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As California is one of the primary states with the highest influx of Latinxs, the rise of Latinx enrollment in California high schools calls to the importance of understanding methods to increase academic and overall wellness. Cultural congruity (i.e., match of one's cultural values with those of the educational setting) is hypothesized to influence positive academic and psychological outcomes for Latinx students. However, no study to date has examined the role cultural congruity in further explaining psychological outcomes for high schoolers. Using the psychosociocultural framework, the study's purpose was to examine if cultural congruity further explains the relationships between academic self-efficacy, family support, and ethnic identity with coping, respectively. For a sample of 104 Latinx Californian high school students, results revealed that cultural congruity partially explained the relationships of academic self-efficacy and ethnic identity with coping, respectively. Educators and mental health practitioners may benefit from implementing a curriculum that is culturally validating, as it may support positive psychological functioning and coping strategies.

Service learning is a community-based educational approach where college students are connected to academic content through active participation in planned community experiences. Therefore, service learning is the form of civic engagement that we have used to connect Chemistry undergraduate students with K-12 students, teachers, and parents in our community. We have developed several outreach programs and hands-on experiences to use the knowledge and skills learned in Chemistry courses and laboratories to motivate more precollege students toward a positive attitude about Chemistry and science courses in general. Undergraduate students from the Department of Chemistry at California State University, Stanislaus have worked on several hands-on activities with fifth-eighth grade students at university laboratories and with second-fourth grade students at elementary school classrooms. Undergraduate students have learned to simplify difficult Chemistry concepts for the general audience, while they have encouraged young students to develop a positive attitude toward science and the pursuit of higher education in the STEM fields. In addition, undergraduate students involved in these activities are more motivated to succeed in their own academic career. This article explains how we have accomplished the development of Chemistry outreach activities and how undergraduate students are involved in the preparation of these events.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 2009 funds were established by the Obama administration to stabilize the U.S. economy and support public education. This case examines how the district leadership in one rural unified school district in California decided to allocate the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds and Title I Part A/ARRA funds provided within ARRA. The case explores how local school board politics and local bureaucracies contribute to the district leadership's allocation of these funds.

Inbreeding avoidance via polyandry is a common response to combat inbreeding depression across multiple taxa, but has never been investigated in the Halonoproctidae. With a member of this family, the trapdoor spider Bothriocyrtum californicum (O. Pickard-Cambridge, 1874), Ramirez et al. (2013) found no evidence for inbreeding in several southern California populations, but did not examine polyandry. Hence, in this study, we determined the extent of multiple paternity in broods of B. californicum. To do so, we gathered broods and mothers from two sites in Los Angeles, CA, and then genotyped each mother and up to 50 spiderlings for variation at the phosphoglucomutase locus. Among nine sets of broods, six showed significant deviations from the Mendelian genotype ratios expected under the hypothesis of single paternity. This indicates that B. californicum females sometimes mate with multiple male partners. This is certainly an adaptive feature for a low-dispersal trapdoor spider residing in island-like units where inbreeding may be more likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current multi-institutional study took place within the context of highly selective California institutions of higher education. The author built on social-cognitive career theory and the psychosociocultural framework to test a holistic structural equation model for Latina career decision making in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The hypothesized model fit the data well. Fourteen statistically significant paths were observed, indicating that campus climate, academic involvement, and faculty support and encouragement played an important role in Latinas' STEM career decision-making process. Latina students with higher socioeconomic status, faculty support, and academic involvement were more likely to have STEM career goals. Those who perceived their classroom climates as hostile and who had higher self-sacrifice values were less likely to pursue STEM career goals. Several implications for student affairs administrators, institutional policymakers, and counseling services are provided and offer important considerations when working with Latina undergraduates who wish to pursue STEM fields. Implications for research and theory are also discussed.

