CENTER FOR MULTILINGUAL, MULTICULTURAL RESEARCH

---

LATINO/HISPANIC RESOURCES

Sites and articles listed here are not necessarily endorsed by the CMMR; they are listed for informational purposes only. Full text articles and resources are also provided. If you would like to suggest a site to be added to this listing please visit our "Submit a Site" page.

University of Minnesota Department of Anthropology award winning web effort that supplies information regarding Mesoamerican Civilizations. The primary groups addressed are the Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec. The site includes: Mesoamerican writing systems, Mesoamerican governments, Mesoamerican religions and a robust library of links to other related web sites.

A virtual forum of Mexican culture, in English and Spanish versions, that includes galleries featuring anthropology, archeology, contemporary art, and modern art, as well as cultural institutions like museums, galleries, libraries, contemporary dance companies, photography, literature, a writer's dictionary, cultural projects, books, and much more.

The Azteca Web page contains information accumulated especially for Mexicans, Chicanos, and/or Mexican-Americans. However, everyone is welcome and encouraged to read this information.

Stanford University Libraries' collections on the historical and contemporary experience of Hispanic Americans, and in particular Mexican Americans, are extensive, providing an excellent place for students conducting research in this area. The interdisciplinary nature of Latino Studies means that relevant titles are dispersed throughout the collections depending upon subject matter. Use Socrates, Stanford's online catalog, to locate books and other materials. Use the library's print or electronic indexes to locate journal articles and published papers.

The Center located at California State University San Marcos endeavors to maintain strong ties with organizations interested in meeting the needs of young readers. El Centro se esfuerza en mantener lazos con organizaciones interesadas en atender las necesidades de lectores jóvenes.

In four one-hour programs, this landmark public television series examines pivotal events concerning land, labor, education, and political empowerment that took place between 1965 and1975, the period that was the focus of the Mexican-American civil rights movement. The Honorable Henry Cisneros narrates.

CLnet is an emerging digital library on Latinas/os in the United States. It is part of the Chicano/Latino Electronic Network (CLEN) and is a joint project of the Center for Virtual Research (CVR) in the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of California at Riverside, the Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA and the Linguistic Minority Research Institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Embajada de España en Estados Unidos Washington, D.C. "La educación en el próximo milenio será multilingüe and pluricultural. Nosotros trabajamos para contribuir a hacerla posible." La Consejería es responsable de gestionar la política educativa y científica del Estado español en los Estados Unidos y Canadá. La puesta en práctica de esta política educativa y científica se hace en colaboración con las administraciones educativas de los Estados y distritos escolares y a través de diferentes programas:Información acerca de temas de interés para profesores y alumnos que quieren mejorar sus conocimientos sobre España. Las contribuciones de este sitio incluye: promoción de intercambios científicos entre universidades españolas y de los Estados Unidos y Canadá; Incorporación de profesores españoles a los sistemas educativos de los Estados y distritos escolares para colaborar en la impartición de enseñanza bilingüe y de español como segunda lengua, y facilitar los intercambios entre alumnos de España y los Estados Unidos y Canadá.

A most comprehensive Cuban links site.

CRI was established in 1991 to generate and disseminate research about Cuba and Cuban American issues. CRI combines advanced scholarship with the substantial resources of the greater Miami community to produce original research and public service programs at the local, national, and international levels.

The first virtual museum devoted to Diego Rivera on the Internet The muralist painter, was one of the greatest artists in the XXth century. This site affords a glance at his murals, a gallery of some of his most famous paintings, biography and links to numerous other sites celebrating the famous Mexican artists' life and works. Also provides versión en Español. For a look at the famous artist and wife of Rivera visit the Frida Kahlo home page.

Addresses of the education offices of the Spanish Embassy in the U.S.A., resource centers of the education offices of the Spanish Embassy in the U.S.A., diplomas of Spanish as a foreign language, scholarships for summer courses in Spain, and links to other Spanish sites.

Program focused on assisting communities to strengthen the educational pipeline for Latino youth. Known as ENLACE, or Engaging Latino Communities for Education, this initiative is designed to be a comprehensive, community-based collaborative effort among Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and other colleges and universities, K-12 schools, and community organizations. The term "ENLACE" is from the Spanish word "enlazar," which means to link or weave together ‹ to connect in such a way that the new entity is stronger than its parts. To improve the education of Latino youth, strategies must be found to draw upon the strengths of Latino people and communities to create a vibrant, healthy learning environment for today's young people.

