Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

No.1, December 2007: Parent Involvement And The Education Of English Learners And Standard English Learners: Perspectives Of Lausd Parent Leader, Magaly Lavadenz Ph.D., Elvira G. Armas Ed.D., Irene Villanueva Ph.D.

Education and Policy Briefs

This policy brief reports findings from a survey of parent leaders in 2007 that sought to understand what parents of English Learners and Standard English Learners think about the education of their children and about parent education and involvement in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Surveys with 513 LAUSD parent leaders revealed low ratings for LAUSD’s parent education efforts as well as for student academic programs. Open-ended responses point both to educational as well as policy recommendations in the following areas: 1) home/school collaboration; 2) professional development, curriculum and Instruction, and tutors/support; and 3) accountability. This policy brief …

Cultural Disparities Of Sat Scores And The Influence On Higher Education Opportunities For African American And Latino Students, Nichelle Hoover

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Inequalities in the distribution of education resources and cultural identification can lead to lower SAT scores for African American and Latino students. By using SAT scores as one of the primary sources to determine admission to institutions of higher education, educators may be denying minority students admission to a variety of colleges and universities, depriving the student of his or her best choice and the college of an engaged and diverse student body, and contributing to the perpetuation of inequalities in the system. The evidence contained in this literature review shows that, given the current system, those students' SAT scores …

Resilient Teachers: A Qualitative Study Of Six Thriving Educators In Urban Elementary Schools, Paul Giroux

Dissertations

This qualitative research study used elements of phenomenological and narrative research methodology to explore the common characteristics and experiences of a sample of resilient elementary teachers working in urban schools. The six research subjects in this study’s sample each had at least eight years of teaching experience, and each participated in a cycle of three in-depth interviews designed to determine their degree of resilience and to develop a portrait of their personal and professional characteristics, experiences, attitudes and beliefs. Once the data collection phase was complete, data was coded and then analyzed to identify which of the characteristics and experiences …

The Influence Of Teacher Expectations On Black And White Students' Academic Achievement: A Hierarchical Linear Modeling Analysis, Syprose A. Owaja

Masters Theses

This study examined the influence of teacher expectations based on student's and teacher's race on academic achievement of white versus black students using data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study. Modeling of interaction terms in level-1 resulted in six separate models (two for reading, and four for math). A two-level hierarchical linear modeling with students at level-1 and schools at level-2 was used in each model with application of a three-step modeling procedure in each analysis.

The results of the study were consistent with previous research that black students had lower achievement, and also elicited lower teacher expectations regarding achievement …

Developing The Whole Child: An Evaluation Of The Latino After‐School Initiative (Lasi), Virginia Diez

Gastón Institute Publications

This report presents findings from an evaluation of the Latino After-School Initiative (LASI), an umbrella organization that provides funding, educational guidelines, staff development, and networking opportunities to after-school programs in the Greater Boston area. LASI funds seven Latino-led after-school programs servicing children ages 7-14. The programs are located in Lynn, Cambridge, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, and Chelsea. LASI was established in 2001 by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay as a five-year demonstration project to improve academic achievement—as measured by MCAS scores and high school retention rates—among Latino children.

Analyzing An Urban University's Diversity Dilemma, Melodee Landis, Angela Ferguson, Ana Carballal, Wilma Kuhlman, Sandra Squires

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Lack of diversity in the teaching force is proving to be a grievous problem for our country. Across the nation the percentage of teachers of color in our schools remains stagnant as the percentage of students of color increases (Gay, Dingus & Jackson, 2003; Gordon, 2000; Gursky, 1999). Councils have been convened and conferences held to confront the issue (National Collaborative on Diversity in the Teaching Force, 2004). This disparity between the supply and demand for a diverse teaching force not only violates our standards of equity, it also appears to have a deleterious effect on achievement of students, particularly …

Making Use Of Bilingual Interview Data: Some Experiences From The Field, Nelofer Halai

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper describes the challenges faced, and rules devised, while dealing with bilingual interview data as part of a life history study of a female science teacher’s conceptions of the nature of science while teaching in a school in Karachi. The interview data generated was both in Urdu and English, which underwent a number of processes (transcription, translation, and transliteration) to evolve into “interim texts,” to finally become a part of the data analysis process. I have called these translated materials “transmuted texts,” as they reflect the original, but have been recreated. This paper is significant because as globalization connects …

A Comparison Of Japanese Persuasive Writing: The Writings Of Japanese As Foreign Language Students In The Nsw Hsc Examination And Japanese Native Speaking Students In High School In Japan, Y. Oe

Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive)

This study uses a functional model of language to examine the 2005 Japanese HSC examination persuasive essays to investigate the language features of the exposition genre, which students produce during the examination. The exam scripts are compared to the essays which were written by Japanese native speaking (JNS) high school students answering the same question. This study seeks to answer two questions: “How successful Japanese persuasive essays are constructed in the HSC Japanese Examination?”, and “To what extent a successful HSC exam model matches the native speaker equivalent?”. The methodology used in this study is Generic Structure Potential (GSP) (Hasan, …