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…

Problem-solving has been playing an important role in predicting students' academic achievement, cognitive skills, and future careers. It plays an even more important role in English learners (ELs), especially those who are at-risk for math learning difficulties, because they face more severe challenges in language. As more English learners…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth of color (LGBTQ-YOC) face disproportionate risks of adverse mental health outcomes, including higher rates of depression and suicide-related thoughts and behaviors (STB) compared to their White LGBTQ and heterosexual peers. Despite the documented disparities, there is a critical lack of…

Objective: Emergent research suggests that trauma-exposed Latinx college students are a particularly at-risk group for eating-related problems. For this reason, there is a need to further understand the cognitive processes that may underpin maladaptive eating among this vulnerable segment of the population. Participants: Participants included 304…

This study analyzes the outcomes of a service-learning course where Latinas in a higher education setting created a 16-page children's book for at-risk students as part of their education coursework in a regional public Hispanic-serving institution (HSI). There is a well-documented lack of Latina/o/x representation in children's literature, which…

Over the last several decades, "zero-tolerance" policies have been implemented by federal, state, and local educational systems, which have altered the culture of learning. A consequence of this "tough on education" culture is what some scholars have called the "school-to-prison-pipeline" which disproportionately…

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2021 was a life altering phenomenon for educators across the United States. Schools and teachers had to transform their teaching practices practically overnight. Education in most schools across the country conducted distance learning in some capacity. A demographic group that was affected was economically…

Early research on the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated differential impact on the Latinx community. There has been limited research exploring the mental health outcomes of the pandemic on Latinx youth. This study explores the severity of pandemic-related stress on Latinx youth considering their resilience factors and previous adverse childhood…

As states incorporate measures of college readiness into their accountability systems, school and district leaders need effective strategies to identify and support students at risk of not enrolling in college. Although there is an abundant literature on early warning indicators for high school dropout, fewer studies focus on indicators for…

Over 65% of all Latinx students in higher education attend a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). HSI is a federal designation based on an institution having a minimum of 25% of the student population identifying as Hispanic. Despite the growing number of HSI designated institutions across the United States, these institutions have not always…

This essay recommends embedded tutoring as a strategy for the Universal Design for Learning Framework. Embedded tutoring embodies many metacognitive and academic self regulatory processes suggested by the UDL framework into one specific vehicle and disrupts the inherent classroom power dynamic. Utilizing Brookfield's critical lens, we trace the…

Framed through ecological and LatCrit theories, this article offers critical perspectives on the academic achievement of two Latin@ students. Findings suggested participants obtained critical support from the micro and meso systems to access college, but they also had to battle multi-layered oppression on their own. The study cautions using…

The population of Latinx students at colleges and universities in the United States who have received Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) is large and growing. The literature shows that these students face unique challenges at the intersection of being DACA and Latinx (e.g., racial/ethnic discrimination and microaggressions,…

Common methods of measuring discipline disproportionality can produce contradictory results and obscure base-rate information. In this paper, we show how using multilevel modeling to analyze discipline disparities resolves ambiguities inherent in traditional measures of disparities: relative rate ratios and risk differences. One previous study…

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were high rates of food and housing insecurity and unmet childcare, clothing, and physical and mental health needs among community college students. There was a growing body of evidence linking these unmet needs to adverse educational outcomes. In response, many community colleges had started to develop basic…