This study centers the experiences of 9 Latinas enrolled in a continuation high school. This study attempts to understand how this continuation school engages with Latinas and attempts to improve their conditions and opportunities in this marginalized sector that is overrepresented with racially minoritized youth. Despite all the challenges they…

Generation Z, individuals born between 1995 and 2010, is projected to soon be the first minority-majority generation in the United States. This generational cohort is attending colleges now and will continue to enter colleges for the next decade. Within the Generation Z population are a large group of the Latinx students who often struggle to meet…

Background/Context: Sociologists of education have studied how community colleges' institutional authorities and organizational barriers stratify students' postsecondary aspirations. Notions of how students might diverge in their pursuits are less understood. This study builds on imagined futures and postsecondary aspiration literature to…

The low number of California Native American students, both rural and urban, graduating A through G ready prompted this study. Using a qualitative and Indigenous research approach, the research questions that guided this study were: (1) What are the perspectives and beliefs about postsecondary education among a group of Native American students at…

Given the importance of a college degree for both individual and societal economic prosperity, policymakers and educators are focused on strengthening the path to college beyond college entry. In this report, we synthesize the existing literature on four factors key to educational attainment--aspirations and beliefs, academic preparation,…

A lack of diversity permeates the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) field. Under-representation within STEM fields can stifle innovation and progressive approaches to the future of STEM. Traditional STEM pathways focus on identifying participants who show academic promise in schools. One segment of young people, youth who…

Public discourse often frames the value of undergraduate education in financial terms--credentialing and increased earning power. Students must prepare to be self-supporting, but are financial prospects their only important goals? We asked 1,500 students from 11 U.S. colleges to write about their goals, the reasons their goals were important, and…

In Assembly Bill (AB) 705, assessment and placement practices in California Community Colleges (CCC) should maximize the probability that students who enter credit-bearing English as a second language (ESL) course sequences complete degree and transfer requirements in English within three years. The three-year timeframe begins when a student…

Through interviews and focus groups with 21 high school seniors, this research examines the experiences of Latinx English learners in college and career academies in urban districts across California. In California, the college and career readiness landscape is varied and complex. However, many stakeholders see the Linked Learning approach as…

This article examines college-going identity construction for Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander high school students. The authors use Marcia's (J Personal Soc Psychol 3(5):551-558, 1966; in: Delson (ed) Handbook of adolescent research, Wiley, New York, 1980) ego identity statuses perspective to examine how students develop…

Many college and SAT preparation programs are designed to improve the postsecondary success of traditionally marginalized students. In addition to academic preparation, students' social and emotional preparation is important for the transition from high school to college. Mentors can serve as role models and supports to aid students in this…

The academic achievement, bilingual proficiency, and sociocultural competence of exiting middle school students was analyzed to provide dual-language program stakeholders with evaluative information for local control funding and accountability planning. Informed by equity as a guiding principle of additive bilingualism, researchers used…

Drawing on sociocultural and related theories, 4 questions examined career and educational aspirations and expectations among 24 immigrant Latina/o early adolescents and their parents as predictors of students' grades. First, adolescents' career aspirations and expectations were correlated, and both parents and adolescents held educational…

This article reports on an empirical case study centering on adult ESL learners' motivational patterns for learning English and its relevance to their career goals. It looks at past patterns of immigrant insertion within the socioeconomic context of the US and explores current trends in adult ESL curriculum development focused on the task of…

Latinas/os are the largest and fastest growing minority group however they still remain the smallest group to complete graduate program in the United States (Fry, 2004; NCES, 2011). Moreover, if the proportion of Latinas/os continues to grow and the post-baccalaureate shortfall persists, a serious shortage of highly educated Latinas/os is likely,…