This article examines the foundations of Latina/o/x excellence as a culturally-embedded practice born, taught, and cultivated in the home by the family members of Latina/o/x high school students. The research team conducted a phenomenological study on excellence in the home, school and community of Latina/o/x youth in Southern California. In this…

This article brings critical and postcolonial theories together with extended ethnographic research in a predominantly Latinx high school in California's "South Bay" to theorize the co-production and co-naturalization of mathematical and racial essentialization. Analysis of vignettes and interview excerpts illuminates both student uptake…

The culture of a science classroom favors a particular speech community. Thus membership requires students to become bilingual and bicultural at the same time. The complexity of learning science rests in that it not only possesses a unique lexicon and discourse, but it ultimately entails a particular way of knowing. This study examines the…

In this paper, I explore how pláticas allowed for my former high school students and I to conceptualize love. This work is a response to overwhelming statistics regarding child trauma and literature that named loving relationships as a pivotal but under-conceptualized intervention. Specifically, we participated in three different iterations of…

Background/Context: Undocumented youth navigate unwelcoming federal, state, and local contexts in the United States. Although previous research shows the significant impact of immigration policy and enforcement on educational outcomes and social-emotional well-being, this study sheds light on the multiple, intersecting policy, and school contexts…

In an effort to address the needs of the fastest growing population at my school, I asked Latinx students to share their experiences of being in a monolingual English 2 classroom. Students also shared opinions about friendships, Latinx culture in school, and alternative methods of educating non-English speakers. Through action research we can…

This study examined the connection between adolescent employment and future participation in postsecondary education in a sample of U.S. Latino high school juniors/seniors (n = 2164) from the 1992-2002 Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study. Employed and non-employed Latino adolescents did not markedly differ in academic performance, ability,…

Adolescents experiencing depressive symptoms tend to withdraw from social interaction, but patterns among Latinx LGBT youth (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) are unclear. Latinx adolescents in the Greater Los Angeles Area (N = 549) were surveyed during two consecutive years, and longitudinal relationships among depressive symptoms,…

Researchers and practitioners in the United States increasingly promote phenomena-based instruction in science that supports the development of a coherent storyline throughout the unit. Questions about "who" is constructing the science storyline and "how" still remain. Employing a qualitative ethnographic case study approach,…

This qualitative classroom-based study investigated the writing practices, choices, and reflections of Latinx high school students during an instructional unit on writing testimonio. The study was grounded in a sociocultural theory of writing and draws from LatCrit and testimonio research to understand how writing about self as testimonio shapes…

This qualitative action research study sought to explore and enhance the academic self-efficacy of Black and Hispanic students in urban high schools. The study aimed to uncover the factors contributing to low academic self-efficacy among Black and Hispanic STEM students and develop an actionable plan to address these issues. In Cycle 1, high…

Social, emotional, and academic skills are essential to success in school, the workplace, our homes, and our communities, allowing individuals to contribute successfully and meaningfully to our society (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schellinger, 2011; Jones & Kahn, 2017). The labor market acknowledges the importance of these…

Many districts across Texas have adopted programs built on the goal of providing more opportunities within their repertoire for servicing traditionally underserved students (AVID, 2023). Friou (2016) reported that 62 districts across Texas have utilized the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, which aimed to bridge the gap in…

In response to the national problem of overrepresentation of Hispanic students in general education classes, this study addressed Hispanic access and enrollment in Advanced Placement (AP) coursework in Virginia, a growing destination state for many Hispanic families and students. Through a secondary data analysis of the Civil Rights Data…

Early college high schools (ECHSs) have been proposed as a high school reform solution to improve college access and success among underserved and underrepresented students in higher education; however, little to no research has centered the experiences of Latinx/a/o students in ECHS. In response, I used critical narrative methodology to better…