Includes links to annotated bibliographies and resource lists on preschool experiences for Latino/Hispanic children. Most of the included documents and journal articles have been entered into the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. Journal articles can be read at libraries with journal or UMI collections. Most non-journal documents are available at libraries with ERIC microfiche collections. Links to ERIC Abstracts provide summmaries and ordering information.

HACU has grown to more than 179 member institutions located in 14 states, Puerto Rico and six countries. As a national association representing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), HACU's work is to promote nonprofit, accredited colleges and universities where Hispanics constitute a minimum of 25 percent of the enrollment at either the graduate or undergraduate level. HACU's mission is to promote the development of member colleges and universities; To improve access to and the quality of post-secondary educational opportunities for Hispanic students; and To meet the needs of business, industry and government through the development and sharing of resources, information and expertise. Of note is The HACU National Internship Program. The HACU National Internship Program (HNIP) works with HSIs, federal agencies and corporations to recruit well-qualified and motivated students. Students selected for the program are undergraduate and graduate students, have a minimum 3.0 GPA and are active in community and campus activities. HNIP began in 1992 and has placed thousands of students in federal and corporate internships across the nation.

Senator Jeff Bingaman's Hispanic Dropout Prevention Home Page. This Home Page is intended for people who want to help all students, and especially all Hispanic students, complete high school successfully.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of the Under Secretary and Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs (OBEMLA) and staffed by members from those two offices, the Hispanic Dropout Project (HDP) is composed of seven independent individuals whose backgrounds include scholarly research, teaching, and administration across grade levels of U.S. schooling. The purpose of the HDP is to produce concrete analyses and syntheses such as, Advances In Hispanic Education, and to recommend actions that could be taken at all levels in order to reduce the nation's dropout rates of Hispanic youth.

Clearinghouse news site that draws together information of interest to Latinos. Provides news, editorials and numerous links.

The Web site of Hispanic Magazine, a monthly magazine for and about Hispanics. The effort covers news, events, and issues of interest to the Latino community. In addition to stories from their flagship magazines Hispanic and Moderna, the Latina Magazine, they review top Latino web sites, which they call Tesoros del Web.

The reading room, named after the Hispanic Society of America, was dedicated in 1939 to serve as a focal point to orient and assist researchers who seek to avail themselves of the immense opportunities afforded by Luso-Hispanic materials throughout the Library of Congress. The Hispanic Reading Room, as it is usually called, serves as the primary access point for research relating to those parts of the world encompassing the geographical areas of the Caribbean, Latin America, and Iberia; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos in the U.S., and peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The page may be viewed in both Spanish and English.

Impacto 2000 is a website dedicated to the political and economic empowerment of La Raza through the effective use of the World Wide Web. They are attempting to bring the benefits of the information superhighway not only to faculty and students of colleges and universities but also to the newly arrived "imigrante" and the many "home-boys" and "home-girls of the barrios throughout Aztlan.

Es la institución pública creada por España en 1991 para la promoción y la enseñanza de la lengua española y para la difusión de la cultura española e hispanoamericana.

IUPLR, a consortium of 13 Latino research centers based at major universities across the United States, is the only nationwide university-based research organization bringing together scholars from a wide variety of disciplines to conduct policy-relevant research on Latinos.

Established in the Spring of 1996, as a world wide web forum, for the purpose of disseminating socio-political, cultural, educational, and economic information about Latinos in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe Metro area and the Intermountain Region which includes Metropolitan Areas such as the Salt Lake City/Ogden region, Denver, Phoenix, Tucson, Boise, Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada.

LANIC, located at the University of Texas, provides users access to comprehensive academic Latin American databases and information services throughout the Internet world. An extensive Latin American country and subject directory makes this a site worth visiting.

LatinoLink aims to provide news, analysis, commentary and photo essays that explore the joys and challenges faced by those who call the United States home yet trace their roots to the Spanish-speaking Americas.

LatinoWeb is a virtual information center for Latino businesses, non-profit organizations, media, and the community at large.

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect and promote the civil rights of the more than 29 million Latinos living in the United States.

This site details the unique calendar system of the ancient Mayans of what is now Mexico and Central America. The site provides a history of the Mayan culture, explains the calendar system, and provides an image of the Stela, or written Maya image, for the day.

