This study acknowledges the potential contribution of Mexican highly-skilled immigrants settled in the United States. Then, to better understand how the brain waste phenomenon (unemployment/underemployment) functions among these immigrants in the United States, by using the lens of neo-racism, Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), and…

This was a correlational study of 30 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals-Mexico origin (D-MO) students at 2- and 4-year higher education institutions in the 4-state United States-Mexican Borderlands region (California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico). The study used an online survey to gain a better understanding of the relationship of four…

Public education in the United States acts as a governmental tool of neoliberalism, through which state power and sovereignty are deployed and transformed in daily life. Here, I examine how the divergence of sovereignty is exerted over refugee students and their families in US public education. Drawing on 42 months of ethnographic data collected…

Schools across the United States serve children from families that have crossed the U.S. border without documents. Some of these children have crossed the border themselves. For teachers and other educators, the Supreme Court decision of "Plyler v. Doe" (1982) has set the precedent that all children in the United States are entitled to a…

Background/Context: Early childhood education in the United States is currently suspended between the belief that young children learn through dynamic experiences in which they are able to create and experiment, and the belief that young children's emerging literacy and math skills require formal instruction and assessments to ensure future…

This dissertation examines contemporary issues that 18 (im)migrant university students faced during a time of highly militarized U.S.-Mexico border relations while living in Arizona during the time of this dissertation research. Utilizing critical race theory and public sphere theory as theoretical frameworks, the project addresses several related…

In language teaching, context is everything. English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers must learn about the worlds in which the students they teach use English. The teachers often inhabit worlds that are very different from the ones students know, because of the ways in which class, race, gender, ethnicity, education, and legal…

Language is the means through which mathematics is learned and mathematical reasoning is developed and expressed. Students' development of mathematical knowledge is dependent upon their codevelopment of language competencies. This study sought to understand the intersection of language acquisition and mathematical reasoning in a multigrade,…

A growing chorus of people are saying that some school districts are overzealous in categorizing students as English-language learners (ELLs) in the aim of complying with federal and state laws to ensure that children of immigrants get extra help with English. They contend that the information requested on the home-language survey that parents are…

This snapshot of children on the California border examines the well-being of children along the U.S.-Mexico border, comparing California, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. It indicates more than one-quarter of all California residents are foreign born (26%), compared to 8% of residents in non-border states. In Texas, the percentage of the population…

School boards associations in California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas commissioned this report about K-12 education along La Frontera, the United States/Mexico border, to identify common issues and target policymaking and assistance efforts. Data were obtained from a research review and interviews and surveys of superintendents and school board…

Inspired by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), community colleges throughout the Southwest (Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas) are developing curricula catering to the growing number of students seeking careers linked to hemispheric trade. The rush for cross-border collaboration (exchange programs, sabbaticals, cultural tours,…

A hearing was held to consider S.2997, a bill which would provide financial assistance for school construction to local educational agencies educating large numbers of immigrant children born in Mexico. In opening remarks, Senator Lloyd Bentsen, Texas, explained that 58,000 Mexicans immigrated to the US in 1977; towns along the American border,…