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Dropping out of high school has adverse consequences, including negative effects on employment, lifetime earnings, and physical health. Students often fail to complete high school for complex reasons that often manifest long before they reach high school. This study examines the link between participation in a comprehensive elementary school student support intervention and high school dropout. In this study, students who attended intervention elementary schools in a large, urban, high-poverty district during 2001-2014 (N=894) were compared to students who did not attend intervention schools (N=10,200). Likelihood of dropping out in grades 9-12 was estimated using propensity score-weighted Discrete Event History Analysis. Intervention students had approximately half the odds of dropout (p<0.001); the probability of dropout for intervention was 9.2%, compared to 16.6% for non-intervention students. Individually tailored student support interventions during elementary school can lead to lasting and meaningful effects.

This paper reviews the literature on the educational experiences of Latino immigrant students in the United States, from early childhood through postsecondary educational attainment. Utilizing a developmental-contextual perspective, we explain the various environmental, political, structural, and psychological challenges these students face, while also highlighting protective factors in the school and family. We highlight how schools, communities, and families can work together to improve the educational chances of these students. These students are less likely to receive high-quality early childhood education and care before the age of five, setting the stage for potential academic disadvantage later on. Parental premigration characteristics play an important role in children's achievement during elementary and middle school, a time when parent educational involvement is important but often difficult for immigrant families. Immigrant students are less likely to graduate high school compared to children of native-born parents and during adolescence may experience isolation from U.S. peer groups. These findings are discussed in light of the additional risks carried by unauthorized status, as well as immigration and acculturation-related stressors. Given that these children are a growing segment of the U.S. population and will soon comprise a large portion of the nation's workforce, we argue that educating them effectively should be of utmost importance. We conclude with policy recommendations, practice recommendations for schools, and important directions for future research.

The threshold fines content of a sand with nonplastic fines represents the silt content where the soil transitions from being a sand matrix, with silt particles entirely contained in the voids between the sands, to being a silt matrix that contains isolated sand grains. A laboratory testing program was performed on a series of mixtures of sand and silt, with silt contents ranging from 0% to 45%, to determine if the friction angle, cyclic resistance, and normalized dissipated energy per unit volume required to initiate liquefaction changed based upon the silt content of the soil relative to the threshold fines content. These data were evaluated with respect to whether the silt content of the specimens was below the lower-bound threshold fines content or above the upper-bound threshold fines content. It was determined that soils above the upper-bound threshold fines content had lower friction angles, lower cyclic resistances, and required less normalized dissipated energy per unit volume to initiate liquefaction than soils below the lower-bound threshold fines content. It was also shown that under the larger strains experienced during monotonic testing, the friction angle did not reach a constant value until it was well above the upper-bound limiting silt content. Key words: threshold fines content, silt, dissipated energy, liquefaction, cyclic resistance. La teneur seuil en fines d'un sable a fines non plastiques represente la teneur en limon ou les sols passent d'une matrice de sable, ou les particules de limon sont entierement contenues dans les vides entre les sables, a une matrice de limon qui contient des grains de sable isoles. Un programme d'essais en laboratoire a ete effectue sur une serie de melanges de sable et de limon, dont la teneur en limon varie de 0 a 45 %, afin de determiner si l'angle de frottement, la resistance cyclique et l'energie dissipee normalisee par unite de volume necessaire pour amorcer la liquefaction ont change selon la teneur en limon du sol par rapport au seuil du contenu en fines. Ces donnees ont ete evaluees pour determiner si la teneur en limon des specimens etait inferieure a la teneur en fines du seuil inferieur ou superieure a la teneur en fines du seuil superieur. Il a ete determine que les sols au-dessus de la teneur limite superieure en fines avaient des angles de frottement inferieurs, des resistances cycliques inferieures et necessitaient moins d'energie dissipee normalisee par unite de volume pour amorcer la liquefaction que les sols au-dessous de la teneur limite inferieure en fines. Il a egalement ete demontre que sous les contraintes plus importantes subies lors des essais monotones, l'angle de frottement n'atteignait pas une valeur constante jusqu'a ce qu'il soit bien au-dessus de la limite superieure de la teneur en limon. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: teneur seuil en fines, limon, energie dissipee, liquefaction, resistance cyclique., Introduction A laboratory testing program was performed on a series of mixtures of sand and nonplastic silt, with silt contents ranging from 0% to 45%. For each soil mixture, the [...]

The present study investigated the relationship between immigrant parent legal status and academic performance among U.S.-born children, ages 7-10. Building on previous research and a social ecological framework, the study further explored how social service use moderates the relationship between parent legal status and academic performance. Participants included 178 low-income, urban parent/child dyads; all parents were immigrants from Mexico, Central America, or the Dominican Republic and all children were U.S.-born citizens. Using a standardized academic assessment as the outcome, parent legal vulnerability was a significant negative predictor of children's academic performance on reading, spelling, and math subtests. Additionally, parent use of social services significantly and positively moderated the relationship between parent legal vulnerability and children's word reading and spelling skills, indicating that social service use can serve as a protective buffer against the negative associations between parental unauthorized status and child achievement.

Using a quasi-experimental design, the effects of a student support intervention were estimated for the math and reading achievement of first-generation immigrant children (n = 667, M = 11.05 years of age) attending high-poverty, urban elementary schools. The intervention was designed to help schools identify developmental strengths and barriers to learning and, in turn, connect children to community and school supports aligned with their strengths and needs. By exploiting within-school changes in the implementation of the intervention, the present study revealed statistically and practically significant treatment effects indicating improvements in math and reading achievement at the end of elementary school. In addition, the intervention appears to considerably narrow achievement gaps between English language learners and immigrant children proficient in English.

