With the turn of the XXI century, the desire to foster Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in education has increased (Benjamin, 2008; Dwyer, Hogan, & Stuart, 2014; Ku, 2009; Preus, 2012; Rosefsky-Saavedra & Opfer, 2012). Several countries, including the US, highlight the necessity of preparing students for a global world (OECD, 2014) and…

This study explores the experiences of transnational Latina mothers whose children are enrolled in hyper-gentrified dual-language programs. Drawing upon transnationalism (Sánchez & Kasun, 2012) and differential consciousness (Sandoval, 1991), I explored how these mothers' own complex identities informed their navigation of conflicting…

Background: Summer camps can promote positive youth development. Unfortunately, racial, ethnic, and economic disparities contribute to inequities in camp participation and related research on marginalized youth. Consequently, it is not clear what types of camping programs work best for marginalized youth. Purpose: To conduct a quasi-experimental…

Bilingual education--chiefly the subcategory of dual language bilingual education--has been undergoing a pattern where the interests of language-minoritized communities have in several contexts been pushed out of the way. One aspect of this gentrification process has been the "fiftyfication" of dual language bilingual education policy,…

This study examines the relationship between perceived stress, nonverbal cognitive functioning, and statewide academic scores in both Latinx and European American elementary students in rural school districts. A total of 44 third graders participated in the study, including 13 Latinx students and 31 European American (EA) students. Perceived…

Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the year 2050, one in three students attending schools will be Latino. Academically, Latinos are lagging far behind their non-Latino peers. One factor underlying this achievement gap may be the lack of cultural understanding of many…

Four of the eight Engineering Standards in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2013) focus on authentic science communication: "asking questions (science) and defining problems (engineering), analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering), engaging in argument from…

Latinos comprise a significant portion of the total school enrollment in the U.S., and an increasing share of Latinos are pursuing higher education today. However, Latino students still face many educational barriers, and research has repeatedly demonstrated that Latino children lag their peers in terms of their academic achievement. In addition,…

Researchers and practitioners have much to learn from drag queens, specifically Latinx queens, as they leverage everyday queerness and brownness in ways that contribute to pedagogy locally and globally, individually and collectively. Drawing on previous work examining the digital queer gestures of drag queen educators (Lizárraga & Cortez,…

The researchers in this qualitative case study explored the dialogic experiences of elementary school students during Comic Book Club meetings held in their local community resource center. The researchers wanted to know what experiences of dialogism were manifested in children's conversations about reading, writing, and comic creation and what…

This qualitative research study investigates dialogic discourse (i.e., give-and-take communication where students actively construct meaning) aimed at supporting mathematical meaning making in linguistically diverse elementary classrooms. For this study, linguistically diverse classrooms refer to classrooms where Spanish is the home language of…

Preprogram and postprogram surveys of 241 Latinx 4-H youths from five counties in North Carolina provided a snapshot of their experiences in the Juntos 4-H program. The study findings demonstrate that Juntos 4-H has positive impacts on academics, college readiness, parent engagement, and community engagement. Suggestions are made to help Extension…

This paper will include details on knowledge and ambition levels found between Latino-ethnic K-5 students located in a Southern Region of Texas from a college going culture presentation. The purpose is to understand how ambition and knowledge about higher education was influenced among Latino-ethnic K-5 students in impoverished areas. A low-income…

Purpose: The overall purpose of this journal-ready dissertation was to describe the racial/ethnic demographic characteristics of students and teachers in Texas public schools. The first specific purpose was to describe the ethnic/racial demographic characteristics of students and teachers in Texas elementary public schools for the 2010- 2011…

School-based universal screening for behavioral/emotional risk is a necessary first step in the identification of students who might need services within a behavioral response to intervention model. When choosing among the available screening measures, psychometric information such as reliability and validity of the scores is critical to inform…