This engaging and informative book is written to help you to cater for the needs of pupils learning English as an additional language (EAL). It will support all primary-phase practitioners, including staff working with pupils learning EAL, key staff working on ethnic minority achievement, governors with specific responsibility for inclusion, and student teachers working towards Qualified Teaching Status. This book includes sections that will help you to: dispel the myths surrounding effective provision for pupils learning EAL; support whole-school approaches for ethnic minority achievement; use research about bilingualism to inform best practice for beginner and advanced bilingual learners; and, develop appropriate and targeted interventions for EAL learners. While good practice for ethnic minority achievement is clearly about quality-first teaching, this book explains that there is something distinctive about the needs of EAL learners and offers a range of practical ideas and strategies to support this area of work. Ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity should be recognised as an asset to be respected and celebrated. This book will help you to achieve this. This title contains 64 A4 pages.

Controversy erupted in 1996 when the Oakland Unified School District's 'Ebonics Resolution' proposed an approach to teaching Standard English that recognized the variety of English spoken by African American students. With new demands for accountability driven by the No Child Left Behind policy and its emphasis on high-stakes testing in Standard English, this debate will no doubt rise again. This book seeks to better inform this next episode. In Part 1, leading scholars place the debate within its historical and contemporary context, provide clear explanations of what Ebonics is and is not, and offer practical approaches schools can and should follow to address the linguistic needs of African American students. Part 2 provides original documents that accompanied the debate, including the original resolutions, legislation, organization position papers, and commentary/analyses from leading linguists. This book is written for all those whose work impacts the lives of Ebonics speakers in our public schools.

This unique publication brings together scholarship from both sides of the Atlantic, focusing on the central questions that shape the field of multicultural education. It offers the reader a great opportunity to achieve a real grasp of the subject, facilitating understanding and articulation of key debates, and making important topics, concepts and theories accessible to a broad audience.
The Reader is divided into four sections, covering the ideas that are at the core of contemporary multicultural education; theories, identities, practices and methods. The first section covers some basic conceptual territory and discusses key ideas including 'race', 'multiculturalism' and 'anti-racism'. The second section draws together writing that focuses explicitly on the question of identities, examining the meaning of 'race'. In the third part, the articles look at life inside multi-racial classrooms and consider how racialised and racist processes operate on a day-to-day level. Finally, the fourth section addresses different aspects of educational research.
The editors have assembled a collection of articles of immense scope and pertinence, making this an excellent must-buy resource book for undergraduates, postgraduates. education practitioners, academics and anyone concerned with race equality and multicultural education.

This book gives educators important answers to the urgent question of how teachers and schools can facilitate language minority and immigrant students' progress in school. It offers an innovative and powerful method teachers and students can use to study the situational context of education, providing both the theoretical background and the practical tools to implement this approach.
The situational context of education includes linguistic, economic, social, cultural, and political factors, as well as conditions, such as students' personal characteristics, family support, and quality of instruction. All of these factors influence the lives of students and their academic performance and contribute in many ways, some subtle and indirect, to making the educational experience more or less difficult for different students.
The premise of the book is that objective study of the situational context of education by both students and teachers is beneficial because it leads to a more realistic view of how to facilitate students' progress in school. Designed as a text for graduate courses for preservice and in-service teachers working with students in bilingual, ESL, mainstream, and special education classrooms, the goal is to engage readers in learning not only from the literature but also from studying the situational contexts of their own students. The focus here is on the factors that affect language minority and immigrant students in the United States, but the framework is equally powerful for work with student populations in other social contexts.
*The Introduction includes an overview of the theory behind the study of the situational context of education and theimplementation of this approach; describes the context of the pilot lessons included in the book; and explains how to use the lessons detailed in later chapters.
*Chapters 2-6 focus on different factors in the situational context of education: linguistic, economic, social, cultural, and political. A three-part structure is used: "Classroom Implementation" (a rich description of one lesson in a real classroom); "Context Variables" (a theoretical explanation of the specific factor the chapter addresses, providing the research basis for the sample lesson objectives ); "Doing Analysis of the Context" (several sample lessons for implementation). The lessons are addressed to the teacher, with detailed ideas on how to carry out the lesson and evaluate the students' understanding of the situational context.
*Five Appendices provide helpful resources for the implementation of the lessons: an Annotated bibliography of relevant K-12 children's literature; Instructional Approaches; Scoring Rubrics for Content Objectives; Guidelines for a Contrastive Study of Situational Context; and Lesson Template.
The lessons have been thoroughly field-tested with students and teachers. Because these lessons work on multiple levels, "Situational Context of Education: A Window Into the World of Bilingual Learners" benefits students from first grade through preservice and in-service teachers in university courses. Teachers get to know their students and their predicaments within the social context of the United States, and at the same time, the lesson activities have a great impact on the students in their classes. All are helped to achieve academically while gaining awareness of situational factorsaffecting their lives.