As the foreign-born population in the United States grows, the achievement of immigrant children is a pressing concern. We examined family educational involvement in early elementary school as a potential source of support for the academic success of children in immigrant families. Using a nationally representative sample, we examined rates of educational involvement at first and third grade, as well as associations between involvement and math and reading achievement at these times. With regard to rates, the domain of greatest difference between U.S.-born White parents and both U.S.-born and immigrant parents of color (Asian, Black, and Latino) was for school-based involvement. In addition, several variations in the associations between involvement and child achievement were evident across immigrant and race/ethnicity groups, with children in U.S.-born White, Black, and Asian families as well as children in Latino immigrant families most consistently demonstrating positive associations between family educational involvement and achievement.

This paper focuses on a population that has received little attention in migration and in youth-related research: those "left behind" when parents migrate to the United States in search of a better life for their families. Findings presented here are drawn from two sets of workshops with Mayan youth participants in the Southern Quiché region of Guatemala who have been directly (one or both parents have migrated) or indirectly (friends, relatives or neighbors have migrated) affected by migration. Through participatory action research processes, we have found that youth report parents' departures in search of a better life for the family while also describing their yearning for them to return. Most viewed the United States as a discriminatory place where life is treacherous, including for their own family members. Despite this, they reported deep desires to migrate there. We discuss these findings in light of the direct and indirect messages that youth receive from their teachers who often discourage their dreams to journey north, and ourselves, participatory action researchers who work with their families in the United States and travel regularly to spend time with them in Guatemala. The strengths and challenges of participatory action research with this population are addressed.

The authors would like to thank the discusser (Dallo 2020) for his insights into their note 'Threshold fines content and behavior of sands with nonplastic silts' (Polito and Sibley 2020). [...]

This paper reviews the literature on the educational experiences of Latino immigrant students in the United States, from early childhood through postsecondary educational attainment. Utilizing a developmental--contextual perspective, we explain the various environmental, political, structural, and psychological challenges these students face, while also highlighting protective factors in the school and family. We highlight how schools, communities, and families can work together to improve the educational chances of these students. These students are less likely to receive high-quality early childhood education and care before the age of five, setting the stage for potential academic disadvantage later on. Parental premigration characteristics play an important role in children's achievement during elementary and middle school, a time when parent educational involvement is important but often difficult for immigrant families. Immigrant students are less likely to graduate high school compared to children of native-born parents and during adolescence may experience isolation from U.S. peer groups. These findings are discussed in light of the additional risks carried by unauthorized status, as well as immigration and acculturation-related stressors. Given that these children are a growing segment of the U.S. population and will soon comprise a large portion of the nation's workforce, we argue that educating them effectively should be of utmost importance. We conclude with policy recommendations, practice recommendations for schools, and important directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the relationship between immigrant parent legal status and academic performance among U.S.-born children, ages 7–10. Building on previous research and a social ecological framework, the study further explored how social service use moderates the relationship between parent legal status and academic performance. Participants included 178 low-income, urban parent/child dyads; all parents were immigrants from Mexico, Central America, or the Dominican Republic and all children were U.S.-born citizens. Using a standardized academic assessment as the outcome, parent legal vulnerability was a significant negative predictor of children's academic performance on reading, spelling, and math subtests. Additionally, parent use of social services significantly and positively moderated the relationship between parent legal vulnerability and children's word reading and spelling skills, indicating that social service use can serve as a protective buffer against the negative associations between parental unauthorized status and child achievement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores the social-ecological contexts of unauthorized immigrant families and their U.S.-born children, through examining how otherwise similarly low-income, urban, Latino immigrant families differ on the basis of the parents’ legal status and interactions with the immigration system. Drawing on social-ecological theory, variations based on parents’ legal vulnerability among exosystem-level experiences (e.g., parents’ occupational stress, discrimination experiences) and microsystem-level experiences (e.g., parents’ mental health, parenting stress) were explored. Structured interviews were conducted with 178 families with an immigrant parent from Mexico, Central America, and Dominican Republic, and a child (aged 7-10 years) born in the United States. Unauthorized parents reported statistically higher occupational stress, ethnicity-based discrimination, challenges learning English, immigration challenges, and legal status challenges, and lower use of social services, when compared with authorized parents. The groups did not differ on microsystem factors (e.g., parent mental health, and parenting, marital, and family stress). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is increased recognition of the importance of well-designed scholarship on how immigration status and policies impact migrants in the United States, including those who are unauthorized. Some researchers have looked to community-based and participatory methods to develop trust, place migrants’ voices at the forefront, and engage collaboratively in using research as a tool for social change. This article reviews three ethical ambiguities that emerged in the process of a series of participatory action research (PAR) projects with migrants in the United States, many of whom were unauthorized. Specifically, three themes are discussed: (a) the tension between the human desire to respond to injustices, and the challenges of doing so in ways that recognize one’s privilege and power as an outsider and supports the migrants’ agency and autonomy; (b) the complex definition, explanation, and dimensions of “risk”; and (c) the complexity of using a methodology (PAR) that prioritizes participants’ collective identity and community in the context of regulations that are designed primarily to protect individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]