Rights, Parents

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

Target Population: Early Education

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What is the current role of early education among immigrant children?
• What is the future potential?

Findings:

• For infants, toddlers, and preschool–age children, immigrants have lower rates of participation in any nonparental care and center–based care, though participation varies greatly based on geographic region and county of origin.
• Comparing immigrant and native children, the participation gap for three–year–olds is smaller than that for four–year–olds; additionally, early education participation increases with age. These findings suggest a narrowing gap, which may be a result of expansion of state–funded programs.
• Among those in care, preschool–age immigrant children are as likely as native children, if not more likely, to be in center–based ECE programs, especially if one looks at the arrangement where children spend the most time.
• Much of the participation gap can be explained by just a few economic and sociodemographic factors, such as low parental education or low family income. Thus, lower use of care may result not from being an immigrant child per se but from factors associated with disadvantaged groups.
• The data for California indicate that center–based care environments are falling short of benchmarks associated with high–quality care for both immigrant and native preschool–age children alike. Though these results may not extend to other states, at least in the state with the largest share of immigrant children, so ECE quality needs to be improved.
• Well–designed targeted programs serving infants and toddlers can produce short–term developmental benefits, but findings are ambiguous as to longer–term gains for school performance and adult outcomes.
• Immigrant children face many different barriers to participating in early education programs: structural, informational and bureaucratic, cultural, and those caused by misperceptions.

Policy Recommendations:
To improve ECE access and quality, policy makers can consider options that pertain both to disadvantaged children in general, as well as to immigrant children in particular.

• Publicly funded universal provision of ECE would benefit all children, including and especially immigrant children because it would remove issues of affordability, and, moreover, eligibility.
• Geographic targeting could be especially effective in assisting immigrant children because it would give eligibility regardless of legal status, and could encompass whole ethnic neighborhoods.
• Language–accessible communication strategies
• Development of formal peer–to–peer networks for immigrant parents
• Applications for ECE could be improved by: streamlining paperwork; translated paperwork; applications that ask for SSN of child instead of parent.
• Professional development of teachers and staff, ie cultural competency, teaching ELLs, foreign language acquisition
• Implementation of curricula and other practices that support English learners.

• Read the Full Report

Karoly, L., Gonzalez, G. (2011). "Early Care and Education for 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=541.

Tags: Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: Education advocates, parents, students, teachers, and administrators.

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What is the history of Title I implementation and the enforcement of the comparability provision during the past 40 years?
• What is the current context of school funding and its relation to the comparability provision?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of the comparability provision and their implications?
• How do we close the comparability "loophole"?
• What have school districts done to address these inequities and provisions?

Findings:
N/A

Policy Recommendations:
N/A

• 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

Podesta, J., Brown, C., McClure, P., Wiener, R., Roza, M., and Hill, M. (2008). Ensuring Equal Opportunity in Public Education: How Local School District Funding Practices Hurt Disadvantaged Students and What Federal Policy Can Do About It. Washington, D.C.: Center for American Progress.

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

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• In what conditions do children of immigrants to America live?
• How can their well–being be improved?

Findings:

• Depending on their country of origin, immigrant children vary widely in their educational achievement, legal and health status, living arrangements and economic resources.
• Although participation in early childhood education programs can offset multifarious problems, immigrant children attend such programs at lower rates than do native children due to various barriers.
• Performance of immigrant children in K–12 education varies by generational status and national origin. Poor parental education, poor–quality schools, and segregated neighborhoods, however, pose risk factors for immigrant children generally.
• Youths from Asia and the Middle East are better represented in postsecondary educational institutions than those from Latin America, Laos, and Cambodia.
• There are formidable barriers to postsecondary education for youth who lack legal status despite having attending U.S. schools previously and qualifying for admission to college.
• Achievement disparities between immigrant children who do not speak English fluently and English–proficient students are wide and persistent.
• Immigrant children are less likely than native children to have health insurance and regular access to medical care.
• Although disadvantaged immigrant families face formidable barriers to upward mobility, their children can overcome these obstacles through simultaneously learning the language and culture of the host society while preserving their home country language, values, and customs.

Policy Recommendations:

• The U.S. should invest in immigrant youth to enable them to contribute to national prosperity.
• Strengthen immigrant children's access to high–quality education: enable more immigrant children to attend preschool, offer effective English language instruction, and reduce financial and nonfinancial barriers to participation in college.
• Resolve legal status issues of immigrant children.