We examined approaches used by African-American mothers and mothers of Latino descent for informal sex-related discussions with their children to inform sexually transmitted infection (STI)/HIV intervention development efforts. We recruited mothers (of children aged 12-15) from youth service agencies and a university in southern California. Fourteen focus groups were conducted: eight with African-American mothers (n = 31) and six with mothers of Latino descent (n = 24). Data were transcribed, coded for most common themes by four of the authors and reviewed for differences by gender of child. Four key themes emerged when focusing on parent-child discussions about sex: (1) sexual activity discussions took place for both sons and daughters; (2) protection from STI/HIV and pregnancy was a key topic; (3) the use of a direct, honest approach was preferred by mothers; and (4) seizing the moment was important for discussion opportunities. These data help broaden our understanding about the strategies used by African-American mothers and mothers of Latino descent for sexual health discussions with their sons and daughters. Evaluations of these for their potential impact on youth sexual health outcomes are warranted. The data can also contribute to the development of new culturally tailored parent-child communication strategies and HIV prevention interventions for young people of colour.

The K-12 student population is becoming increasingly diverse in the United States. In particular, the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) rose from 4.7 million in 1980 to 11.2 million in 2009, more than doubling from 10% to 21% of the student population (U.S. Department of Education n.d.). At approximately 1.8 million, the state of California enrolls the highest number of ELL students in the nation (Aud et al. 2012, 152). Of great concern is the achievement gap between ELL students and their English-only counterparts, one which remains substantial in spite of categorical entitlement funding programs designed to offset academic challenges faced by this population (Hemphill and Vanneman 2011). As a result, the effective allocation and expenditure of categorical entitlement funds at the local level are of much interest to the educational finance community and the field of education as a whole. In this study, the authors analyzed the allocation and expenditure of funds from two categorical entitlement programs--Title III, a federal program, and Economic Impact Aid (EIA), a California state aid program--to provide services for ELL students at the district and school levels using a case study approach. (Contains 3 tables and 12 endnotes.)

The state of California educates over six million or twelve percent of the nation's student population. Approximately three million are Latino and 1.5 million are classified as English Language Learners (ELLs). English Language Learners are significantly underperforming in math and reading compared to White students in all grade levels. The achievement gap actually continues to increase the longer that students are in school. These trends create major challenges for policy makers and advocates. Most critical is examining the potential causes of the achievement gap. Most scholarly articles related to California school finance and English Language Learners focus on court cases, propositions and/or budget revenue/expenditure analysis. Notably missing from the scholarship is a historical legislative overview to understand entitlement funding earmarked to target ELLs in California. This article focuses primarily on categorical entitlement funds because entitlement resources are more stable since the funding source is guaranteed to renew each fiscal year, and, due to a long history of availability, people know more about these funds. Currently, only two significant entitlement categorical funds designated for ELLs in California exist. They are State Economic Impact Aid (EIA) and Federal Title III funds (formerly Title VII). In addition, other key legislation related to English Language Learners is often cited in the bilingual education literature but without an emphasis on the fiscal impact including AB 2284 (1972), the first legislation that provided funds for bilingual education in California. This article provides (1) an overview of the major legislative actions affecting entitlement funding for California English Language Learners since 1968 and (2) a discussion of the current salient issues to improve education for ELLs related to school finance. The next section outlines germane legislation that has impacted the K-12 school finance for ELLs. (Contains 7 footnotes and 1 table.)

This article seeks to contribute to the recent discussion regarding school finance, teacher quality, and English language learners (ELLs) based on a comparative study within a school district with a significant ELL population. The study described in this article utilizes an exploratory multiple case study methodology to examine the complex relationship between resource allocation (both fiscal and personnel) and educational outcomes for ELL students. This study addresses whether there are differences in resource allocation between a high-ELL, Program Improvement, Title I school and a high-ELL, non-Program Improvement, Title I school within a single district. The study findings show significant differences in the educational resources allocated between the selected schools and suggest that resources (both fiscal and personnel) do in fact impact school outcomes. This study has research, policy, and practice implications related to resource allocation that affect school achievement, equity, and social justice for ELLs. (Contains 2 figures, 2 footnotes, and 5 tables.)

