings:
The report outlines six key issues in the education of the Hispanic population:

• Innovative classroom strategies including culturally responsive and technology enriched teaching.
• School funding equity
• Professional development for teachers
• Early education and post-secondary education
• The politics of immigration, and migrant education
• Educator recruitment and retention

Policy Recommendations:

• Analyze barriers that Hispanic students face in gaining access to college
• Provide parents with financial information that can be used for students' college education
• Improve teacher's education programs. Teachers are not well prepared for teaching Hispanic students, especially Hispanic ELL students.
• Reduce class sizes, improve student resources, and student social services
• Teachers should be exposed to a curriculum during their university years that teachers them cultural understanding and sensitivity
• Work to pass legislation that changes property tax laws and state laws to broaden the school funding base

• Link to Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Visit www.nea.org or call (202) 833-4000

Verdugo, Richard R. (2006. "Report on the Status of Hispanics in Education: Overcoming a History of Neglect." National Education Association.

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.);

Target Population: General, especially U.S. minority groups

Research Questions the Report Poses: This report analyzes the demographic trends as more minority students attend suburban school districts in the United States. In addition, the researchers examined a number of individual school districts with high rates of change.

Findings:

• Suburban schools have become increasingly important educators of the nation's minority student populations.
• Every individual suburban school district experienced minority student growth slightly differently.
• As a result of the rapid growth in minority students and flat growth among white students, 287 of the nation's 2,808 suburban school districts have become majority-minority school districts since 1993-94.
• The vast majority (18) of the fastest-growing suburban districts in terms of black enrollment are in the Midwest.
• Several school districts in suburban Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville experienced hyper-growth in their Hispanic student populations since 1993-94. Among Asian suburban students, numerous school districts in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Atlanta metro areas are among the 25 fastest-growing suburban school districts.
• Though there has been a marked diversification of many of the nation’s suburban school districts, this does not necessarily mean that suburban students are experiencing greater racial/ethnic interaction at the level of the individual school.
• If suburban schools are highly segregated, with whites attending one set of schools and minority students a different set of schools, then minority student growth will not result in suburban white students attending schools with greater proportions of minority students and will not increase the exposure of white students to non-white students.
• When students of different racial/ethnic background do not attend the same schools, the potential exists that they also may not attend the same type of schools, i.e., schools of similar quality and level of resources.
• Some evidence suggests that racial imbalances in peers have significant effects on minority student achievement (Hanushek and Rivkin, 2006; Harris, 2006).
• Public opinion surveys reveal that adults by large margins support having America's racial/ethnic mix represented in the student bodies of public schools (Elam, Rose and Gallup, 1996).

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Pew Research Center 1615 L Street, NW, Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036-5610

Fry, Richard. (2009). Sharp Growth in Suburban Minority Enrollment Yields Modest Gains in School Diversity. Washington, D.C. Pew Hispanic Center.

Tags: Curriculum; Instructional Programs; Language Proficiency; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: "Why do California elementary schools serving similar proportions of low-income, Spanish speaking EL students differ by over 250 points on California's new EL Academic Performance Index score? What school practices can help explain this API gap?"

Findings:

• One practice strongly correlated with a higher EL-API among our sample of elementary schools was the extensive use of student assessment data by the district and the principal in an effort to improve instruction and student learning.
• EL-API performance was higher in schools where principals reported that a larger proportion of their teaching staff had qualities such as a demonstrated ability to raise student achievement, strong content knowledge, and others.
• Higher EL-API was correlated with schools in which teachers reported most strongly that there is school-wide instructional consistency within grades, curricular alignment from grade-to-grade, and that instruction is based upon state academic standards.
• A shared culture within the school regarding the value of improving student achievement and a sense of shared responsibility for it seems to distinguish the higher performing schools in our sample based on EL—APIs.
• A school's outreach to parents, encouragement of teacher collaboration, and enforcement of positive student behaviors (like attendance and tolerance) have long been recognized as important contributors to the student and professional culture at a school.

Policy Recommendations:

• California should "stay the course with its reforms" to make sure that "curriculum programs and state standards tests are well aligned with the state's academic standards."
• School districts need to provide "better assessment and other data on their students in easy-to-access formats"
• Hire more administrators to try to adjust the highest-in-the-nation pupil-to-administrator ratio in the country
• Professional development needs to provided to ensure that teachers have the resources they need to effectively combat the challenges that educating ELL students provides

• Read more about this report
• Download full report (1.1MB PDF)*

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
n/a

Williams, T., Hakuta, K., Haertel, E., et al. (2007). Similar English Learner Students, Different Results: Why Do Some Schools Do Better? A follow-up analysis, based on a large-scale survey of California elementary schools serving low-income and EL students. Mountain View, CA: EdSource.

