Linguistic services and parental involvement among Latinos: A help or hindrance to involvement?

Despite being one of the most consistent predictors of achievement among youth, parental involvement among Latinos continues to be low. In an attempt to increase involvement among Latinos, schools have implemented programs that provide linguistic services for parents who face language and cultural barriers. In order to understand the effectiveness of these programs, a subset of data are used from the National Survey of Latinos: Education to examine the relationship between four linguistic services and parental involvement. Results demonstrate linguistic services play only a marginal role in parental involvement among Latinos, and in some instances, even decrease involvement. Consequently, there is minimal support for programs that provide linguistic services to Latino parents in schools, suggesting policymakers should revisit the impact these services have on the Latino parent community.     

激活优势:家长主义浪潮下家长参与的群体差异

基于对同一城区两个初中班级的跟踪调查，本文考察了中国家长参与的特征以及不同群体在适应上的差异。文章发现，通过资源激活、能力塑造和责任伦理，城区学校在新的教育情势下建构起有关家长参与的话语。家长参与在学校空间的公共事务上发育缓慢，在家庭空间的私人事务上却发展迅猛，不同群体之间差异较大。基于参与意识、参与能力和参与行为的差异，不同群体的家长参与表现为：外来务工群体被唤起教育失败者的经验，采用被动应对的策略；城市普通工薪群体激发出难以胜任的经验，采用模仿依循的策略；中产群体则激活出教育成功者的经验，采用主动建构的策略。由此，家校之间成为阶层运作的重要场域空间。     

Smaller Isn't Always Better: School Size and School Participation Among Young People*

Objective. Although political scientists studying the role of schools on political socialization have focused most of their efforts on curriculum, mainly civic education, education scholars have long recognized that schools influence outcomes through much more than curriculum and have examined school organization extensively, including school size. Much of the recent literature on school size supports smaller schools. The objective of this article is to examine the effect of school size on two political socialization outcomes: adolescent participation in school activities and volunteering. These outcomes are important because they are related to later adult participation. Method. A nationwide survey is used to conduct regression analyses as the primary method. Results. The results show limited support for smaller schools, even for those groups who are believed to benefit most significantly from small schools: racial minorities, low‐income students, and underachievers. Conclusion. I conclude with an appeal for caution among education reformers seeking to downsize schools and a recommendation to political socialization scholars to expand their analyses beyond civic education curriculum.     

Negotiating the American Dream: The Paradox of Aspirations and Achievement among Latino Students and Engagement between their Families and Schools

The lagging achievement of many U.S. Latinos is staggering. Latinos have the highest high school dropout rate. Further, second- and third-generation Latinos in the United States perform less well than do recent immigrants. These statistics belie the hopes and aspirations for upward mobility, a better life, and the deep value for education that are tightly held by many Latino immigrant families. Understanding this paradox between the aspirations of Latino families and their academic outcomes is the focus of this article. The experiences of Latino children in U.S. schools, the incongruence between the cultural worldviews of U.S. schools and Latino families, and the interactions and expectations for partnerships between families and schools are integrated and applied to the question of why Latino students are not reaching their potential, despite goals for achievement and significant parental sacrifice and investment.     

How Studies of the Educational Progression of Minority Children Are Affecting Education Policy in Denmark

Over the past decade, the number of ethnic minorities in Denmark has increased rapidly, now accounting for over 8 per cent of the total population. This paper presents results from a number of recent studies regarding the educational choices of minority children from less developed countries. An important social concern is that the educational attainment of these children is much lower than among native Danes. The studies show that that a main reason for the education gap is very high dropout rates from vocational schools among minority children and that inadequate Danish language proficiency of immigrants, parents and their children, is an important reason for the high dropout rates, as are inadequate educational preparedness from grade school and insufficient apprenticeship positions available for minority youth. Socio‐economic background, however, has relatively little effect. Recent policy changes to reduce dropout rates from vocational schools are reviewed and additional policy interventions are proposed.     

