Public higher education institutions rely on state funding for a significant percentage of operational costs. In recent years, state contributions to higher education have been substantially reduced due to budget deficits at the state and federal levels. Such budget deficits have resulted in decreased funding for higher education. Universities…

To date, research on immigrant Latino students has neglected to fully explore the school experiences of immigrants from Oaxaca, a community that has historically experienced economic, political, social, and cultural oppression in Mexico and now in the United States. Drawing from formal and informal interviews and observations, I examine the high…

This paper presents part of the results of a qualitative study about literacy practices of Mexican transnational mothers, who live in and frequently cross the border between two countries (the United States and Mexico). Drawing on sociocultural approaches to literacy and literature on transnationalism, I analyze one practice: "leer…

This study investigates second language (L2) development of Spanish verbal morphology, subject omissions, and subject-verb (SV) inversions by learners in two different proficiency levels and learning contexts. Oral narratives from 40 L2 learners at the intermediate and advanced levels, both at home and in a study abroad (SA) program, were examined…

The current study considers methodological challenges in developmental research with linguistically diverse samples of young adolescents. By empirically examining the cross-language measurement equivalence of a measure assessing three components of ethnic identity development (i.e., exploration, resolution, and affirmation) among Mexican American…

This article first sets the context by recalling a study conducted by Alamillo (2004) at a California elementary school. That study examined culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy in the classroom through the use of Chicano children's literature. Both the text and the illustrations found in recent publications and the role they played…

Reliability and validity evidence is provided for the Demographic Index of Cultural Exposure (DICE), consisting of six demographic proxy indicators of acculturation, within two community samples of Mexican-origin adults (N= 497 for each sample). Factor analytic procedures were used to examine the common variance shared between the six demographic…

This is a qualitative interpretive study that explores the past and present experiences of heritage learners (HLs) of Mexican descent who were studying or had recently studied advanced Spanish in institutions of higher education. All of the participants had been exposed to Spanish in the home and began their studies in elementary or middle school…

This article presents cases of three young people who represent the "New Mainstream" of the 21st-century classroom as they engaged in a year-long research and writing project. Focal students were classmates who represented the linguistic and cultural diversity of today's New Mainstream: a transnational Mexican-origin bilingual female, an…

This article discusses the language and identity challenges I faced as a critical border ethnographer from Spain doing fieldwork in Southern California. I focus on the multiple positionings that I negotiated doing fieldwork in La Clase Magica (The Magic Class), a computer-based, after-school bilingual program for Mexican/Mexican American/Chicano-a…

This study was inspired by the literary elements of "cuentos tipicos" (culturally-relevant stories). The book "Prietita y la llorona" ("Prietita and the Ghost Woman") written by Anzaldua (1995) is a good example of a "cuento" that provides information about medicinal herbs and also includes…

As the school year gave way to summer vacation, a group of 11 Nebraska educators embarked on a 16-day professional development journey to the western Mexico city of Guadalajara. During a two week stay in Mexico, these educators--who were made up of in-service and pre-service teachers and school support personnel--engaged in a structured program of…

Analyzing three waves of data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Survey, this article explores the process of language assimilation among second-generation Latinos. Although previous studies have focused on the shift from mother tongue to English across immigrant generations, few have examined change in language proficiency over time…

To examine factors predictive of successful 4th-grade 2nd language reading, I used a hierarchical multiple regression equation that included Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) Reading percentile rank as the criterion variable. The equation tested 5 predictor variables: English language proficiency, years of U.S. schooling, and 3…

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments later this month from a class action Miriam Flores, 42-year-old Mexican-born homemaker, joined on behalf of her first child in 1996. The lawsuit, Flores v. State of Arizona, contends that programs for English-language learners in Nogales are deficient and receive inadequate funding from the state.…