Review of Latino Education Crisis by Patricia Gandara and Frances Contreras

Street ball, swim team and the sour cream machine: A cluster analysis of out of school time participation portfolios

Co-authored with Ingrid Nelson (Stanford University)

Adolescents spend only a fraction of their waking hours in school and what they do with the rest of their time varies dramatically. Despite this, research on out-of-school time has largely focused on structured programming. The authors analyzed data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) to examine the out-of-school time activity portfolios of 6,338 high school sophomores, accounting for time spent in school clubs and sports as well as 17 other activities. The analytical sample was balanced with respect to sex and racially and ethnically diverse: 49% female, 67% White, 10% Latino, 10% African American, and 6% Asian and Pacific Islander. Approximately 76% of the sample attended public schools, 30% were in the highest socioeconomic quartile, and 20% were in the lowest socioeconomic quartile. The authors identified five distinct out-of-school time activity portfolios based on a cluster analysis. The demographic profiles of students by portfolio type differed significantly with respect to sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, school type and location. Students by portfolio type also differed significantly in terms of measures of academic success, school behavior, victimization and perceptions of school climate, controlling for covariates. These findings underscore the importance of more complex considerations of adolescents’ out-of-school time.

Teacher-mentors and the educational resilience of sexual minority youth

Co-authored with Dominique Johnson (Ramapo College)

This is the first study to examine the benefits of informal mentoring on the educational resilience of sexual minority youth. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that having a mentor, especially one that is a teacher, is associated with higher levels of post-secondary participation for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth. Teacher-mentors are particularly significant to the educational resilience of sexual minority women of color. Unfortunately, sexual minority women of color are also the least likely to be mentored by teachers. Our findings underscore the urgency to understand how school- and community-based mentoring efforts can better meet and respond to the needs of sexual minority youth of color, especially women.

When stakeholders rebel: Lessons from a safe schools program

Co-authored with Decoteau Irby & Maureen Zdanis (both Temple University)

In this essay, we describe our experiences working with a rebellious primary stakeholder, Sylvia1, as evaluators of a district-wide safe schools program. Given the breadth of the program and its multiple target constituencies, we were confronted with the challenges of managing a large number of stakeholders, or those individuals and groups that could affect or be affected by the program's success or failure (Freeman, 1984). We describe the circumstances that gave rise to Sylvia's emergence as a rebel stakeholder and discuss the implications of her “rebellion” to the well-being of the program. We introduce the term “rebel stakeholder” to describe someone like Sylvia – ambitious, talented and well-meaning – who, despite their best intentions, can have a significant role in undermining the process of evaluation and have the potential to put programs at risk.

We describe our role in working with Sylvia and other key district stakeholders to help get the program off the ground and the evaluation underway. We describe how Sylvia's invaluable involvement early on later proved to be detrimental to the long-term viability of the program. We describe the circumstances that resulted in Sylvia being barred from participating in any aspect of the program. Our reflections are informed by our review of transcripts and notes from interviews and meetings with key district stakeholders and notes from our meetings as an evaluation team. The events described herein occurred during the first 12 months of our work with the school district.

School truancy and the disciplinary problems of bullying victims

This study describes the truancy and disciplinary problems of high school bullying victims in the USA. Analyses are based on data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002, a nationally representative sample of 10th graders (students aged 14-15) in the USA. Being bullied is found to be positively associated with increased risk of being frequently absent, getting into trouble excessively at school and being subject to formal school actions such as in- or out-of-school suspensions and disciplinary transfers for high school bullying victims. These findings are presented within the context of the current state of knowledge about the effects of bullying. Their implications for practice and future research are also discussed.

School safety under NCLB’s Unsafe School Choice Option

Co-authored with Josephine Gasiewski (Temple University)

Despite its flaws, the USCO created the conditions for an unprecedented national statement on school safety. This study asks: How do states conceptualize school safety? While critics have denounced the dizzying assortment of states’ persistently dangerous criteria, we argue that these differences have been grossly exaggerated. We contend that states’ shared orientations toward school safety can be described using a risk assessment perspective. This article introduces a framework that distills school violence in terms of severity and likelihood. Using this framework, we show how all states define school safety in terms of risk – specifically, as the maximum level of risk that is acceptable at a school that can still be considered safe.

The back-to-school discount on student safety

What does it mean to be safe at school? Not much under NCLB’s Unsafe School Choice Option (USCO). I argue that safety is complex and dynamic and ill-suited to a dichotomizing system like USCO in which schools are deemed either safe or not. I discuss how USCO’s treatment of safety as static lends credence to the misperception of school violence as a problem to which some schools – the “safe” ones – are immune. I contend that revisions made to USCO before NCLB’s reauthorization later this year should require that all schools demonstrate annual progress with respect to minimizing students’ risk of injury or harm and creating safe spaces for all students.

Don’t believe them when they tell you that I don’t exist

A newly minted Latina Ph.D. reflects on her educational journey. The story begins with her early years attending a Catholic grammar school in Queens, New York, and follows her through the fabled halls of several of the nation¿s top universities. The author shares an account of the challenges that she overcame and the lessons she learned. She discusses how family and a sense of history and community helped her find the strength to persevere despite the sadness, confusion, and pain that can sometimes accompany "getting an education". She describes her struggles with writing and finding her own voice, and tells how, through reading and writing, she moved closer to coming to terms with her past, present, and future.

Review of School Violence: Fear versus Facts by Dewey G. Cornell

Review of Creating Alternative Discourses in the Education of Latinos and Latinas: A Reader by Raul E. Ybarra and Nancy López (Eds.)