We examined how self-monitoring (i.e., regulating one's behaviors; Snyder, 1987) relates to Latino male achievement. In Study 1, college students (N = 413) completed self-monitoring items and reported SAT math scores. As hypothesized, self-monitoring was positively correlated with achievement for Latino male students but was unrelated to…

This article draws on my experience as an adjunct professor in the Master's program of the Department of Mexican-American Studies at a large public university in California. Seeing my students' struggles with writing, I conceived of a set of practices of writing mentorship anchored by a series of writing workshops held in Summer 2012. In…

The growing U.S. Latino dispersal is allowing for more interactions between students of Spanish and native Spanish speakers. By working with Latino community members, Spanish instructors help meet the standards for foreign language education developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. This article describes 2 projects.…

This article explores an urban partnership and service-learning project deliberately created to improve literacy and strengthen learning communities in an urban, Latino neighborhood of Chicago. The project aligns activities and objectives with resources and needs of university participants, a Latino community organization, and local public…

R. Stanton-Salazar (1997) suggested that minority students who successfully navigate the contexts of higher education are able to do so by "decoding" the system. Rather than obligating students to decode the system, we contend that institutions should "recode" the information they provide to prospective students from minority…

Recent studies show that many college instructors still believe that Latino students lack the "school smarts" for academic success. This essay challenges the notion of school smarts in order to highlight Latino students' numerous strengths. I share my model for a mentorship program that facilitates better student-faculty…

This article reviews recent literature on how Latinos progress through critical junctures of the teacher pipeline: high school graduation, college access and persistence, obtaining a teaching degree, and securing a job as a classroom teacher. This thorough investigation of the Latino experience through each of these junctures offers a better…

The percentage of Latinas/os decreases at each stage in the educational pipeline and is especially proportionally low at the post-baccalaureate level. This study investigates the complexities of the quest to increase post-baccalaureate participation for Latina/o students. We present data on post-baccalaureate education by utilizing 2 comprehensive…

This study examines how a selected Hispanic-Serving Institution is implementing Advancement Via Individual Determination as a strategy for improving retention and time to graduation for 1st-generation Hispanic college students. A quasi-experimental design approach was used in which the retention rates and 1st-semester grade point averages of a…

In this essay, the stories of successful Latina scholars are captured and shared through a series of interviews. Inquiring about the k-20 experience of the Latinas, the study provides timely insights that counter mainstream deficit perspectives on the Latino population. Specifically, these Latinas' stories show how they have been inspired by…

Research on the academic ethic of Latino college students has not yet been conducted. In order to begin filling this gap in the literature, we surveyed Latino students at a state university to determine whether those who had an academic ethic in high school performed better in college. We also assessed the perceived helpfulness of a variety of…

A feature of the existing literature on minority students' transition to college is the preponderance of models that have "imagined" what students (and their families) need to have in order to be successful. In this paper we discuss how the theoretical framework of funds of knowledge can be used by researchers in higher education to challenge…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the educational experiences of a Mexican woman in Chicago's Little Village community in the 1980s. The author was born in Mexico and raised in Little Village which has been home to Mexican immigrant communities for decades. Little Village is also home to the largest Mexican-American population in the…

This study explores college-going "ganas" in the South Rio Grande Valley of Texas within the context of Frierian liberatory praxis. During focus groups, current and former high school students discussed their experiences developing "ganas" regarding college going and discussed how parental support was integral to "ganas" formation. The…

Mounted on the walls, windows, and bookcases of Ms. Cati de los Rios's Pomona High School classroom are a multitude of faces, mainly heroes, martyrs, and leaders of Latina/o and African descent. These faces are a symbol of the countercultural and student-centered approach to education that occurs in her classroom. The mere presence of these…