The Effects of Social Capital on Latino Students in Los Angeles Schools.

The goal of this project is to test theoretically assess the relevance of social capital theory in understanding the overall academic achievement and attainment for Latino students in Los Angeles. I do this in two important ways. First, drawing on previous research, I provide a critique of theories which heavily draw on the assumptions that a high degree of familism among Latino families may not fully account for the diverse outcomes for these youth. I examine other structural factors, including mobility and occupation, to understand the outcomes for these students. Lastly, I challenge the creation of monolithic Latino as a category of analysis. Los Angeles' growing diversity requires a reassessment of the centrality of Mexican American students used to represent Latino students as a whole. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]