• Read the Full Report

Tienda, M., Haskins, R. (2011) "Immigrant Children: Introducing the Issue." Immigrant Children 21 (1). The Future of Children. Retrieved from: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=538.

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

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses: What are the consequences of losing a Lawful Immigrant Parent to deportation? How can these experiences affect future reform and prevent further separation of loved ones?

Findings:
We estimate that more than 100,000 children have been affected by LPR parental deportation between 1997 and 2007, and that at least 88,000 of impacted children were U.S. citizens. Moreover, our analysis estimates that approximately 44,000 children were under the age of 5 when their parent was deported. In addition to these children, this analysis estimates that more than 217,000 others experienced the deportation of an immediate family member who was an LPR.

• Read the Full Report

In the Child’s Best Interest? The Consequences of Losing a Lawful Immigrant Parent to Deportation. (2010). University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved January 13, 2011 from: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/files/Human_Rights_report.pdf

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

Target Population: Elementary, Middle, High School

Research Questions the Report Poses: What elements of the Healthy School Community (HSC) project yield the best results for improving school health?

Findings:

• The single most important factor is having an engaged and effective principal who fully embraces the HSC model, actively participating but also distributing tasks among a team.
• Collaboration of various forms is crucial. This includes letting parents have a say in matters, getting community members involved and personally invested in the success of the school, and networking with other healthy schools for strategies.
• "Healthy" schools that focus on the "whole child" are the best kind because teachers can teach to their fullest abilities and students can learn to their highest potential.

Policy Recommendations:

• Build a team dedicated to improving school health that is led by a principal but broken into teams, which incorporates parents, teachers, and stakeholders of the community.
• Enact systemic, rather than programmatic change, by making foundational changes such as rewriting mission/goals and getting everyone involved in changes as opposed to the principal making decisions singlehandedly.

• Read the Full Report

ASCD (2010). Learning, Teaching, and Leading in Healthy School Communities. Alexandria, VA: ACSD.

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; 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: Intervention; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• If discrimination doesn't play a role in the achievement gap in the 21st century then what does?
• What efforts have been undertaken to close the gap in the past; and learning from those efforts, how can we close the gap in the future?

Findings:

• The problem of the 21st century is the problem of the skill gap.
• Eliminating the racial skill gap will likely have important impacts on income inequality, unemployment, incarceration, health, and other important social and economic indices.
• We now know that with some combination of investments, high achievement is possible for all students.
• Closing the racial achievement gap is the most important civil rights battle of the twenty-first century.

• Read the Full Report

Fryer, R.G. (2010, August). Racial Inequality in the 21st Century: The Declining Significance of Discrimination. National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved January 5, 2011 from: http://www.nber.org/papers/w16256.pdf?new_window=1

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: Motivation; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses: How are immigrants adapting to life in the United States, particularly considering their country of origin?

Findings:

• First, immigrant children and children of immigrants (that is, the first and second generations) tend to have higher ambition (aspirations or expectations, or both) than their third–generation and higher counterparts and have generally superior academic performance.
• Immigrants of different national origins vary significantly in both ambition and performance. (Asian–origin groups tend to have higher and more stable expectations and to perform better in school; Mexican, Latino, and Caribbean immigrants scatter toward the opposite end of the spectrum.)
• Girls consistently have higher ambition and perform better than boys.
• Aspirations and academic performance are strongly correlated, although it is hard to say which causes which.
• Along with their aspirations and expectations, the self–identities and self–esteem of children of immigrants are key to their assimilation.
• Place of birth and length of residence in the host society are powerful determinants of self–identity.
• Education promotes a dual or "transnational" identity.
• Immigrant youths of color such as blacks, mulattoes, mestizos, and Asians are more likely to experience discrimination and, hence, to develop a reactive ethnicity and adopt ethnic labels that they usually regard as very important.
• The American racial hierarchy has resulted in a plurality of self–designations among children of immigrants, into four categories: nonhyphenated Americans, hyphenated Americans, pan–ethnics, and nonhyphenated foreign nationals.
• Fluent bilingualism is associated with higher cognitive development, academic performance, and self–esteem in adolescence.
• Fluency in the language of the host society is almost universal among second–generation youths; fluency in the parental languages is much less common.
• All national origin groups make significant progress from the first to the second generation in educational attainment, with second–generation outcomes approaching average outcomes for native whites.
• Although all national origin groups make educational progress, second–generation Mexicans and Central Americans fall significantly behind native whites in rates of high school completion and college graduation.
• Male incarceration rates increase for all national origin groups between the first and second generations, with Mexican and Latin American the highest and Asian the lowest.
• Female fertility rates in adolescence and early adulthood decline across generations for all Latin national origin groups, while Asian fertility rates are extremely low and decline further between generations.
• Although there is educational progress between the first and second generations, subsequent generations stagnate educationally and occupationally. They never catch up with the native–white averages.

