Latino Children's Integration into American Society: The Dynamics of Bilingual Education

Abstract

The Latino population has grown in recent decades due to increased immigration. This group is largely urban, disproportionately young, and typically enters American society with a low socioeconomic status, which has implications for urban schools. Using data from a three-year investigation of the bilingual education program at Maya Angelou Elementary in Texas, this study examines the integration of Latino students into the educational system. More specifically, I utilize a sociological framework which incorporates structural and sociocultural factors of immigrant adaptation to investigate bilingual education at Angelou and the broader context of educating Latino English Language Learners (ELLs). At Angelou, I find evidence of commitment to bilingualism, yet structural constraints in the school undermine this commitment. However, these challenges are minimal in comparison to the broader policy environment concerning the ELLs' education. On this front, Angelou must confront teacher shortages, scarcity of materials, and high-stakes standardized testing. Conclusions indicate the treatment of Spanish language and Latino culture as subordinate despite the school's efforts to serve their students.     

Schoolyard Conversations: Influencing Suicide Talk in an Elementary School Community

There is a need for shared leadership following a school crisis. This paper explores the phenomenon of ‘contagion’ resulting after a suicide attempt in an elementary school. The contagion allows anxieties, fears, worries, and myths to perpetuate and run rampant among the students and adults alike. This affects how they talk with one another. By capturing the authentic conversations and interventions used when school leaders join together, the reader can learn how a sense of safety within a school culture is restored. The article is necessarily written in the narrative style, in order to capture and reflect the conversational framework used: to understand the problem, to develop the intervention, and to analyze its impact. In this way, field practice and training are joined to create a relevant front‐line model of social work education.     

Evaluation of international and non-governmental organizations’ communication activities: A 15 year systematic review

The purpose of this paper is to understand how intergovernmental organizations and international non-governmental organizations have evaluated their communication activities and adhered to principles of evaluation methodology from 1995–2010 based on a systematic review of available evaluation reports (N = 46) and guidelines (N = 9). Most evaluations were compliant with principle 1 (defining communication objectives), principle 2 (combining evaluation methods), principle 4 (focusing on outcomes) and principle 5 (evaluating for continued improvement). Compliance was least with principle 3 (using a rigorous design) and principle 6 (linking to organizational goals). Evaluation was found not to be integrated, adopted widely or rigorously in these organizations.     

Search,Obfuscation, and Price Elasticities on the Internet

We examine the competition between a group of Internet retailers who operate in an environment where a price search engine plays a dominant role. We show that for some products in this environment, the easy price search makes demand tremendously price‐sensitive. Retailers, though, engage in obfuscation—practices that frustrate consumer search or make it less damaging to firms—resulting in much less price sensitivity on some other products. We discuss several models of obfuscation and examine its effects on demand and markups empirically.     

Annexation as a factor in the growth of U.S. cities, 1950–1960 and 1960–1970

The incidence of annexation, the growth in the original area and in the area annexed, and the proportion of growth due to annexation between 1950 and 1970 are analyzed for U.S. cities grouped by size, metropolitan status, and region of the country. Over this period, annexation was a principal means of population growth for incorporated places outside the Northeast. Though often associated with metropolitan growth, annexation was even more important in the growth of nonmetropolitan cities. Overall growth differences by size of place, metropolitan status, and decade (1950--1960 or 1960--1970) could not be explained by the incidence and nature of annexation.     

Experiences of disclosure of childhood sexual abuse and psychopathology

Reported child sexual abuse is associated with the development of anorexia and bulimia nervosa overall, but the mediating factors that determine whether such abuse is relevant in individual cases are not adequately understood. This study considers the importance of the experience of initial disclosure as a mediator in a case series of eating-disordered women. The extent of psychopathology (particularly the frequency of vomiting and the presence of the symptoms of borderline personality disorder) was associated with the nature of the perceived response to an attempted disclosure. A perceived lack of response or a negative, hostile response was associated with specific patterns of symptomatology. Further research is suggested to extend these conclusions, and the clinical implications of these findings are discussed.