Annotated Bibliography Nelson Magaña 7
Annotated Bibliography
Nelson Magaña
ADE 7920
Dr. Marc Weinstein
Florida International University
Annotated Bibliography
Cabrera, A.F., Burkum, K.R., & LaNasa, S.M. (2005). Pathways to a four-year degree: Determinants of transfer and degree completion. In A. Seidman (Ed.), College Student Retention: A formula for success (pp. 155-214). Westport, CT.: ACE/Praeger.
This article analyzes the factors that limit baccalaureate degree completion among economically disadvantaged students. It looks at a national cohort of high school sophomores from 1980 and analyzes the various factors affecting degree completion within 10 years of entering college with a special emphasis on socio economic status (SES). “When SES is brought to bear, with few notable exceptions, it is done with the purpose of controlling for an alternative explanation rather than with the explicit intention of highlighting differences between socioeconomically disadvantaged students and their better-off peers” (p. 157). The researchers conclude that factors such as institution type, high school academic preparation, having kids prior to age 23, and parental and peer encouragement in high school are much stronger determinants to degree completion than SES. When controlled for those factors, SES plays a much smaller role in baccalaureate degree completion than common wisdom indicates.
Erisman, W., & Looney, S. (2007). Opening the door to the American Dream: Increasing higher education access and success for immigrants. Washington, DC. Institute for Higher Education Policy.
This is a comprehensive report that deals with the educational attainment of immigrants. This report serves as ground zero for the topic as it defines what an immigrant is compared to other definitions by the U.S. Census Bureau, the Office of Immigration Statistics, and others. The report addresses barriers to higher education success and the various enrollment patterns among immigrants in higher education. “Immigrant students made up 12 percent of U.S. undergraduates in 2003-4” (p. 38). The authors provide statistics by ethnicity, income and age of immigration. Hispanics fared worse among all immigrants in educational attainment, with only 80 percent completing a high school diploma or equivalent two years after their expected graduation rate. “Forty three percent of Hispanic immigrants had left school without attaining any degree or certificate” (p. 27). The authors also point out that the age of immigration made a big difference (13-19 being the worse) in degree attainment, and they address the reasons.
Fry, R. (2004). Latino youth finishing college: The role of selective pathways. Washington, DC.: Pew Hispanic Center.
In this report Fry uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS: 88/2000). He analyzes the extreme underrepresentation of Latinos’ attainment of baccalaureate degrees and identifies factors that seemingly contribute. The gap in bachelor’s degree attainment “constitutes the greatest disparity in educational outcomes between the nation’s largest minority group and the white majority” (p. V). Fry also notes that even accounting for academic preparation, Latino students who enter community colleges vs. 4-year universities are nearly half as likely to complete bachelor’s degrees than their white counterparts (p. 15). Full time enrollment vs. part time enrollment seems to play a significant role. The report studies hundreds of thousands of students to isolate other such factors.
Fry, R. (2005). The higher dropout rates of foreign born teens: The role of schooling abroad. Washington, DC.: Pew Hispanic Center.
This report analyzes the success of immigrants based on the schooling in their native country. Foreign born teens make up nearly a quarter of all school dropouts while accounting for only 8 percent of the teenage population (p. 2). Fry uses census data to comb through the nuanced numbers. But rather than paint all Hispanics with one brushstroke like most studies and reports do, Fry divides the results by region and/or country. Since Mexicans make up the overwhelming majority of Latino immigrants, most articles that address the educational attainment of Latinos skew the results and make it difficult to account for the different experiences occurring in other Spanish speaking countries. This report does a good job at accounting for the various countries immigrants come from and the different ages when they arrived.
Garcia, L.M. & Bayer, A.E., (2005). Variations between Latino groups in US post-secondary educational attainment. Research in Higher Education, 46(5), 511-533.
This article is very plainly written and provides further nuanced information regarding the educational attainment of various Latino groups. The researchers use logistic regressions as a way to explore “the possible differences between Latino groups in educational attainment after controlling for other relevant correlates” (p. 522). They use data from the High School and Beyond longitudinal survey that studied over 10,000 students from over 1,000 randomly selected high schools. The researchers also present rich statistical information differentiating between Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Cubans while taking controls such as gender, nativity, parents’ occupation, school of choice, etc. into account.
Gonzalez, K.P., Stoner, C., Jovel, J. (2001, November 14-15). Examining opportunities for Latinas in higher education: Toward a college opportunity framework. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, Richmond, VA. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov (ED457788)
This article examines the various factors that guide a group of two dozen Latino students from California who chose between community college and a 4-year university. The researchers explore the role of cultural and social capital in their decision. They use the life history research methods as defined by Dollard in 1935, Goodson in 1981, and Knowles in 1993 to look at the personal, institutional, and social histories to examine the students’ whole life rather than limiting themselves to only the tangibles (p. 8). This qualitative study transcribes over 50 hours of interviews and countless questionnaires. The researchers use Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) method of data analysis. They do not begin with a theory or hypotheses, but rather analyze the data to form theoretical categories by an inductive process (p. 9).
Silva, H. (1985). The children of Mariel from shock to integration: Cuban refugee children in South Florida schools. Washington, DC. Cuban American National Foundation.
Though this is an old report, the author does an eloquent job at depicting the impact of the massive influx of Cubans during the Mariel boat lift on the schools in Miami Dade. “Because they had spent all their lives in a regimented, economically stagnant communist society, the adaptation of the children of Mariel to democracy, free enterprise and a consumer society was a long journey from shock to integration” (p. 9). The writer interviews school officials, teachers and the children themselves. “These children had been raised in a system totally isolated from a system such as ours. They had no concept of private property, for example, nor that of authority as something to be respected out of admiration rather than fear” (p. 16). This is not a scholarly journal, but rather a report written by a former journalist in newspaper fashion. It provides, however, rich qualitative testimony of the social factors that contributed to the success and failure of the 1980 cohort of Cuban immigrants in the US school system.
Wycoff, S.E.M. (1996). Academic performance of Mexican American women: Sources of support that serve as motivating variables. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 24(3), 146-155.
This article studies 100 Mexican American women divided evenly between graduate and undergraduate students. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Chi-square tests and multiple linear regression analyses were used to establish validity. Among the findings, some of the women expressed “feelings of being caught between two cultures, feeling forced to respond to both traditional values and modern demands” (p. 150). The women report feelings of marginalization and discrimination not unlike other women and oppressed minorities.
Zalaquett, C.P. (2005). Study of successful Latina/o students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 5(1), 35-47.
This is a qualitative study that analyzes the stories of 12 academically successful Latino students at a large public university. The students chosen had all been awarded a prestigious scholarship. As recipients, they were asked to write their story answering a series of open ended questions. The data gathered was grouped into categories and prepared for processing using Excel. Some of the categories include family, education, pride, resilience, etc. The stories provide rich direct quotes that are used to paint a broad picture of what successful Latinos did to persevere, and they shed light on things institutions can do to replicate these results.