Tags: Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Motivation; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Middle, High School, Post-Secondary (all adolescents)

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• How do Latino adolescents navigate the different social settings and institutions that they encounter in life?
• Within the current environment, are school and work viewed by Latino youth as a great "equalizer," part of an opportunity structure that can give them the tools and security to succeed and progress?
• Or, do Latino youth perceive these settings as further reinforcing the broader inequalities that they already face?
• Do young Latinos feel that they are treated differently within such settings, and if so, in which specific ways do they experience and interpret these differences?
• Broadly speaking, how do young Latinos' interactions within all of these systems affect their sense of well-being, identity, and belonging in U.S. society?

Findings:

• Latino youth tend to have an optimistic outlook on the role of education and a strong desire to achieve successful careers. These attitudes are often associated with the hopes and expectations of their immigrant parents and with their own desire to contribute to their community and nation.
• Despite these optimistic attitudes, the teenagers expressed a pervasive sense of being negatively stereotyped by institutional actors as varied as teachers, employers, and police officers. They described how assumptions about Hispanic youth and Latinos in general are manifested within the different social settings discussed.
• Latino youth report significant ethnic stereotyping at school by teachers, administrators, and peers. Such stereotyping, they feel, often leads Hispanic students to be overlooked, excluded, or negatively tracked, and results in unequal educational opportunities.
• The youth often perceive the workplace as a site of unfair practices based on racial and ethnic assumptions on the part of employers. Many of these youth's perceptions of discrimination in the workforce were directly related to the experiences of their parents and other community members.
• Across all focus groups, the youth emphatically described feeling unfairly and habitually profiled by law enforcement as a result of negative assumptions regarding Hispanic youth, gangs, and immigrants. Such regular contact with the police, which takes place in a variety of spaces, compounds feelings of vulnerability and distrust in their communities.
• One of the most consistent findings across the focus groups was the teenagers' pervasive sense of being racialized-or constructed as different, as "other"-on a regular basis, and in practically all realms of experience.

• Read the Full Report

Foxen, P. (2010, October, 21)."Speaking Out: Latino Youth on Discrimination in the United States" National Council of La Raza. Retrieved January 3, 2011, from: http://www.nclr.org/index.php/publications/speaking_out_latino_youth_on_discrimination_in_the_united_states/

Tags: American Indian ELL Students; Asian ELL Students; Differentiated Instruction; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students; Struggling Readers;

Target Population: Parents, teachers, and advocates of elementary and middle schools' education.

Research Questions the Report Poses: This article raises the question of the impact of school mobility and its negative effects on student's educational outcomes.

Findings:

• Hispanic immigrants show the highest mobility rates in states like North Carolina and California.
• Current data shows that a student and its family move from state to state more than three times a year during the first grades of elementary school.
• The negative effect of constant moving is the disruption it causes in the new classroom and in the children involved in this moving process.

Policy Recommendations:

• School districts should monitor students' mobility, especially those students who are moving constantly causing academic disruption in any new classroom.
• School districts should also provide counseling to families who are flagged by mobility rates to ameliorate this situation and prevent constant moving.

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Hard copies can be ordered from CALDER and the Urban Institute.

Xu, Z., Hannaway, J., and D'Souza, S. (2009). Student Transience in North Carolina: The Effect of School Mobility on Student Outcomes Using Longitudinal Data. North Carolina: National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research.

Tags: Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: How have the schools changed in the past ten years in terms of enrollment and demographics?

Findings:

• Hispanics account for 3 million of 4.7 million additional students in American public schools from 1993–94 to 2002–03, or 64% of the increase. The number of black students increased by 1.1 million, and the number of Asians grew by half a million. Meanwhile, white public school enrollment dropped by 35,000.
• White students continued to attend schools populated primarily by other whites and relatively few attended schools populated primarily by minorities.
• A relatively small number of schools absorbed most of the increase in Hispanic enrollment and that those schools differ in important ways from schools less affected by Hispanic population growth.
• Nationwide, the average share of white students in Hispanic–impacted schools decreased from 60% to 38%. Meanwhile, in all other schools the white share declined more modestly from 71% to 66%.
• Across all grades, new schools differ from existing schools in that they are smaller, and they have more affluent students.

Policy Recommendations:
The report did not offer policy recommendations.

• Link to Full Report

Fry, R. (2006). The changing landscape of American public education: New students, new schools. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.