The Haitian Creole Language is the first book that deals broadly with a language that has too long lived in the shadow of French. With chapters contributed by the leading scholars in the study of Creole, it provides information on this language's history; structure; and use in education, literature, and social interaction. Although spoken by virtually all Haitians, Creole was recognized as the co-official language of Haiti only a little over twenty years ago. The Haitian Creole Language provides essential information for professionals, other service providers, and Creole speakers who are interested in furthering the use of Creole in Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. Increased language competencies would greatly promote the education of Creole speakers and their participation in the social and political life of their countries of residence. This book is an indispensable tool for those seeking knowledge about the centrality of language in the affairs of Haiti, its people, and its diaspora.

This book offers practical guidance for teachers working with bilingual pupils in mainstream primary and secondary education and aims to help teachers make the curriculum as accessible as possible to these children. It offers examples of the good practice that has evolved around teaching bilingual children in the classroom.
The author provides advice on how to tackle subject areas; guidance on planning lessons; photocopiable proformas for use in planning; case studies; suggested approaches for dealing with common difficulties in texts; and advice on working with bilingual parents.
Teachers, student teachers, teaching assistants, English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as an Additional Language (EAL) coordinators will find this book helps them work effectively with bilingual children in mainstream settings.

Bridging Cultures: Teacher Education Module is a professional development resource for teacher educators and staff developers to help preservice and in-service teachers become knowledgeable about cultural differences and understand ways of bridging the expectations of school settings with those of the home. In a nonthreatening, cognitively meaningful way, the Module is based on teacher-constructed and tested strategies to improve home-school communication and parent involvement. These innovations were developed as part of the Bridging Cultures Project, which explores the cultural value differences between the individualistic orientation of mainstream U.S. schools and the collectivistic orientation of many immigrant families. The goal of the Bridging Cultures Project is to support and help teachers in their work with students and families from immigrant cultures. The centerpiece of the Module is training resources, including an outline, an agenda, and a well-tested three-hour script designed as a lecture-discussion with structured opportunities for guided dialogue and small-group discussion. Throughout the script, "Facilitators Notes" annotate presentation suggestions and oversized margins encourage integration of the facilitator's personal experiences in presenting and adapting the Module. Ideas for using the Readings for Bridging Cultures are provided. A section of overhead transparencies and handout masters is included. The Module also provides a discussion of the role of culture in education and the constructs of individualism and collectivism, an overview of the effects of the Bridging Cultures Project, and evaluation results of the author's use of the Module in two sections of a preservice teacher education course. Bridging Cultures: Teacher Education Module brings the successful processes and practices of the Bridging Cultures Project to a larger audience in college courses and in professional development arenas. Designed for use in one or two class sessions, the Module can be incorporated in courses on educational psychology, child development, counseling psychology, and any others that deal with culture in education.

John Ogbu has studied minority education from a comparative perspective for over 30 years. The study reported in this book--jointly sponsored by the community and the school district in Shaker Heights, Ohio--focuses on the academic performance of Black American students. Not only do these students perform less well than White students at every social class level, but also less well than immigrant minority students, including Black immigrant students. Furthermore, both middle-class Black students in suburban school districts, as well as poor Black students in inner-city schools are not doing well. Ogbu's analysis draws on data from observations, formal and informal interviews, and statistical and other data. He offers strong empirical evidence to support the cross-class existence of the problem.

The book is organized in four parts:
*Part I provides a description of the twin problems the study addresses--the gap between Black and White students in school performance and the low academic engagement of Black students; a review of conventional explanations; an alternative perspective; and the framework for the study.
*Part II is an analysis of "societal and school factors" contributing to the problem, including race relations, Pygmalion or internalized White beliefs and expectations, levelling or tracking, the roles of teachers, counselors, and discipline.
*"Community factors"--the focus of this study--are discussed in Part III. These include the educational impact of opportunity structure, collective identity, cultural and language or dialect frame of reference in schooling, peer pressures, and the role of the family. This research focus does "not" mean exonerating the system and blaming minorities, nor does it mean neglecting school and society factors. Rather, Ogbu argues, the role of community forces should be incorporated into the discussion of the academic achievement gap by researchers, theoreticians, policymakers, educators, and minorities themselves who genuinely want to improve the academic achievement of African American children and other minorities.
*In Part IV, Ogbu presents a summary of the study's findings on community forces and offers recommendations--some of which are for the school system and some for the Black community.

"Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement" is an important book for a wide range of researchers, professionals, and students, particularly in the areas of Black education, minority education, comparative and international education, sociology of education, educational anthropology, educational policy, teacher education, and applied anthropology.

Recognising the need for pedagogy that better serves American Indian students, Klug and Whitfield construct a pedagogical model that blends native and non-native worldviews and methodologies. Among the building blocks of this new, culturally relevant education are language-based approaches to literacy development, the use of oral histories to supplement traditional texts, and a re-evaluation of the knowledge base these students need for success. This multicultural education 'must-read' includes case studies, critical thinking questions and comments by indigenous people concerning education. By learning to teach in ways that are culturally congruent, respectful of traditional values and community building rather than assimilating, non-Native American teachers can finally ensure academic success for their students.

"Teaching and Learning in a Multilingual School: Choices, Risks, and Dilemmas" is for teachers and teacher educators working in communities that educate children who do not speak English as a first language. At the center of the book are findings from a four-year critical ethnographic case study of a Canadian high school with a large number of emigrant students from Hong Kong and rich descriptions of the multitude of ways teachers and students thought about, responded to, and negotiated the issues and dilemmas that arose. The solutions and insights they derived from their experiences of working across linguistic, cultural, and racial differences will be extremely valuable to educators in other locales that have become home to large numbers of immigrant families. The book is designed to help readers think about how the issues and dilemmas in the case study manifest themselves in their own communities and how to apply the insights they gain to their own teaching and learning contexts:
* Each chapter includes four components: an excerpt from the ethnographic study; an analytic commentary on the ethnographic text drawn from a variety of theoretical perspectives and academic disciplines (including interactionist sociolinguistics, language minority education, English as a Second Language education, critical literacy, anti-racist education, and critical teacher education); a pedagogical discussion; and suggestions for further reflection and discussion.
* The book features the use of ethnographic play writing to engage readers with the issues that arise in multicultural/multilingual schools. The author's play "Hong Kong, Canada" is included in its entirety and is used to stimulate further discussion of the issues raised in each of the chapters.
* Although it is organized around two different kinds of schooling dilemmas--dilemmas of speech and silence, and dilemmas of discrimination--everyday dilemmas of curriculum and assessment are also discussed throughout the book.
* A methodological discussion of the choices the author made while designing, conducting, and writing up the critical ethnographic case study makes the book useful in qualitative research methodology courses.
* A set of strategies and activities is provided for helping students develop English oral presentation skills.

Recognising the need for pedagogy that better serves American Indian students, Klug and Whitfield construct a pedagogical model that blends native and non-native worldviews and methodologies. Among the building blocks of this new, culturally relevant education are language-based approaches to literacy development, the use of oral histories to supplement traditional texts, and a re-evaluation of the knowledge base these students need for success. This multicultural education 'must-read' includes case studies, critical thinking questions and comments by indigenous people concerning education. By learning to teach in ways that are culturally congruent, respectful of traditional values and community building rather than assimilating, non-Native American teachers can finally ensure academic success for their students.

Second language learners often produce language forms resembling those of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). At present, professionals working in language assessment and education have only limited diagnostic instruments to distinguish language impaired migrant children from those who will eventually catch up with their monolingual peers. This book presents a comprehensive set of tools for assessing the linguistic abilities of bilingual children. It aims to disentangle effects of bilingualism from those of SLI, making use of both models of bilingualism and models of language impairment. The book's methods-oriented focus will make it an essential handbook for practitioners who look for measures which could be adapted to a variety of languages in diverse communities, as well as academic researchers.