This simple but well-designed page is a daily file on everything Mexican. Get the day's date and astrological data according to the ancient Maya as well as insights from the Aztecs. Find out about "This Day in History" as it relates to Mexico. Not to be overlooked are the "Corrido of the Day" and news updates. English and Spanish.

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt national organization established in 1968 to reduce poverty and discrimination, and improve life opportunities for Hispanics in the United States.

Oyeme! is a searchable index that lists interesting information and services for the Latino community. Oyeme offer special online magazines and real-time news including Periódicos en español.

Lista de todo los periodicos latino en el mundo. Periódicos.com les ofrece un punto de partida hacia el gran mundo de información del habla hispana. Desde Argentina hasta Venezuela, Periódicos.com contiene una lista muy completa de periódicos hispanos.

Includes links to annotated bibliographies and resource lists on academic achievement for Latino/Hispanic students. Documents and journal articles that have been entered into the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) database. Journal articles can be read at libraries with journal or UMI collections. Most non-journal documents are available at libraries with ERIC microfiche collections. Links to ERIC Abstracts provide summaries and ordering information.

Radio Bilingüe - Latino Community Radio Network

A non-profit radio network with Latino control and leadership is the only national distributor of Spanish-language programming in public radio. Radio Bilingüe, red de radioemisoras sin fines de lucro de y para latinos, es la única distribuidora de programación nacional en español de la radio pública de Estados Unidos.

Here you will find plenty of good sites for those who love Spanish. Spanish language links focusing on Mexico, Central America, Spain, Latin and South America, Hispanic/Latino links, Spanish search engines to mention but a few of the Spanish language resources available at this site.

Promoting the well-being of the Latino population of the United States through the improvement of the nation's policies and programs, The Tomas Rivera Center (TRC) conducts rigorous, policy-relevant research, evaluates the effects of governmental and corporate practices on Latinos, and serves as a nonpartisan source of information, analysis and ideas for the policymaking communities.

The UCLA Latino Home-School Research Project began in 1989 as the "Home Emergent Literacy Project," at UCLA. One hundred and twenty-one Latino kindergartners were chosen randomly from those entering bilingual programs in two Los Angeles County school districts. The purpose was to examine their progress in school, the ecological and cultural factors that affected the adaptation of their families in urban Los Angeles County, and to look at the daily routine of their families and the child-rearing and educational strategies that grew out of of that routine. The ultimate goal was to detect reasons why some students succeed in school and others do not, and to make recommendations to school officials regarding the Latino children attending their schools.

Brings you the world of Latin American media. The site covers all types of media (broadcast/cable/satellite television, magazines, newspapers, radio) and advertising in Latin America. The site contains research data, photographs, event schedules, discussions, book reviews, and many links to Latin American media resources.

LATINO/HISPANIC FULL TEXT ARTICLES AND RESOURCES

*Artist: Roberto Sieck Flandes (1939)

• Academic Invulnerability Among Mexican Americans: A Conceptual Framework

An article by S. Alva and A. Padilla reviewing factors that Mexican American students who overcome a number of socioeconomic and cultural disadvantages use to succeed academically. Why do some Mexican American students do well while others fail despite sharing similar socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds? The purpose of this paper is to present a conceptual framework that assigns a central role to the interaction among sociocultural, personal, and environmental factors in explaining the academic performance of Mexican American high school students.

• Capturing Latino Students in the Academic Pipeline

by Patricia Gándara, Katherine Larson, Russell Rumberger, and Hugh Mehan. This Brief reports on three California school-based programs aimed at improving the rate of both high school completion and college attendance among Latino students. While the aims of the three programs are similar, their strategies differ according to the segment of the population they target and the ways in which they deploy their resources. Yet each has proven to be effective. ALAS targets the lowest-achieving Latino students who are at the greatest risk of dropping out of high school. AVID targets underachieving students with above-average test scores who have the potential to take more-demanding college preparatory courses in high school. Puente targets students with varied levels of achievement with the aim of ensuring that they finish high school and go on to college. The report describe each of the programs and the evaluation results that exist to date.

• Caring, Community, and Personalization: Strategies to Combat the Hispanic Dropout Problem

In this article A.T. Lockwood examines the context in which Hispanic students drop out of school--and what one exemplary middle school has done to battle these contextual factors. A web of interlocking factors synergize to make dropping out of school much more likely for Hispanic students. Factors include racial and ethnic identity, gender, socioeconomic status, academic performance, self-concept, family organization, and language fluency.