Does Parental Participation in Schools Empower or Strain Civil Society? The Case of Community‐managed Schools in Central America

Among the various educational models in Latin America that seek to increase parental participation in schooling, perhaps the most far‐reaching is the experiment with self‐managed schools. These are publicly funded schools administered by parents. Broad public powers, such as the capacity to decide the budget and make staffing decisions, are given to parents, many of whom have had very limited prior administrative experience. How does this policy innovation impact on civil society? Does parental participation in school administration empower participating citizens or strain civil society? There are various ways of answering these questions. This article looks at some possible ways to conceptualize and assess the relationship between parental participation in self‐managed schools and civil society. The article draws from the experience of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, where these reforms have advanced significantly since the 1990s.     

Socio-legal protection of minorities -- a study of Indian educational cases

Many Muslim families do not enroll their children in school. This is so because material in school syllabi sometimes goes against Islamic beliefs or adversely affects the Muslim self-image, orthodox parents will not send their daughters to coeducational academic institutions, some adults do not realize the benefits of education with regard to the welfare of their children, and many Muslim localities remain resource-deficient slums. The government, local authorities, and Muslims should band together to encourage and enable backward Muslim minorities to uplift themselves academically. Steps to that end could include adding minority representation to the bodies which approve the syllabi in order to monitor the potential inclusion of offensive material, continuing to upgrade teachers in Muslim schools, optimizing available space in Muslim educational institutions, empowering minorities commissions in states to help backward minorities to garner education, eliminating the rules of discretion to avoid corruption and nepotism, simplifying the rules and procedures governing grants to educational institutions, conducting a scientific survey to obtain accurate baseline information for use in planning the education of Muslim minorities, giving special preference to localities populated predominantly with minorities when establishing educational institutions, and providing scholarship to bright and needy minority students. Additionally, the National Minorities Commission should be empowered by the central government to collect information and report on the educational, social, and economic conditions of minorities across the country. Autonomy in management must also be respected, with regulatory measures applicable to minority institutions being reasonable and appropriate.     

The marketisation of education in Australia: Does investment in private schooling improve post‐school outcomes?

The distribution of school funding has been a controversial topic for decades particularly since the Australian Government introduced a new funding model for private schools in the late 1990s. Recent research shows that changes in the funding of private schools have encouraged growth in the number of private schools allowing parents with the financial means to select from an increasing range of options for their children. For this article, I conduct analyses of data from the 2003 cohort of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth project to examine differences in the outcomes of students according to the type of school attended. The results presented in this article show that students with highly educated parents were more likely than other students to attend independent schools. After controlling for the level of economic, social and cultural status of the school population, type of school attended was not associated with academic achievement, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment tests. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant association between type of school attended and employment status, occupation or earnings at age 24, net of level of educational attainment.     

Exploring African American and Latino Populations Perceptions of Parenting Education Programs: A Qualitative Assessment of Enablers and Barriers

Abstract

Parenting education programs aim to enhance the quality of parenting. Preferences vary between African American and Latino parents, but the context is not well known, and the ethnic/racial differences may have implications for parenting education programs. Focus groups were conducted with seven African American and eight Latino parents, and semi-structured interviews with eight key informants. This qualitative assessment provided information to identify barriers and enablers to participation in parenting education programs. Enablers included parental interest in learning about the developmental stages of their children, the convenience of locations and times, and incentives. Minority parents desired to obtain adequate parenting education. The scarcity of culturally sensitive programs, transportation, affordability, and childcare were significant barriers. There were both significant similarities and differences between the two parent groups. From the perspectives of African American, Latino parents and key informants, a range of resources are necessary to enable the participation and the delivery of high-quality parenting education. The findings from our research will help address the unmet parenting education needs of African American and Latino parents. Future research should work to develop a tailored and culturally sensitive parenting education programs to reduce the divergence between parents and service providers.     

Citizen Participation—What Motivates It?

Why, in community decision making, do so few of those affected exercise opportunities to influence decisions? This question was investigated by comparing the behaviour and attitudes of men on state primary school committees with those of other fathers of children at the same 25 schools. Predispositional variables accounted for about 30% of participation variance, and this indicates a substantial influence. School committee members were comparatively more predisposed toward decision making, having acquired greater confidence and skills through education, occupation, and club activities. They were more concerned with educational outcomes, and had stronger social links with the school through their wives and other parents. It is suggested that more parents might be encouraged by opportunities to participate in familiar (eg. neighbourhood) groups under informal conditions, dealing with problems of immediate interest to them. Awareness of the work done by the school committee, and its effectiveness, are also important factors in participation.     