Secondary Science Teaching for English Learners: Developing Supportive and Responsive Learning Context for Sense-making and Language Development provides a resource for multiple audiences, including pre- and in-service secondary science teachers, science teacher educators, instructional coaches, curriculum specialists, and administrators, to learn about a research-based approach to teaching science that responds to the growing population of English learners in the United States. The book offers clear definitions of pedagogical practices supported by classroom examples and a cohesive framework for teaching science in linguistically diverse classrooms. The Secondary Science Teaching with English Language and Literacy Acquisition (or SSTELLA) Framework addresses how learning science is enhanced through meaningful and relevant learning experiences that integrate discipline-specific literacy. In particular, four core science teaching practices are described: (1) contextualized science activity, (2) scientific sense-making through scientific and engineering practices, (3) scientific discourse, and (4) English language and disciplinary literacy development. These four core practices are supported by sound theory and research based on unscripted guidelines and flexible modifications of science lessons. Moreover, the four interrelated practices promote students' use of core science ideas while reading, writing, talking, and doing science, thus reflecting principles from Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, and English language proficiency standards. Secondary Science Teaching provides readers with a historical and theoretical basis for integrating language, literacy, and science in multilingual science classrooms, and well as explicit models and guided support teachers in enacting effective teaching practices in the classroom, including comparative vignettes to distinguish between different types of classroom practice.

"A Place To Be Navajo" is the only book-length ethnographic account of a revolutionary Indigenous self-determination movement that began in 1966 with the Rough Rock Demonstration School. Called "Dine Bi'olta', " The People's School, in recognition of its status as the first American Indian community-controlled school, Rough Rock was the first to teach in the Native language and to produce a body of quality children's literature by and about Navajo people. These innovations have positioned the school as a leader in American Indian and bilingual/bicultural education and have enabled school participants to wield considerable influence on national policy. This book is a critical life history of this singular school and community.
McCarty's account grows out of 20 years of ethnographic work by the author with the "Dine" (Navajo) community of Rough Rock. The story is told primarily through written text, but also through the striking black-and-white images of photographer Fred Bia, a member of the Rough Rock community. Unlike most accounts of Indigenous schooling, this study involves the active participation of Navajo community members. Their oral testimony and that of other leaders in Indigenous/Navajo education frame and texture the account.
Informed by critical theories of education, this book is not just the story of a single school and community. It is also an inquiry into the larger struggle for self-determination by Indigenous and other minoritized communities, raising issues of identity, voice, and community empowerment. "A Place To Be Navajo" asks whether school can be a place where children learn, question, and grow in an environment that values and builds upon who they are. The author argues that the questions Rough Rock raises, and the responses they summon, implicate us all.

State Schooling and Ethnic Identity examines the influence of state schooling on Tibetan students' ethnic identity. Zhiyong Zhu has developed a case study of Changzhou Tibetan Middle School after a preferential educational policy was put in place by the Chinese government in the early 1980s. By examining and analyzing student diaries, Zhu has developed a theoretical model for the construction of ethnic identity. Comparing the Neidi Tibetan Schools (those of inland and coastal regions) with the Changzhou Tibetan Middle School, the author takes into account the amount of influence over ethnic identity wielded by the state. State Schooling and Ethnic Identity is a unique study appropriate for readers with interests in China or Tibetan Studies, educational theory, anthropology, and sociology.

This comprehensive study of leaders of color in higher education is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand and/or navigate a career path through the dangerous waters of white-controlled, status quo universities and community colleges in the United States. Based on interviews with pioneers in the field, the author draws upon their personal experiences - and his own-to examine the challenges and dilemmas facing minority members who choose the route of educational leadership. How creative leaders overcome these barriers to success in the academy is the major theme of the volume. The differing issues facing African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians, and women of color are all addressed in detail, and their commonalities noted. A list of helpful suggestions concerning activism, leadership style, institutional politics, mentorship, and roles are included to help those who contemplate this career path.

"Remaining and Becoming: Cultural Crosscurrents in an Hispano School" deals with the politics of identity and the concept of boundaries during a time of rapid change. It investigates how the role of schooling for Hispanos in the Norteno School District (a pseudonym) in Northern New Mexico--a public school district, not fully consolidated until 1972--has changed significantly over the past three generations. Today, the Hispanos, a minority in the outside world but a majority in their own, are debating how the functions of the school should respond to the changes resulting from the coming of public education to their region. But the contemporary story of education in Norteno has much deeper roots in the political, religious, and cultural history of Northern New Mexico--a region where, over a period of several centuries, Spain, Mexico, and the United States each have claimed sovereignty, with differing goals for and attitudes about the welfare of the people.
This study is an analysis of the ambiguity of education, the losses and gains that are its consequences, the lingering doubts about the past, and the questions about what future education can and should serve. It is about asking: Is what the students are learning worth as much as what they are forgetting? How does schooling affect the evolving process of asserting, renegotiating, and defending an Hispano identity? By exploring historical factors and ideologies of a particular school within a particular community, Roberts seeks to understand community expectations for the school as a fitting place for its children. The goal is not to generalize from the particular to the universal, but to join others in suggesting that we move away from discussing students in a generic sense and focus instead on looking at them in relation to the community in which they live.
The fascinating and largely unknown story this book tells will be of interest to educators, researchers, and students across a range of fields, including sociology of education, educational anthropology, multicultural education, ethnic studies, Chicano studies, and qualitative research in education.