Tags: Curriculum; Intervention; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: High School, Post-Secondary

Research Questions the Report Poses: not specified

Findings:

• 158,000 Hispanic students took the ACT in 2010, an increase of 84% since 2006. Hispanic students represent 10% of the ACT-tested graduates.
• 68% of ACT-tested Hispanic high school graduates took at least a minimum core high school curriculum to prepare them for college, compared to 74% of whites and 81% of Asian American/Pacific Islander ACT-tested high school graduates.
• Average ACT Composite scores for Hispanic graduates' remained the same while American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American/Pacific Islander, and White graduates increased between 2006 and 2010.
• None of the College Readiness Benchmarks were met by at least 50% of Hispanic graduates. While 39% of Asian American graduates and 30% of White graduates met benchmarks in all four subjects, only 11% of Hispanic graduates attained such.
• 77% of Hispanic graduates aspired to attain either a graduate/professional or a bachelor's degree, compared to 85% of white graduates.

Policy Recommendations:

• States should adopt fewer-but essential-learning standards as their new high school graduation standards, and those they adopt must lead to college and career readiness.
• States should adopt a rigorous core curriculum for all high school students whether they are bound for college or work.
• States must define "how good is good enough" for college and career readiness.
• Having appropriate and aligned standards, coupled with a core curriculum, will adequately prepare high school students only if the courses are truly challenging.
• States should begin monitoring student academic performance early to make sure younger students are on target to be ready for college and career.
• States need to establish longitudinal P-16 data systems.

• Read the Full Report

ACT Inc. (2010). The condition of college & career readiness: 2010. ACT Inc. Retrieved from: http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/cccr10/pdf/ConditionofCollegeandCareerReadiness2010.pdf

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA;

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, and High School

Findings:

Cultural assets include:

• Newborns of Latino immigrants are remarkably healthy.
• Most Latino children, about 80%, grow up in two-parent families (particularly Mexican and Cuban and to a lesser extent Puerto Rican families).
• Mexican-American kindergarteners display robust social skills (self-control and aggression) in comparison to African-American and White children.
• Immigrant Latina mothers have low risk of giving birth to unhealthy infants, in spite of typically low income status. This may be attributed to healthier prenatal practices (more fruits and vegetables, less smoking and alcohol consumption) than Americans.
• Latino children have strong social skills and emotional confidence upon entering school.
• Math scores are strong in first-generation elementary students.
• Robust effort and engagement of first-generation Latino students is demonstrated by academic achievement in high school even when test scores are lower.

Risk factors include:

• Mexican-American mothers tend to have a limited educational background.
• Cognitive growth (including indices of preschool abilities and high school completion) fades in second- and third- generation children.
• Math scores decline for second- and third-generation students.
• Latino adolescents' strong obligation to their family can impact school performance.

Policy Recommendations:

• What factors drive the immigrant paradox?
• What does the diversity of Latino students tell us about differing cultural origins and contemporary communities?
• Do public policies build from these family strengths, or inadvertently erode cultural assets?

• Read the Full Report

Coll, C.G., Fuligni, A., Galindo, C., Hernandez, D., & Tienda, M. (n.d.). The cultural strengths of Latino families: Firm scaffolds for children and youth. New Journalism on Latino Children. Retrieved from: http://www.ewa.org/site/DocServer/NJLC_CulturalStrengths_WEB.pdf?docID=641

Tags: Bilingual Instruction; Bilingualism / Biliteracy; Latino ELL Students; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA;

Target Population: Preschool, Elementary, Middle, High School, Post-Secondary

Findings:

• In 2008, Latinos were about half as likely as African Americans and a third as likely as White students to obtain a college degree.
• “According to the U.S. Census, almost 29 percent of Latino children lived below the poverty line nationally in 2007 (compared to 15 percent of White children), and the effects of poverty on intellectual and academic achievement can be pernicious.”
• Latina mothers have the lowest education of all ethnic groups.
• Low-income Latino parents are often overlooked by schools often related to low levels of education or limited English.
• Learning to read and build vocabulary in Spanish can be an key stepping stone to learning English.
• A randomized study of preschool programs (English bilingual versus two-way immersion) Spanish-speaking students in the dual-language program showed significant growth in Spanish vocabulary with similar learning gains.
• Latino children of poverty often have fewer “opportunities to learn,” which can impede learning.
• Latino children, especially those learning English, who enter school underprepared need significant additional instructional time.
• In the West, 60% of Latinos in large cities attend schools with 90-100% non-white peers. English language learners face similar hyper-segregation that limits social capital.
• “Housing is the fulcrum of opportunity.” Segregated housing perpetuates intergenerational inequality.
• Latino students are more likely than others to move frequently, which can have a negative impact on academic achievement.
• Many Latino students are out of school a significant time due to preventable illness as a result of lack of health care access.
• Integrated physical and mental health, when implemented well, can impact children’s health, achievement, and mobility.
• California’s Healthy Start centers showed extensive effects but has been defunded.
• Well-prepared teachers for Latino students are hard to attract and retain.
• American schools often treat speaking a language other than English as an impediment, unlike other developed nations. This limits the human resource and cognitive advantage of being literate in another language.
• Students in two-way immersion classes have positive intercultural relations.
• College access and preparation programs, which often begin too late or include too few students, are severely limited in effect.
• Most Latino students attend two-year colleges, which are less likely to provide financial aid. Lack of funding is a key deterrent for Latinos going to college.
• RAND study indicated that doubling college completion rate of Latinos would cost $6.5 billion but benefit society by $13 billion.

