Despite the wide-ranging scholarship on the educational attitudes held by native-born members of the middle and working class, few researchers have examined the impact of class on the attitudes of new arrivals. This article addresses this gap using data gathered through an ethnographic study conducted among 30 newly arrived refugee and immigrant…

This qualitative case study examines 43 black students' understanding of the relationships of social identity, academic identity, and college-going aspirations. Specifically, we focus on understanding how stereotypes influence the academic motivation of black immigrant and black native-born students. Findings suggest distinctions across ethnicity…

International student achievement comparisons have aroused interest widely across the world. Finland dominated the comparisons for a long time but now Asian countries have fared better. Both countries studied have faced abundant immigration, which has changed the student groups. In this article, we compare two quite different top countries:…

The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) examines what students know in reading, mathematics and science, and what they can do with what they know. It provides the most comprehensive and rigorous international assessment of student learning outcomes to date. Results from PISA indicate the quality and equity of learning…

Research on the academic adjustment of immigrant adolescents has been predominately conducted in large cities among established migration areas. To broaden the field's restricted focus, data from 172 (58% female) Asian American adolescents who reside within a non-traditional or emerging immigrant community in the Southeastern US were used to…

Self-report questionnaire, school records, and census block group data for 502 Latino adolescents in immigrant families were examined using multilevel modeling to test how structural neighborhood adversity, in addition to perceived neighborhood, parental, and adolescent factors, explained grade point average (GPA). The results showed perceived…

What are the aspirations of Adult ESOL learners and what social and institutional factors constrain them? What are the consequent implications for Adult ESOL practitioners? This paper draws on a corpus of 76 interviews with adult migrants learning English in the UK, analyzing four of them in detail using a case study methodology. Despite the high…

A study examining Mexican-born parents' influence on their children's academic outcomes surveyed 273 Mexican American students attending three Los Angeles high schools. Girls reported higher academic motivation and educational aspirations than boys. Parent behaviors of helping, monitoring, and supporting positively affected academic motivation.…

Mathematics achievement was used to distinguish between resilient and nonresilient Latino middle-school students, primarily immigrants from working-class families speaking English as a Second Language. Resilient students had greater involvement and satisfaction in math class, academic self-concept, and achievement motivation than nonresilient…

This book presents a collection of papers by educators and researchers who discuss various methods of improving minority student achievement. The 19 chapters highlight the achievement of students from kindergarten through college as follows: (1) "Discrepancies between Aspirations and Preparation of Low SES Elementary Students" (Dianne L.…