• Choosing Higher Education: Educationally Ambitious Chicanos and the Path to Social Mobility

by Patricia Gandara. This is a study of high academic achievement found in the most unlikely places: among low-income Mexican Americans from homes with little formal education. It examines the backgrounds of 50 persons, male and female from one age cohort, who met most of the predictors for school failure or "dropping out." All came from families in which neither parent completed high school or held a job higher than skilled labor; the average father finished grade four and most were sons and daughters of farmworkers and other unskilled laborers. Most began school with Spanish as their primary language, yet all completed doctoral-level educations from the country's most prestigious institutions. This study investigates the forces that conspire to create such anomalies. Its aim is to suggest how such outcomes might be the product of design rather than accident.

• Closing the Education Gap: Benefits and Costs

by G. Vernez, R.A. Krop, C.P. Rydell. This Rand report asks: How much would it cost and what would the benefits be if blacks and Hispanics graduated from high school, went to college, and graduated from college at the same rate as non-Hispanic whites? The answer to this important question for the future of the nation is explored in this report. The costs of education would be high, increasing by about 20 percent in California and 10 percent in the rest of the nation. But the benefits, in the form of savings in public health and welfare expenditures and increased tax revenues from higher incomes, would be even higher. Indeed, the added costs of providing more education to minorities would be recouped well within the lifetime of taxpayers called upon to make the additional investments. The nation is experiencing a rapid immigration driven increase in the share of Hispanics in the school age population. Failure to increase the educational attainment of this group would result in growing shares of new labor-force entrants having levels of education lower than those prevailing today; in increased income disparities between blacks and Hispanics, on one hand, and Asians and non-Hispanic whites, on the other; and in increased public expenditures for social and health programs for generations to come.

NOTE: To read this article in PDF format you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Contextual Factors Surrounding Hispanic Dropouts

by Hugh Mehan. The prevailing discourse poses dropping out as a failure of individuals. The purpose of this paper is to try to interrupt that discourse and to furnish a different "way of talking that can unpack, inform, critique but still imagine what could be" in public urban high schools in the United States. The different way proposed represents dropping out in social, not personal, terms, as an institutional production that reproduces the structures of inequality in the educational, economic, and civic domains of everyday life.

• A Curriculum Discourse for Achieving Equity: Implications for Teachers When Engaged with Latina and Latino Students

by R. Chávez Chávez. A discussion on constructing a curriculum discourse for Latina/o students. Focusing on the need for authenticity from within the community that values, respects, and dignifies the self by trusting the self for the good of self and others. The author suggests that constructing curriculum for achieving equity is an attitude that resonates from a longing to have all students think and do for themselves and others in compassionate ways rooted in respect, dignity, and high expectations.

• The Degree that Parents and Significant Others Influence Anglo American and Mexican American Students to Pursue and Complete University Studies

A study by A. Valencia that is intended to yield findings on the degree that significant persons in the students' lives have had in their decisions to pursue and reach higher educational attainments. Nine sources of influence were selected for this study, and the sources were of one particular type- significant persons in the students' lives who influenced them to pursue and complete university studies.

• The Ecology of a Chicano Student at Risk

The objective of this case study by M. Seda and D. J. Bixler-Marquez was to identify, in a holistic manner, the individual, aggregate, and interactive effect of socioeconomic status (SES), cultural, psychosocial, and academic factors that shaped the at-risk status of a Chicano fourth grader. A prescriptive dimension of the study was to provide a set of recommendations that could be used to place the subject on the path of academic and social recovery.

• The Education of Latino Students: Is School Reform Enough?

by Henry Trueba & Lilia Bartolomé. This digest provides a critique of the various educational strategies that have been used with Latino students, and suggests alternatives that may prove more effective. Interestingly, some of the recommendations included here were first made nearly 20 years ago, but they have not yet been widely implemented.

• Effective Dropout Prevention and College Attendance Programs for Latino Students

by O.S. Fashola & R. E. Slavin. Over the past ten years a number of programs designed to affect dropout rates and related outcomes have been implemented and evaluated in middle and high schools serving many Latino students. Collectively, these studies show that schools can make a dramatic difference in the dropout rates, school success, and college enrollment rates of at-risk Latino youth. The purpose of the paper is to review research on programs of this kind.