Policy Recommendations:

• A first urgent policy measure is the legalization of 1.5–generation youths who are unauthorized migrants.
• Legislation like the DREAM Acts needs to be passed lest the immigrant youth population devolves into a self–fulfilling prophecy in which youths barred from conventional mobility channels turn to gangs and other unorthodox means of self–affirmation and survival.
• The available evidence supports the paradox that preserving the linguistic and cultural heritage of the home countries often helps migrant children move ahead in America.

• Read the Full Report

Portes, A., Rivas, A. (2011) "The Adaptation of Migrant Children." Immigrant Children 21 (1). The Future of Children. Retrieved from: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=547.

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: Intervention; Rights, Parents; Rights, Students;

Target Population: All

Research Questions the Report Poses:

• What are the current circumstances of health status among immigrant youths?
• What are the policy implications of these troubling trends and how can they be reversed?

Findings:

• Foreign–born children face several risk factors: poverty, family separation, political violence, and low rates of health insurance coverage and health care use.
• Nevertheless, researchers consistently find an immigrant health advantage across a variety of medical outcomes, for three proposed reasons:
  1. 1) Foreign–born immigrant children engage in more positive health behaviors than their U.S.–born peers (ex. Drinking and smoking less);
  2. 2) Foreign–born children tend to live in two–parent and multigenerational households with high levels of family and social support.
  3. 3) Children who immigrate may be a selectively healthy group as compared to those who stay in their home country despite problematic situations.
• The current evidence clearly indicates a link between racial discrimination and health: Youth who experience discrimination report more anxiety, more depressive symptoms, more risky health behaviors, lower self–esteem, and reduced academic motivations and expectations. There is also a link to physical health outcomes in minority children, including conditions associated with high rates of coronary heart disease and inflammatory disorders.
• Children who immigrate at younger ages have health–risk profiles similar to children born in the United States to foreign–born parents: They tend to adopt more risky health behaviors such as alcohol use, smoking, and early sexual activity, and they face a higher risk of psychiatric disorders such as depression.
• Foreign–born children experience better outcomes than do children in U.S.–born families, but this advantage fades over time and across generations.
• While first– and second–generation children fare well on many aspects of physical well–being, this advantage relative to their native peers does not always translate into good mental health.
• In 2008, nearly 45 percent of noncitizen U.S. residents, 18 percent of naturalized citizens, and 13 percent of U.S.–born citizens lacked health insurance coverage. Because most children depend on their parents to obtain health insurance, parental citizenship and immigration status can influence children's health insurance status.
• Parents of U.S. citizen children may forgo public health insurance and other services because of their own legal status and mistaken fears that they will be deemed a "public charge" if their children receive public health insurance benefits. Immigrants deemed a public charge can be denied U.S. citizenship or prohibited from sponsoring the immigration of a family member.
• When immigrants face challenges obtaining physician–based medical care, they may turn to complementary and alternative medical providers such as acupuncturists or spiritual healers.

Policy Recommendations:

• To better understand the developmental consequences of migration, national longitudinal data on the children of immigrants are also sorely needed.
• Health care providers need to be sensitive to immigrants' cultures and their preferences for particular modes of delivery (that is, times, locations, and language). For example:
  1. 1) Lay health adviser programs to educate natural leaders in immigrant communities.
  2. 2) Improved access by locating clinics within immigrant communities or near public transportation.
  3. 3) Clinic hours that extend beyond the standard 9–5 schedule.
• Policy makers need to reduce additional structural barriers limiting the ability of immigrant children and their parents to access care.
• Policy makers can also remove state and local ordinances requiring a patient to show proof of citizenship before receiving care provided by local public health departments and community clinics.
• States need to invest in outreach to increase enrollment in health insurance programs and use of existing services.

• Read the Full Report

Perreira, K.M., Ornelas, I.J. (2011) "The Physical and Psychological Well–Being of Immigrant Children." Immigrant Children 21 (1). The Future of Children. Retrieved from: http://www.futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=74&articleid=546.

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.