Search

This article presents a qualitative study of how undocumented students experience a unique dimension of legal oppression in the U.S. that results in diminishing their hope in a country that they consider their home. Throughout this study and with the use of a Critical Legal Studies perspective, the author interrogates the role that U.S. immigration law plays in creating hostile and, many times, hopeless scenarios for undocumented youth trying to receive an education. By identifying the ways that undocumented youth face both "de jure" and "de facto" detrimental consequences, this study demonstrates how a double layer of legal oppression is formed that is omnipresent in the minds and lives of undocumented students. It is argued that, as educators, it is important to comprehend that undocumented students live under the constant threat of legal enforcement as they traverse the U.S. educational system from K-12 through college. As classroom instructors, this unique dimension is not always apparent because we either do not know that someone is undocumented, or, unless we are undocumented, we do not sufficiently understand what it means to be undocumented. This article attempts to help better understand this experience through the voices of college-bound, undocumented youth from California and Arizona.

At the start of the New Year and the second Obama administration, a national dialogue about extending and improving the school year for "all" students--especially those students who face limited resources within and outside their schools--should be a national priority. Students from affluent families already make up for the short school day and year by counting on their parents to fill these crucial, and sometimes dangerous, afterschool hours with a cornucopia of rich learning experiences. Middle-class families use their own resources to fill their children's afternoons, summers, and vacations with private tutoring for academic enrichment, music and art lessons, science camp, and sports activities. Parents know--and research proves--that these activities are not "extra"--they are essential to rounding out their children's education and giving them the skills and experiences that prepare them for college and successful careers. Expanding learning time is as much about improving the quality of the actual amount of time a child learns as it is about expanding the quality and diversity of a child's learning. Many parents cannot provide such activities for their children. They may not have the money to pay for extra classes and care, and they are often the same parents who work longer hours--including those crucial afterschool and school vacation hours. Similarly, due to the systemic inequities of America's public school system, these families' children attend schools that have fewer educational resources: less-qualified teachers; fewer educational materials; fewer science, arts, and sports opportunities on campus; and unsafe schools and neighborhoods. This is why creating quality schools, with more resources and better teaching and learning, becomes just as important as extending the actual time. In this article the authors assert that ensuring college readiness extends beyond the reach of schools and districts. It calls for tapping into the resources of the community--higher education, community organizations, businesses, funders, recreation programs, and civic organizations--to support learning outside of schools and align it with what happens inside schools. They describe work currently being done by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform (AISR) with the Ford Foundation, National Center for Time and Learning (NCTL) and UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) to systemically gather evidence of new and creative reforms using measures that extend beyond standardized testing. The authors go on to examine what the research says and describe the Ford Foundation's More and Better Learning Time (MBLT) initiative. Next, eco-system level indicators and the More and Better Learning Time initiative's goals for the future are examined.

This manuscript focuses on student veterans' best option to start their post‐high‐school education: attending community colleges. It illustrates this point using the story of the author, a US Army combat veteran who began his career at a community college, and other veterans who also began their college careers at the community college. Using qualitative methods, the author uses perspectives of former student‐veterans to provide first‐person accounts of transition into and through college—beginning at community colleges. Four themes emerge from this analysis: acceptance, transition, liminality, and comradery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]