• Effective Programs for Latino Students in Elementary and Middle Schools

by Olatokunbo S. Fashola, Robert E. Slavin, Margarita Calderón, and Richard Durán. The focus of this review is on the identification of programs that have been shown to be effective in rigorous evaluations, that are replicable across a broad range of elementary and middle schools, and that have been successfully evaluated or at least frequently applied to schools serving many Latino students.

• Emphasis on Equity: The Calexico School District's Secondary-Level Strategies for Hispanic Youth

by A.T. Lockwood. In this document attention focuses on secondary-level curricular strategies that have been successful in not only significantly diminishing the dropout rate of Hispanic students, but also accomplishing a variety of other worthwhile goals. It features the educational strategies of the Calexico School District in Calexico.

• Enhancing Education Opportunities for Hispanic Students Who are Deaf

An article by M. Smith looking at the unique challenge being faced by Hispanic students who are hearing impaired. The purpose of this article is to review some basic facts about hearing impairment then discuss the effects this disability can have on Hispanic students. Specific suggestions are offered for meeting the needs of these students and their families.

• Ensuring Academic Success for Hispanic Students: Three Elementary School Programs

by A.T. Lockwood. To bond Hispanic students to schools and prepare them for productive roles as citizens in a democratic society, school staff need to familiarize themselves with the many outstanding programs available to strengthen their current instructional and social agenda, and to implement programs best suited to the individual needs of their student populations. Many demonstrably effective programs at the elementary or middle level already are flourishing in schools around the country. This article focuses on three of those programs: Success for All, the HOSTS Program (Helping One Student To Succeed), and Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). This article illustrates what each of the three programs looks like in application.

• Facilitating Postsecondary Outcomes for Mexican Americans

by Judith LeBlanc Flores. Postsecondary outcomes for Mexican Americans have not improved measurably since the mid-1980s. Although Hispanic students are attending and graduating from college in greater numbers, much of this growth is linked directly to their population growth. Despite increased representation among undergraduates and college graduates, Hispanic students complete college at a lower rate than the general student population. This digest addresses those factors that may facilitate postsecondary outcomes for Hispanic students, particularly Mexican-American students, who enroll in U.S. community colleges and 4-year institutions.

• Forging Partnerships Between Mexican American Parents and the Schools

by Nancy Feyl Chavkin and Dora Lara Gonzalez. According to the Bureau of the Census (1994), there are approximately 13 million Mexican Americans in the United States. In reviews of the status of education for Mexican American students it is reported that there is a decline in high school completion rates, a steady rise in the dropout rate, and high numbers of students two or more years behind grade level. This digest describes research supporting family participation in students' education. It then describes barriers to participation faced by many Mexican American parents and successful programs and strategies for overcoming those barriers. Finally, the benefits of two-way communication and school-family partnerships are described.

• The Hazards of Changing Schools for California Latino Adolescents

by R. W. Rumberger, K. A. Larson, G. J. Palardy, R. K. Ream, and N. C. Schleicher. This report examines student mobility among California Latino adolescents. Student mobility may be especially important in California because of its highly mobile population. Latinos are the largest and fastest growing segment of the state population. According to California Department of Finance estimates, the Latino public-school population is projected to triple in size between 1986 and 2006, while the non-Latino white population is projected to decrease. Consequently, if student mobility can be problematic for both students and schools, as previous research suggests, it is especially important to understand the nature of mobility among the Latino population.

• Hispanic College Students Broaden Vistas

by Joseph Torres. Under a cloud of new affirmative-action turmoil in higher education, the class of 2001 is arriving on campus -- but for Hispanics, the figures we've been reading in the papers aren't the only story. Other numbers, fed by immigration and determination, add up to brighter prospects for the nation's 32 million Latinos. As Latino students matriculate and choose their majors, they can be found venturing into fields that not so long ago were deemed out of reach. Degrees earned by Hispanics in just about every field are dramatically increasing, according to a recent report by the American Council on Education.

• Hispanic Preschool Education: An Important Overview

by Wendy Schwartz. This digest describes strategies and programs specially designed to meet the early education needs of Hispanic children, particularly those whose families suffer from poverty. It also reviews efforts to recruit the children; to involve their parents in activities that will enhance their children's learning; and to provide parents with literacy, job, and other skills training, and a range of social services.