¿Amigo de la Raza? Reexamining Determinants of Latino Support in the U.S. Congress*

Objectives. This study updates and extends research on substantive Latino representation in the U.S. Congress. An improved method of measuring “Latino interests” is proposed. Methods. Using a scorecard from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda as the dependent variable, standard OLS regression is employed to determine the variables that best predict how members of the 108th Congress vote on issues that are salient to the Latino community. Results. The findings indicate that Latinos are substantively represented overwhelmingly by Democrats and those from majority‐Democratic districts or states, while religion and level of constituency poverty also play a notable role. Conclusion. This study adds strong support to the “party as a substantive representative” model of minority representation. It also shows that Latinos are not more likely to be substantively represented by fellow Latinos, nor do larger Latino constituencies affect a lawmaker's propensity to vote in favor of Latino interests.     

Sports in School: Source of Amity or Antipathy?

Objectives . Previous research looks at the impact of school sports on participants' delinquency, but not at the impact on delinquency in schools; further, it does not control for school size or for unobserved school-level variables. This research fills that gap. It uses social capital theory to frame the impact of sports programs on both participants and nonparticipants. Social capital theory predicts that group cohesion will increase cooperative, pro-social behavior among those in the group; however, it can also increase uncooperative, antisocial behavior among those not in the group—particularly when in-group membership is seen as desirable. Social capital theory also predicts that larger schools will have more disturbances, but subgroups in large schools will reduce these adverse effects. Methods . The hypotheses were tested by looking at the relation between disturbances and interscholastic sports programs in Montgomery County, Maryland high schools. Using three years of data on each high school in the county, the study regresses disturbances on sports participation, holding constant demographic variables, school size, and a dummy variable for each school. Results . Larger schools have more disturbances, but bigger interscholastic sports programs mitigate these effects. Conclusions . The policy implications suggest that to foster cooperative behavior in high schools, it might be wise to limit school size, or to foster participation in varsity sports as school size increases.     

Latino and Asian American Mobilization in the 2006 Immigration Protests*

Objective. Through a comparative analysis of Latino and Asian American participation in the 2006 immigration rallies, this article presents a new framework for understanding differential protest outcomes. Methods. To understand the relative lack of Asian American participation in contrast to their Latino counterparts, I conducted in‐depth interviews with community organization leaders and assessed the text of HR 4437, U.S. ethnic media, and organizational resources. Results. I find that structural disadvantages diminished prospects for Asian American activists to effectively mobilize the Asian American community. Conclusion. By conducting a systematic and multidimensional approach to understanding differential protest participation, I conclude that structural conditions significantly advantage the mobilization of certain groups over others.     

Ethnic Differences in the Effects of Parental Depression on Preschool Children's Socioemotional Functioning

The present study describes the depressive symptomatology of 393 parents of prekindergarten children and assesses ethnic differences in the depression scores of these parents and their differential consequences for children's social competence. Data are drawn from the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) classroom study, a national, longitudinal study examining the quality and outcomes of prekindergarten programs operated in schools or under the direction of state and local educational agencies, and the supplemental NCEDL familial and social environments study. Analyses indicated that Latino parents were more likely than African‐American and White parents to be depressed. However, as reported by both parents and teachers, behavioral outcomes for African‐American children of parents with elevated depressive symptomatology were worse than children of their Latino and White counterparts. Interactions between ethnicity and depressive symptomatology emerged in the parent‐child relationship, with African‐American parents with elevated depressive symptoms reporting significantly greater levels of conflict in the parent–child relationship than their non‐depressed counterparts. African‐American parents with elevated depression scores were also less likely to be in marital relationships than their non‐depressed counterparts. Among African‐American families, parent–child conflict served as a mediator of the effects of parental depression on child outcomes. Implications for intervention are discussed.     