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether African American, Hispanic, and Asian patients in California were more likely to undergo coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) by cardiac surgeons with higher risk-adjusted mortality rates (RAMRs). Clinical data from the California CABG Outcomes Reporting Program were analyzed for all patients who underwent isolated CABG from 2003 to 2006 by surgeons who performed ≥10 operations. Surgeons were divided into quintiles on the basis of their RAMRs, with the top-performing surgeons in the first quintile and the lowest performing surgeons in the fifth quintile. There were 72,845 isolated CABG procedures performed by 303 surgeons, including 49,886 in white, 9,380 in Hispanic, 6,867 in Asian, and 2,750 in African American patients. African American and Asian patients underwent CABG by surgeons with higher mean RAMRs (2.90% and 2.99%, respectively) compared with the state average of 2.65% (p <0.001). Compared to white patients, Asian and Hispanic patients were more likely to be treated by surgeons in the lowest quintile (odds ratio [OR] 1.2, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11 to 1.3, and OR 1.38, 95% CI 1.30 to 1.48, respectively). African Americans and Hispanics were less likely to be operated on by surgeons in the top quintile compared to white patients (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.90, and OR 0.81, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.87, respectively). Hispanics were less likely to be treated by surgeons in the top quintile than by surgeons in the lowest quintile (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.75). In conclusion, racial and ethnic minority patients who undergo isolated CABG in California may be more likely to be operated on by cardiac surgeons with higher RAMRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: California launched the coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) Outcomes Reporting Program in 2003 for all nonfederal hospitals performing this procedure. The program provides annual public reports of risk-adjusted operative mortality rates by hospital and surgeon. However, the impact of this program on operative mortality and access to surgery for high-risk patients has not been clarified. Methods: The cohort consisted of all isolated CABG cases from the California CABG Outcomes Reporting Program database for 2003 and 2006. We applied the same multivariable logistic risk adjustment model to each year to compute predicted and risk-adjusted operative mortality for isolated CABG by hospital and surgeons. Changes in surgical volume and observed, predicted, and risk-adjusted operative mortality were compared by quintiles of patients based on the predicted risk and among hospitals and surgeons between 2003 and 2006. Results: Total volume of isolated CABG decreased by 26.5% from 2003 (N = 21,276) to 2006 (N = 15,647). The reduction in CABG volume between 2003 and 2006 was universal among hospitals and surgeons regardless of their performance status in 2003. The change in patient case mix for a majority of hospitals and surgeons was insignificant, and overall patient risk was stable (statewide predicted operative mortality rate for 2003, 3.06%; 95% confidence interval, 2.98 to 3.13; and for 2006, 3.05%; 95% confidence interval, 2.97 to 3.14). Yet, the statewide observed mortality declined from 2.90% in 2003 to 2.22% in 2006 (p = 0.0001). Overall, the empiric odds ratio of operative death for 2006 patients was 24% lower than for 2003 patients. In 2006, patients with the highest predicted operative mortality risk (4th and 5th quintiles) had 35% and 26% lower odds of operative mortality, respectively, when compared with patients from 2003. Conclusions: Although total CABG volume decreased from 2003 to 2006 by almost 27%, patient case mix for most hospitals and surgeons was unchanged. Despite similar patient characteristics, the operative mortality for patients in the highest risk group was 26% lower in 2006 than in 2003. We found no evidence of decreased access to CABG for high-risk patients in California during the period of public reporting of isolated CABG outcomes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The peninsular pronghorn (Antilocapra americana peninsularis) in the Baja California peninsula is an endangered subspecies. We constructed captive breeding facilities in the Vizcaino Desert within the current range of peninsular pronghorn to assist in population recovery The captive breeding facilities included fences, shade, feeders, an irrigation system, observation towers, housing for caretakers, and a visitor center We document the initial 6-year cycle of the captive management, 1 step of the recovery effort, from the first capture of 5 fawns in 1998 to 90 captive peninsular pronghorns by the end of 2003. We identified problems with the captive breeding facility (e.g., identification of animals and movements into, and accidents with, fences), but overall the facility has been a success. We projected the first potential translocation of animals into the wild in 2004. If the translocation of captive animals is successful, peninsular pronghorn may begin the recovery process in the wild. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]