Policy Recommendations:

• Early and continuing cognitive enrichment
• Early intervention that extends parents’ “Funds of knowledge”
• Preschool that builds incorporates home language
• Use of bilingual instruction with good models of both languages
• Subsidized preschool programs
• Housing Policies
• “Latino students must be assigned to schools that will give them the chance to break the vicious cycle of poor schooling and limited opportunity.”
• Changing school boundaries to prevent socioeconomic and linguistic isolation
• Desegregated housing (mayoral collaboration with school boards)
• Policies to help low-income families establish stable housing in a community
• School desegregation and residential stabilization
• Integrated Social Services
• Concerted effort to establish more school-based health clinics for low-income students/families
• Universal health care accessed at school sites or local communities
• Recruiting and Preparing Extraordinary Teachers
• Recruit teachers from students’ communities
• Improving work conditions (smaller classes, supportive leadership, planning time, and safe campuses)
• Targeted recruitment and tuition support for teachers in bilingual programs.
• Exploiting the Latino Linguistic Advantage
• Languages should be seen as resources.
• College Preparation and Support Programs
• Bridge K-12 schools with institutes of higher education.
• Recruit Latino students
• Create supports for peer study and social groups
• Place the best teachers in freshman classes
• Extend program components beyond the freshman year
• Acknowledge cumulative skill development
• Provide meaningful financial aid
• Cost-free four-year education for qualified individuals (through alignment of federal and state aid)
• Support for the passage of the Dream Act that would provide undocumented students with no criminal record conditional legal status and access to student aid
• Supports for dual language programs
• Dropout prevention and college access programs

• Read the Full Report

Gándara, P. (2010). The Latino Education Crisis: Rescuing the American Dream. WestEd. Retrieved from: http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/pp-10-02.pdf

Tags: Asian ELL Students; Intervention; Latino ELL Students; Other ELL Students (Middle Eastern, African, European, etc.); Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What challenges and risk factors do immigrant children face?
• What are the implications of the living arrangements of immigrant children, especially of the three most vulnerable groups (Mexican, Southeast Asian, and Black-Caribbean)?
• What unique qualities of immigrant families work to children's advantages?
• How do U.S. immigrant and integration policies shape immigrant families' circumstances?

Findings:

• Recent immigrants are more likely than more settled immigrants to live in extended families, and these are more often of lateral extension (ie co–residence with a relative in a similar stage of life) than vertical extension adults with their parents). While this offers support in the short–term, it does not have long–term benefits.
• Single–parent families have markedly higher child poverty rates than married–parent families; Cohabiting–couple families generally have child poverty rates between the two.
• Children of immigrants are considerably more likely to live with married parents than are children of natives.
• Compared to native children of their same race, immigrant children are more likely to live with extended family, but less likely to live with grandparents.
• The major challenge facing Mexican immigrants and their children is their limited opportunity for economic integration, owing in large part to their low education, skills, and financial resources, coupled with limited English proficiency and, frequently, unauthorized legal status.
• Recent Mexican immigrants are far more likely to have two–parent families, and this tendency decreases with each generation.
• Living arrangements and challenges especially vary among Southeast Asian immigrants, based on origin, refugee/nonrefugee status, and generation of arrival.
• Black Caribbean immigrant children are far more likely than other ethnicities to live in single–parent homes, specifically female–headed families due to demographics and norms in their home countries.

