The role of the principal in high-needs schools is vital to the success of the organization. Middle school principals play a critical role in fostering a safe learning environment as middle schoolers navigate socioemotional development alongside academic demands. High-need schools are defined as those presenting a context that challenges the…

Students who experience teacher caring and high expectations (i.e., warm demand) are typically more engaged and successful at school. Yet, relative to White students, students of color tend to report lower levels of school social belonging and more distant relationships with their White teachers. Leveraging data from 179 6th-9th grade Measures of…

This article presents a short-term longitudinal study examining bidirectional associations between academic achievement and positive peer regard among Asian American and Latinx adolescents. Specifically, our investigation distinguished between positive peer regard within and across different ethnic groups in a diverse school setting. Three hundred…

Purpose: This study explores the community-building practices of a school leader at a middle/high school in a Latino/a and African American community. I analyze how the principal leveraged his immigrant identity and experiences to connect with immigrant families and adapt to their needs to form a sense of belonging in the school and neighborhood.…

From data gathered during 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, this paper unpacks the implications of five ethnographic examples describing interactions between educators and students at New Horizons, a majority Latinx middle school, to demonstrate that the circulation of racialized "good Latinx" narratives legitimates differential…

Reports of deportation can create a state of chronic fear in children living in mixed-status immigrant families over their own or a loved one's potential deportation. One indicator of health disparities among youth is elevated rates of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use (ATOD). Yet little is known about the effects of fear of deportation (FOD)…

Purpose: This study investigated the reading profiles of middle school Spanish-speaking emergent bilinguals (EBs) with significantly below grade level reading comprehension and whether these profiles varied in their reading comprehension performance over time. Method: Latent profile analyses were used to classify Grade 6 and 7 Hispanic EBs (n =…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the associations between school-based racial discrimination by teachers and peers and academic outcomes (i.e., classroom misconduct, absenteeism, academic performance, school readiness, and school behavioral problems) over one year (Time 2) through the moderation of perceived social support from…

Dual enrollment (DE) is one of the fastest growing programs that support the high school-to-college transition. Yet, there is limited empirical evidence about its impact on either students' college application choices or admission outcomes. Using a fuzzy regression discontinuity approach on data from two cohorts of ninth-grade students in one…

This study explores the sense of belonging of rural middle and high school Latinx science students in Wisconsin. Between 2000 and 2015, the Latinx population was the fastest growing ethnic group in Wisconsin and increased by 95%. Yet, little is known about the experiences of these students in rural schools or their engagement in science learning.…

This article examines the formations and tensions of Latinx teacher role model subject positions in spaces with relatively few Latinx teachers. To address the under theorization of space and Latinx teacher subjectivity, I insert a relational space frame to previous literature that critiques neoliberal attempts to place both the blame and solution…

The heterogeneity in the developmental trajectories of math motivational beliefs (i.e., expectancies for success and subjective task value beliefs) was examined among Asian and Latinx male and female students from Southern California across Grades 8 through 10 (n = 2,710; 50% female; 85% Latinx; 15% Asian; M[subscript age] = 13.77). By conducting…

Differences in school choice by race contribute to school segregation and unequal access to effective schools. Conditional on test score and district of residence, Black and Hispanic families consistently choose schools with fewer white and Asian students, lower average achievement, and lower value-added. This paper combines unique survey data and…

Latine parents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States (US) often face challenges when supporting their adolescents' education in subjects like math. Guided by strengths-based, culturally grounded frameworks, this study explored the challenges Latine parents faced when supporting adolescents' math learning and how they leveraged…

This study tests the impact of adding Restorative Practices within secondary schools implementing the Diplomas Now turnaround model in 8 large U.S. urban districts on: (a) the severity of disciplinary problems in these schools, (b) the probability that students would be suspended three days or more during the school year, and (c) the chronic…