• Improving Opportunities: Strategies of the Secretary of Education for Hispanic and Limited English Proficient Students
  
  

The strategies in this booklet aim at meeting the unique educational needs of Hispanic and LEP students in the context of this emphasis on high standards and high achievement. The strategies in this booklet reflect the priority the Department of Education places on the education of Hispanic and LEP students and respond to the recommendations proposed by the President's Advisory Commission, the Hispanic Dropout Project, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Mexican American Women: Schooling, Work, and Family

by Flora Ida Ortiz. The Bureau of Census (1994) reports there are approximately 13 million U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. Over 30 percent reside in the South and over 45 percent in the West. The lives of Mexican American women, wherever they reside, are affected profoundly by schooling, work, and family. This report shows the interdependence of these factors; changes in one affect the others.

• No More Excuses: The Final Report of the Hispanic Dropout Project

The final report of the Hispanic Dropout Project summarizes the project's findings, data, and recommendations, based on its work nationwide. It addresses the role of the following constituencies: students, parents and families, schools and school staff, local and state policymakers, and institutions of higher education, including the research and development establishment. For each constituency, the group presents typical comments advanced to explain inaction, followed by evidence of inaction, distilled from the data of the Hispanic Dropout Project and concrete illustrations from sites the project visited.

NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• Our Nation on the Fault Line: Hispanic American Education

A report to the President of the United States, the Nation, and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education by the President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. The report includes an analysis of the current status of Hispanic American educational attainment, which is not optimistic, but, in fact, devastating to both Hispanics and the nation. Hispanic American progress toward achievement of the National Education Goals and other standards of educational accomplishment is constrained by the persistent gap in educational attainment between Hispanic Americans and other Americans, which is already intolerable.

• Summary Results From the Latino Ethnic Attitude Survey

by Daniel L. Roy. Summary of the findings of the Latino Ethnic Attitude Survey (LEAS). The 182 page report, titled Strangers in a Native Land: A Labyrinthine Map of Latino Identity, dealt specifically with middle-class Latinos of all national origins in the United States. Using the Latino Ethnic Attitude Survey, attention was focused on five related sets of issues. The first set deals with how middle-class Latinos identify themselves, including any contextual differences (self-identity). The second set includes whether their identity or ethnicity is an issue at work, in their community, or in the larger society (a sense of place). The third set considers their language preference. The fourth set looks at how generational differences affect middle-class identity; and finally, the fifth set includes normal geodemographic information related to gender, education, income levels, and zip code.

• Teachers' Beliefs About Reading Assessment With Latino Language Minority Students
  
  

by Robert Rueda and Erminda Garcia. This study investigated teachers' belief systems or mental models and everyday practices regarding the nature, function, and uses of assessment with a special focus on reading with Latino language minority students. These mental models can be seen as integrated systems of concepts, scripts, and scenes which function to lend meaning to the action systems of classrooms.

• Transforming Education for Hispanic Youth: Exemplary Practices, Programs, and Schools

by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood and Walter G. Secada. The document contains six chapters. The first, The Hispanic Dropout Problem and Recommendations for Its Solution, provides statistics on the Hispanic dropout rate, and an overview of findings from the Hispanic Dropout Project. Included are the probable reasons for the dropout problem and the best methods of solving it. Chapters Two through Five describe the implementation of effective programs for Hispanic youth in elementary and secondary schools. Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) in mathematics, Helping One Student to Succeed (HOSTS), and Success for All are presented among the successful models. The final chapter incorporates interviews with four members of the Hispanic Dropout Project in a discussion of what leads to Hispanic dropout and how to en sure a better future for the education of Hispanic students.

NOTE: To read this article you will need a PDF reader like Adobe Acrobat. Click here to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader.

• What Do You Lose When You Lose Your Language?

By Joshua Fishman. Attitudes toward language-loss depend on your perspective. When a language is lost, you might look at that from the perspective of the individual. Many individuals suppressed their language and paid the price for it in one way or another. You can also speak from the point of view of the culture lost. The culture has lost its language. What is lost when the culture is so dislocated that it loses the language which is traditionally associated with it? We can ask it from the national point of view. What is lost by the country when the country loses its languages? This article focuses on language loss from only one of these perspectives, the perspective of the culture. Because losing your language is, technically, an issue in the relationship between language and culture. What is the relationship between language and culture?

---

RETURN TO HOME PAGE

---

---