Policy Recommendations:

• The office of Citizenship and Immigration should work to reduce backlogs of immigrants awaiting citizenship so as to reduce time of separation within families and improve children's lives.
• To reduce immigration backlogs: adequate staffing; affording some citizens' privileges to Legal Permanent Residents, specifically reduced waiting time to bring over children and spouses, even if not parents.
• Current admission criteria need to be reevaluated and updated to account for more recent trends.
• Decrease workforce raids, and deportation in general, when children are involved.
• Though complicated and difficult, it would be very advantageous to develop policies to reduce marital dissolution and nonmarital childbearing.
• More attention and resources should be directed toward immigrant settlement. Legal immigrants and their children should be granted greater access to the social safety net regardless of citizenship status. At the very least, immigrant parents need accurate information about social welfare benefits for which they and their children are eligible.

• Read the Full Report

Landale, N., Thomas, K., Van Hook, J. (2011). "Demography of Immigrant Youth: Past, Present, and Future." Immigrant Children 21 (1). The Future of Children. Retrieved from: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=540.

Tags: Comprehension; Content Areas: Math; Intervention; Latino ELL Students;

Target Population: Elementary

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• How do the two contrasting frameworks pertain to Latino children's social competencies?
• What is the role played by social class in shaping risks (which may vary by Latino subgroup) conditioned by cultural heritage and persistence of family strengths for Latinos?
• What is the relationship between social competence and growth in mathematical understanding?

Findings:

The authors write:

• "Latino children from low-income, but not middle-class, families display weaker social competencies vis-á-vis White children (all relationships p _ .05). Social competence levels contribute to Latino children's cognitive growth, which is shaped most strongly by positive approaches to learning.
• The disparities in competencies observed for Latino children from poor families, relative to White children, are significant yet much smaller than gaps in baseline levels of mathematical understanding. We discuss how the consonance or mismatch between competencies acquired at home and those valued by teachers must consider cultural differences, social-class position, and variation among diverse Latino subgroups.

Policy Recommendations:
The authors recommend that policy analysts and educators take "greater care in distinguishing between the social and cognitive domains of development," as well as in efforts to understand young Latinos' diversity and social competencies upon entering school.

• Read the Full Report

Galindo, C., Fuller B. (2010). The Social Competence of Latino Kindergartners and Growth in Mathematical Understanding. American Psychological Association. Retrieved January 14, 2011 from: http://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/dev-46-3-579.pdf

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Parent Involvement and Outreach / PTA; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Middle and high school students

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are Latino parents' perceptions of their own participation in their children's education?
• What are schools' and teachers' expectations of parental involvement?
• How do parents' and schools' expectations match?
• What are Latino students' perceptions of their parents' role in their education?
• What are the programmatic initiatives that address parental involvement?

Findings:

• Schools and school districts need to have clear goals and objectives to increase parental involvement in middle and high schools.
• Latino parents most often define the word education (educación) as their parental involvement in their children's lives, and, as a consequence, this will help students in their academic performance in school.
• Latino parents describe the communication between parents and teachers/administrators/counselors in middle or high school as rather impersonal and inadequate.
• Language, for Latino parents, is still the main factor that discourages them from actively participating in school activities and events.
• The second, most important reason for low Latino parental involvement is work demand.

Policy Recommendations:

The author recommends:

• Statewide and national accountability requirements measuring parental involvement
• Legislation that allows flex time or work-leave for school meetings
• Increased bilingual staffing
• Funding for innovative parent engagement models
• Large-scale partnerships between communities, universities, and schools
• Clear goals for increasing parental involvement
• Compensation for teachers with strong records of parental engagement
• Increased professional development

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute University of Southern California School of Policy, Planning and Development 650 Childs Way, Lewis Hall, Suite 102 Los Angeles, California 90089-0626

Zarate, Maria Estela. (2007). Understanding Latino Parental Involvement in Education: Perceptions, Expectations, and Recommendations. Los Angeles, California. The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute. University of Southern California.

Tags: Latino ELL Students; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students; Vocabulary;

Target Population: General

Research Questions the Report Poses: This article raises the question of what constitutes the Hispanic/Latino/Spanish ethnicity based on the definition adopted by the US Congress in 1976.

Findings:

• The 1976 U.S. Congress act defines Hispanic/Latino/Spanish to be "Americans of Spanish origin and descent." (Passel and Taylor, 2009).
• The upcoming 2010 Census will count as Hispanic/Latino/Spanish all persons who define themselves as Hispanic. The Census will consider their origins, but it will take their word as the determining factor.
• The 1976 U.S. Congress act defines Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic/Latina/Spanish to be a leader in the Supreme Court.

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• Read the Full Report

To order a hard copy of the report, contact:
Pew Hispanic Center 1615 L Street, NW Suite 700 Washington, DC 20036-5610

Passel, Jeffrey and Paul Taylor. (2009). Who's Hispanic? Washington, D.C. Pew Hispanic Center.