A discussion of the schooling of ethnic minority children and youth. The issues covered include: identity and school adjustment - revisiting the acting white assumption; a triarchic model of minority children's school achievement; analyzing cultural models and settings; and more.

"Remaining and Becoming: Cultural Crosscurrents in an Hispano School" deals with the politics of identity and the concept of boundaries during a time of rapid change. It investigates how the role of schooling for Hispanos in the Norteno School District (a pseudonym) in Northern New Mexico--a public school district, not fully consolidated until 1972--has changed significantly over the past three generations. Today, the Hispanos, a minority in the outside world but a majority in their own, are debating how the functions of the school should respond to the changes resulting from the coming of public education to their region. But the contemporary story of education in Norteno has much deeper roots in the political, religious, and cultural history of Northern New Mexico--a region where, over a period of several centuries, Spain, Mexico, and the United States each have claimed sovereignty, with differing goals for and attitudes about the welfare of the people.
This study is an analysis of the ambiguity of education, the losses and gains that are its consequences, the lingering doubts about the past, and the questions about what future education can and should serve. It is about asking: Is what the students are learning worth as much as what they are forgetting? How does schooling affect the evolving process of asserting, renegotiating, and defending an Hispano identity? By exploring historical factors and ideologies of a particular school within a particular community, Roberts seeks to understand community expectations for the school as a fitting place for its children. The goal is not to generalize from the particular to the universal, but to join others in suggesting that we move away from discussing students in a generic sense and focus instead on looking at them in relation to the community in which they live.
The fascinating and largely unknown story this book tells will be of interest to educators, researchers, and students across a range of fields, including sociology of education, educational anthropology, multicultural education, ethnic studies, Chicano studies, and qualitative research in education.

Secondary Science Teaching for English Learners: Developing Supportive and Responsive Learning Context for Sense-making and Language Development provides a resource for multiple audiences, including pre- and in-service secondary science teachers, science teacher educators, instructional coaches, curriculum specialists, and administrators, to learn about a research-based approach to teaching science that responds to the growing population of English learners in the United States. The book offers clear definitions of pedagogical practices supported by classroom examples and a cohesive framework for teaching science in linguistically diverse classrooms. The Secondary Science Teaching with English Language and Literacy Acquisition (or SSTELLA) Framework addresses how learning science is enhanced through meaningful and relevant learning experiences that integrate discipline-specific literacy. In particular, four core science teaching practices are described: (1) contextualized science activity, (2) scientific sense-making through scientific and engineering practices, (3) scientific discourse, and (4) English language and disciplinary literacy development. These four core practices are supported by sound theory and research based on unscripted guidelines and flexible modifications of science lessons. Moreover, the four interrelated practices promote students' use of core science ideas while reading, writing, talking, and doing science, thus reflecting principles from Next Generation Science Standards, Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts, and English language proficiency standards. Secondary Science Teaching provides readers with a historical and theoretical basis for integrating language, literacy, and science in multilingual science classrooms, and well as explicit models and guided support teachers in enacting effective teaching practices in the classroom, including comparative vignettes to distinguish between different types of classroom practice.

This comprehensive study of leaders of color in higher education is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand and/or navigate a career path through the dangerous waters of white-controlled, status quo universities and community colleges in the United States. Based on interviews with pioneers in the field, the author draws upon their personal experiences - and his own-to examine the challenges and dilemmas facing minority members who choose the route of educational leadership. How creative leaders overcome these barriers to success in the academy is the major theme of the volume. The differing issues facing African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians, and women of color are all addressed in detail, and their commonalities noted. A list of helpful suggestions concerning activism, leadership style, institutional politics, mentorship, and roles are included to help those who contemplate this career path.

