Schools traditionally measure parent involvement based on a set of scripted tasks and practices, which diminishes the unique forms of parent engagement that historically marginalized parents engage in. Based on the experiences of ten Mexican immigrant mothers and their daughters, in this article, I aim to reframe parent involvement through a…

The immigrant Latino population of North Central Indiana has hopes of improving youth's academics, but must overcome tremendous obstacles to do so. The current study addresses the needs of immigrant Latino families while transitioning to the United States. Sixty-three participants were interviewed in association with a three-year ethnographic…

This study explored the experiences of Latina immigrant parent students enrolled in a noncredit English as a Second Language (ESL) program at a California community college. It sought to uncover how these students navigate the processes and services of community colleges to support their academic success while also examining how they draw upon…

For most people in the United States, quality postsecondary credentials--which include two- and four-year college degrees, vocational training certificates, and professional licenses--offer the most direct path to economic and social mobility. In fact, 80 percent of today's jobs require more than a high school degree. Yet as of 2019, about 115.3…

The current pilot study examines the impact of the "Ten Education Commandments for Parents" program on (1) new immigrant Latino parents' knowledge of the U.S. public education system, (2) parent engagement, and (3) their children's academic achievement. Utilizing a pre-experimental, pre- and post-test research design, four schools with…

Racial inequality in school discipline is a salient challenge in the United States. Using New York City as a case, this study examines "inclusive disciplinary schools" (IDS) or schools that have "beat the school discipline odds". IDS, "median disciplinary schools" (MDS), and "high disciplinary schools" (HDS)…

This study examines parental participation in children's schooling. Using a survey of parents of children attending a majority Hispanic school district, we employ exploratory factor analysis and determine that standard forms of participation align along two dimensions: Involvement and Engagement. Analysis reveals a third dimension: Parental…

We examine how increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities impacted newborn health and prenatal care utilization in North Carolina around the time Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act was first being implemented within the state. Focusing on administrative data between 2004 and 2006, we conduct…

We sought to determine whether pediatric primary care interventions targeting positive parenting among low socioeconomic status mothers resulted in reduced referrals to the New York City Early Intervention Program (NYC-EIP). Participants in Building Blocks (BB) and the Video Interaction Project (VIP) were linked with the NYC-EIP administrative…

This three-study dissertation investigated how socioeconomic factors and policies are associated with educational outcomes for undocumented youth and, in one of the papers, to what extent education and employment outcomes intersect. Guided by the specific questions of each study, the three papers take different theoretical and methodological…

Hispanics now represent 18.1 percent of the U.S. population, making their labor market outcomes an important economic policy issue. A central question for researchers and policymakers is whether the labor market conditions of Hispanics have improved, stayed the same, or deteriorated in recent decades. To help answer this question, this report…

Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States, but quantitative research on the various components of this population has not received extensive investigation. College-educated Hispanics have been particularly neglected due to exaggerated and negative stereotypes. This present study uses data from the 2010 National Survey of…

In its 2019 report, "Beyond the Border: Family Separation in the Trump Era," UnidosUS demonstrates how the current trajectory of the nation's immigration policies is threatening the future of an entire generation of American children. This issue brief on Illinois is part of a series that builds on this analysis by exploring the stakes at…

This research sought to gauge Americans' ethnocentricity in regard to Hispanic immigrants and correlated those levels of bias with education levels. A new instrument was developed for measuring ethnocentricity, and it showed strong reliability, validating it for potential use in future research. Both quantitative and qualitative results are…

With rising job vacancies and a workforce and society that are aging, the United States already has a reservoir of human capital that is not fully tapped: The millions of U.S.-born and immigrant college graduates who are in jobs requiring no more than a high school credential or who are unemployed. This human capital, if well leveraged, could…