Political Participation Among Latinos in the United States: The Effect of Group Identity and Consciousness*

Objective. How do group identity and consciousness affect Latinos' political participation in the United States? Recent studies that examine this relationship generally focus on a single ethnic group, for example, Mexicans, or the panethnic group, Latino/Hispanic, which limits the scope of their results. This study investigates how group identity and consciousness affect the political participation of differently identified Latinos. Methods. Using the unique 2007 Latino National Survey (LNS), a telephone survey of 8,500 Latino respondents, I investigate how group identity and consciousness affect political participation, as measured by electoral and nonelectoral activities. Results. Findings suggest that Latinos who self‐identify as American are more likely to engage in political action; however, a sense of group consciousness among ethnic, panethnic, and racial‐identified Latinos alters this effect. Conclusion. The type of and extent to which Latinos engage in political action is contingent on primary self‐identity and specific aspects of group consciousness.     

Together They Become One: Examining the Predictors of Panethnic Group Consciousness Among Asian Americans and Latinos*

Objective. This article examines panethnic consciousness as it applies to the two fastest‐growing minority groups in the United States: Asian Americans and Latinos. Given the challenges of diversity and immigration faced by these two communities, I examine the individual‐level factors that help strengthen their panethnic group identity. Methods. Drawing from data provided by the 2000 Pilot National Asian American Political Survey and the 1999 National Survey on Latinos, I use ordered probit models to determine the predictors of panethnic consciousness among both Asian Americans and Latinos. Results. The models confirm that for Asian Americans, high income, involvement in Asian‐American politics, being a Democrat, and the role of racial discrimination encourage panethnic consciousness. For Latinos, the important factors are higher levels of education, gender, being foreign born, involvement in Latino politics, and perceptions of discrimination. Conclusions. The findings here stress the importance of social contextual factors such as racial discrimination on the formation of panethnic identity.     

Exploring the Academic Benefits of Friendship Ties for Latino Boys and Girls*

Objectives. We examine how the racial/ethnic and generational status composition of Latino students' friendship groups is related to their academic achievement and whether there are differential effects by gender. Methods. We use multivariate regression analyses to examine the effects of friends' characteristics on Latino students' end of high school grades, utilizing data from the Adolescent Health and Academic Achievement Study (AHAA), and its parent survey, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Results. For Latina girls, there are positive effects of having more friendship ties to third‐plus‐generation Latino peers in contrast to dominant culture peers; yet Latino boys benefit academically from ties to all co‐ethnic peers. Having friends with higher parental education promotes achievement of both genders. Conclusion. Our results counter notions of a pervasive negative peer influence of minority youth and suggest that co‐ethnic ties are an important source of social capital for Latino students' achievement.     

Senior Centers

Abstract

This article explores the degree of influence of the racial and linguistic characteristics of staff and the availability of culturally diverse programs on the level of minority elder participation in senior centers. Two hundred twenty senior centers, recreation clubs, nutrition sites, and local Area Agencies of Aging in New York State were surveyed and comprise the study population. The impact of factors such as the racial/ethnic backgrounds of the senior center staff, linguistic abilities of the staff/administrators, and the availability of culturally specific programs on the level of participation among non-Caucasian elderly were evaluated. The study found that increasing the representation of minority staff and diverse programming, increases the level of participation of minority elders in senior centers. These findings provide the framework for recommendations to increase the representation of non-Caucasian staff in senior centers. Doing so will lead to a greater diversity of senior center consumers and allow senior centers to reach out to traditionally under-served populations.     

Options: Racial/Ethnic Identification of Children of Intermarried Couples*

Objective. Whites of various European ethnic backgrounds usually have weak ethnic attachment and have options to identify their ethnic identity ( Waters, 1990 ). What about children born to interracially married couples? Methods. I use 1990 Census data—the last census in which only one race could be chosen—to examine how African American‐white, Latino‐white, Asian American‐white, and American Indian‐white couples identify their children's race/ethnicity. Results. Children of African American‐white couples are least likely to be identified as white, while children of Asian American‐white couples are most likely to be identified as white. Intermarried couples in which the minority spouse is male, native born, or has no white ancestry are more likely to identify their children as minorities than are those in which the minority spouse is female, foreign born, or has part white ancestry. In addition, neighborhood minority concentration increases the likelihood that biracial children are identified as minorities. Conclusion. This study shows that choices of racial and ethnic identification of multiracial children are not as optional as for whites of various European ethnic backgrounds. They are influenced by race/ethnicity of the minority parent, intermarried couples' characteristics, and neighborhood compositions.