How do educators balance the rights of the rapidly growing percentage of the United States' population whose first language is not English or whose English differs from standard usage with the rights of the majority of students whose first and generally only language is English? This two-volume set addresses the complicated and divisive issues at the heart of the debate over language diversity and the English Only movement in the U.S. public education. Blending social, political, and legal analyses of the ideologies of language with perspectives on the impact of the English Only movement on education and on classrooms at all levels, "Language Ideologies: Critical Perspectives on the Official English Movement" offers a wide range of perspectives that teachers and literacy advocates can use to inform practice as well as policy. This exhaustive, two-volume collection not only updates existing information on the English Only movement in the United States, but also includes the international context, looking at the emergence of English as a world language through a postcolonial lens. The complexity of the debate is also reflected in the exceptionally diverse list of contributors, who speak from varying disciplines and backgrounds including sociology, linguistics, university administration, the ACLU, law, ESL, and English. Both volumes explore the political, legislative, and social implications of language ideologies.
"Volume 1: Education and the Social Implications of Official Language" focuses in particular on the consequences for the classroom. In "Volume 2: History, Theory, and Policy, " the focus is on the implications for policymakers and language-program administrators.

Latino (or Hispanic) children are one of the fastest-growing groups in U.S. schools today. On average, these students perform worse than Anglo students on measures of academic achievement and other measures of academic success, and their drop-out rate is high. There are schools of excellence among those serving Latino children, but the majority of these children are placed "at risk" by schools and community institutions unable to build on the cultural, personal, and linguistic strengths these children are likely to bring with them to school. Schools serving Latino students need programs based on high-quality research, capable of being replicated and adapted to local circumstances and needs.
The purpose of this book is to present the current state of the art with respect to research on effective instructional programs for Latino students in elementary and secondary grades. Surprisingly, this has not been done before; there are many books on the situation of Latino students in U.S. schools, but none so far have reviewed research on the outcomes of programs designed to enhance the academic achievement of these students.
The chapters represent a broad range of methodologies, from experimental to correlational to descriptive, and the solutions they propose are extremely diverse. Each examines, in its own way, programs and practices that are showing success. Together, they present a rich array of research-based effective programs that are practical, widely available, and likely to make a profound difference. What binds the chapters together is a shared belief that Latino students can succeed at the highest levels if they receive the quality of instruction they deserve, and a shared belief that reform of schools serving many Latino students is both possible and essential. This is a book filled with statistics, description, and reviews of research--but even more, it is filled with optimism about what schools for Latino students can be, and what these students will achieve. It is a highly relevant and useful resource for educators, policymakers, and researchers who want to use research to inform the decisions they make about how to help Latino students succeed in elementary and secondary schools, and beyond.

Making School Count reports on four years of classroom research in which alternative teaching strategies, designed to motivate under-achieving inner-city, African-American middle school students were used and evaluated.
The book offers insights into the discrepancy between students' academic dreams (their high performance aspirations) and the realities of their classroom performance.
Issues include:
*the authors' convictions that the disproportionate under-achievement of African-American students is the result of inappropriate teaching strategies
*the prevalent use of a Eurocentric curriculum
*results of the authors' research
*a guide for teachers wishing to carry out their own research
*a study of the collaboration between a university and a schools in an attempt to bring about change from the ground up.

eBook available with sample pages: HB:0415230543

Latino (or Hispanic) children are one of the fastest-growing groups in U.S. schools today. On average, these students perform worse than Anglo students on measures of academic achievement and other measures of academic success, and their drop-out rate is high. There are schools of excellence among those serving Latino children, but the majority of these children are placed "at risk" by schools and community institutions unable to build on the cultural, personal, and linguistic strengths these children are likely to bring with them to school. Schools serving Latino students need programs based on high-quality research, capable of being replicated and adapted to local circumstances and needs.
The purpose of this book is to present the current state of the art with respect to research on effective instructional programs for Latino students in elementary and secondary grades. Surprisingly, this has not been done before; there are many books on the situation of Latino students in U.S. schools, but none so far have reviewed research on the outcomes of programs designed to enhance the academic achievement of these students.
The chapters represent a broad range of methodologies, from experimental to correlational to descriptive, and the solutions they propose are extremely diverse. Each examines, in its own way, programs and practices that are showing success. Together, they present a rich array of research-based effective programs that are practical, widely available, and likely to make a profound difference. What binds the chapters together is a shared belief that Latino students can succeed at the highest levels if they receive the quality of instruction they deserve, and a shared belief that reform of schools serving many Latino students is both possible and essential. This is a book filled with statistics, description, and reviews of research--but even more, it is filled with optimism about what schools for Latino students can be, and what these students will achieve. It is a highly relevant and useful resource for educators, policymakers, and researchers who want to use research to inform the decisions they make about how to help Latino students succeed in elementary and secondary schools, and beyond.