This study focuses on the increasing disparities in STEM education achievement and long-term wage earnings of under-represented minority groups. As part of national efforts to improve the diversity of the STEM workforce, this study uses longitudinal data from the University of Houston's Education Research Center (UH-ERC) to examine the effect of…

In this conceptual article we invite multilingual researchers to consider the concept of translanguaging through the lens of human capital theory. Our thinking about the interconnections among human capital, multilingualism, and translanguaging is motivated by our research in border "colonias" and other minoritized communities in South…

Increasingly, states and districts are combining student growth measures with rigorous, rubric-aligned teacher observations in constructing teacher evaluation measures. Although the student growth or value-added components of these measures have received much research and policy attention, the results of this study suggest that the data generated…

Research suggests that educators' use of resources influence the ground-level effects of policy. However, we know very little about educators' utilization of policy resources. This study employs a mixed-methods research design to provide empirical evidence of the policy resources available to education policy implementers and the ways in which…

This case study examined action research conducted by bilingual education teachers in urban schools as a tool for progressing from novice-to-expert teachers. We described a longitudinal study across four cohorts of first-year bilingual education teachers as action researchers (n = 9). The study investigated the following: (1) how school leaders…

In this investigation, we examined the numbers and percentages of Hispanic college students enrolled in Texas two-year colleges and the numbers and percentages of Hispanic students who obtained associate degrees from Texas two-year colleges for the 2000 through the 2011 academic years. Hispanic student enrollment and educational attainment…

This article presents an interview with Terry Grier, superintendent of the Houston Independent School District (HISD), Texas's largest district. Before taking this post, he had been a principal or superintendent for most of three decades and remains a reformer five years into his leadership. Grier has maintained his passion for improving schools…

This study explores biliteracy as understood and practiced in school and community contexts in a particular region of the US-Mexico borderlands, the Rio Grande Valley of southeast Texas. Drawing on capital theory, we contrast the ambivalent perceptions of Spanish/English biliteracy held by local pre-service and in-service educators with biliterate…

Using primary survey data, factors influencing preferences of international graduate students in the United States as to whether they prefer to stay in the United States or go back to their home country to start their careers are examined employing discrete choice analysis. Career opportunities and social climate are critical factors. Students…

In the May/June issue of "Change", US Undersecretary of Education Martha J. Kanter described President Barack Obama's plan for recapturing the position of the best-educated country in the world by 2020. She spelled out the formula for meeting the President's ambitious goal: increasing postsecondary access, improving the quality of a…

This study examines literacies practiced in bilingual households located in emerging communities along the Texas-Mexico border known as border colonias. Drawing on theoretical notions of space as geographic and temporal, the simultaneity of global and local forces at work in colonias, and expressions of agency that are "in between"…

When Morgan State University began offering its community college leadership doctoral program online this fall, it joined a crowded field of institutions offering terminal degrees to future leaders of two-year institutions. Given its record of success in graduating minority leaders, the online expansion of Morgan State's Community College…

A few years ago, in "Student Success in College (SSiC)," the authors profiled twenty colleges and universities that were unusually effective in fostering student engagement and success, defined as better-than-predicted scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and better-than-predicted graduation rates. These schools are…

Substance use is highly prevalent among homeless, street-involved young people. Societal estrangement is often associated with substance use, particularly among this population. The current study sought to identify four domains of social estrangement (disaffiliation, human capital, identification with homeless culture, and psychological…

The data and research findings for this paper were derived from two studies. The first was commissioned to the National Afterschool Partnership (NAP) by the U.S. Department of Education to evaluate effective practices at the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs). The purpose of this study was to develop resources and professional…