Studies of Mexican American students and classroom interaction are reviewed and critiqued from a perspective based on the work of Lev Vygotsky. Research suggests that Mexican American student involvement can be promoted through collaborative learning techniques, acceptance of student language use, and the use of material related to student…

Conversations with 19 predominantly Chicano middle-school students labeled "at risk" revealed that students viewed their at-risk status as a source of both shame and unity, thereby reproducing the category on one hand and producing a counterculture to adult world views on the other. A communication perspective on student success offers…

In fall 1997, students in a Social Science Research Methods class developed and administered a survey questionnaire to assess the degree of stress experienced by students at Texas A&M International University (TAMIU). Located in Laredo, TAMIU serves communities along the Texas-Mexico border. The student body includes many older students who…

A five-year program, part of the Experimental Schools Program in the Edgewood Independent School District, in San Antonio, Texas, was designed to improve the school performance of its predominantly bilingual Mexican American primary grade students by improving the attitudes of beginning students. Program changes to reverse students' anticipated…

Written by Stanford University students, the 9 articles in this publication reflect student ideas on Chicano education. Their aim is to stimulate new ideas and discussion on Raza Education. The majority of the articles were written by students in the Department of Education and by students working toward a Ph.D. degree. Divided into 3 parts, the…

This paper analyzes the literature pertinent to the educational and occupational aspirations of Mexican American youth. Following a historical account of the Mexican American presence in the Southwest, this review focuses on social science literature, primarily of the 1950s-70s, that viewed Mexican Americans as having culture-based pathological…

The Futures in Quality Education Workforce (FQEW) program provides current teacher aides and school secretaries an alternative pathway to becoming credentialed teachers. Offered by the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College in conjunction with 12 local school districts, the program offers alternative coursework and…

A survey of 100 Mexican American undergraduate students assessed their perceptions of five challenges (and associated resources) to completing college: financial problems, domestic responsibilities, academic discouragement, and racial and gender discrimination. There were no differences between upper- and lower-division students. Males were more…

This book reports on a 3-year ethnographic study of academic achievement and schooling orientations among immigrant Mexican and Mexican American students at a Houston (Texas) high school. The study included a survey of the entire student body (2,281 students), participant observation in the school and community from 1992 to 1995, 25 open-ended…

Questionnaires that were developed to measure factors in the academic persistence of minority college students were administered to 454 Mexican American students at two large southwestern universities. Both the Cultural Congruity Scale and the University Environment Scale were significant predictors of academic persistence of Mexican American…

Inquired 69 students' beliefs about registering for high school chemistry. The information was used to develop a questionnaire and persuasive messages. Among 598 target students, chemistry enrollment was higher than expected for those receiving in-class student-only materials and lower than expected for those receiving student/parent take-home…

This paper examines conditions influencing achievement in and attitudes toward mathematics among middle-school Latino students. Observations were carried out in a rural California middle school that served a largely Mexican American student population and that was in the process of implementing a new thematic mathematics curriculum in…

Interviews with 32 Mexican-descent college students examined teacher actions in high school that had impacted students' academic success. Positive and negative teacher actions were described in the areas of cultural understanding, stereotypes, expectations of students, and exclusion from or inclusion in classroom activities. Recommendations for…

A bilingual, bicultural program in the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas, part of the Experimental Schools Program, was designed to reverse "negative self concept, motivation, and attitudes" of its Mexican American students, and by so doing, improve their academic achievement. Efforts were employed to: (1)…

This literature review examines the effect of teacher expectations on minority students, and especially on Mexican-American students. The review focuses on four areas: (1) teachers' attitudes and expectations toward Mexican-American children; (2) teachers' attitudes and expectations toward minority children; (3) teachers' performance expectations…