Mentoring in the Time of COVID

This was cross-posted from the U.S Department of Education blog, Homeroom

blog: mentoring in the time of COVID

By Catherine López, M.A., M.Ed., LDT, CALT,  Certified Academic Language Therapist and Bilingual Content Interventionist working for the Austin Independent School District

Quality mentoring programs are more necessary than ever. Attracting and retaining new teachers has gone from being a serious problem to an acute crisis. Districts that seek to curb attrition rates in their ranks need structured programs that can help fledgling teachers during the first two to three years of their career.

I did not have a mentor when I was a novice teacher and struggled mightily, so during my seventh year as a teacher when asked to mentor a first-year teacher I agreed, not wanting anyone to unnecessarily suffer like I did. I have been mentoring novice teachers ever since. Mentoring during pre-pandemic years included meeting with novice teachers to instruct them on concepts crucial to their success in the classroom, such as the basics of classroom management and the components of a strong academic lesson. I helped with identifying students that may have needed evaluation for special services such as Special Education or Gifted and Talented enrichment and navigating the often-labyrinthine bureaucracy related to those responsibilities.

COVID-19 erased 20 years of mentoring experience in the blink of an eye. The pandemic made us all novices again. I no longer had as many answers as I once did. I could be a sounding board for ideas and a sympathetic ear. But could I help them create a dynamic lesson on Canvas? Could I help them get the most out of Seesaw? No. Did anybody know how to slay the monster that was “simultaneous teaching” (teaching in-person and virtual students at the same time)? I felt like I couldn’t help at all. I was scrambling to figure out the basics alongside the novice teachers and everyone else. I know now that mentoring conversations will cover the same topics as they did before, however, now I must also include strategizing with mentees on how to cope with being overwhelmed and their mental health, while taking my own advice. This comes in the way of helping mentees set small, attainable goals, prioritizing tasks, as well as coaching them and modeling how to set boundaries at work. I also recognize that pandemic mentoring has been more mutually beneficial than before.

It is no secret that first or second career teachers, traditional or alternatively certified teachers, or foreign educated teachers are all expected to perform on target immediately. Successful mentoring programs pair new teachers with a veteran teacher in a matching field/grade that can provide frequent, long-term coaching. A vital part of successful mentoring is protected dedicated time and class coverage, so the mentor teacher may observe the mentee teaching to engage in a recursive process of inquiry and reflection. It’s also important that mentors are paid for their indispensable service and in amounts that recognize their expertise in teaching and coaching. These actions can increase not only instructional quality in mentees’ classrooms, but the likelihood that the mentee will return the following year or make teaching a life-long career. Districts should value their teaching staff and the charge of educating students enough to assume the responsibility for formally training mentors. The crucible of COVID-19 will forever change the American educational system. Creating or bolstering mentoring programs should be the keystone to reform efforts. After all, if the teachers are okay, then the kids will be okay.

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Equity in Action

This was crossposted from the Institute for Education Sciences Regional Educational Laboratory West Blog.

ADVANCING EQUITY: FIVE DISTRICTS FOCUS ON IMPROVING OUTCOMES OF BLACK AND LATINX STUDENTS

It didn’t take long before the consequences of the pandemic shone a spotlight on the growing inequities within our communities and systems. Existing disparities in housing and food security, education, and health care, for example, grew wider between socioeconomic and racial groups.[1], [2], [3], [4] At the same time, a racial reckoning across the nation was a reminder that systemic racism and injustices persist.

With compounded stress and trauma, vulnerable students and families became more at risk for disengaging from school and the school community.[5] Many school and district leaders sought to create safe and healthy environments for their students and families, who were feeling increasingly disconnected mentally, emotionally, or physically.

DISTRICTS ASK FOR HELP TO CHANGE POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT HARM BLACK AND LATINX STUDENTS

When the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) West led a webinar in May 2020 on strategies for engaging vulnerable students and their families during remote schooling, participants conveyed the urgency of the situation. Many in attendance raised the need to address the causes of implicit bias and systemic racism, particularly given the current climate of racial injustices. One participant said, “We have to be intentional about discussing inequities. We have to be able to call out where the challenges are and move out of our comfort zones to shift outcomes.”

“We have to be able to call out where the challenges are and move out of our comfort zones to shift outcomes.”

REL West heard from multiple district leaders, who wanted more information and guidance about asset-based strategies for reshaping their district systems and structures in order to promote equitable learning environments. Specifically, these districts wanted to know how to identify and change existing policies and practices which reinforce inequities, especially those that are barriers to success for Black and Latinx students and their families. They wanted to enact change so that Black and Latinx members of their school community will feel a greater sense of belongingness and believe that their cultural identities are valued as assets and strengths.

EQUITY IN ACTION PROJECT FOCUSES ON RACIAL EQUITY CHANGE

In response to these requests, REL West formed the Equity in Action project. The project involved five California school districts committed to racial equity change. REL West leads Erin Browder and Lori Van Houten (along with team members Margit Birge, Rebeca Cerna, and Kamilah Wilson) supported these districts through coaching and facilitation. The project aimed to help these districts:

  1. Understand the assets and needs of Black and Latinx stakeholders in their district.
  2. Learn to develop and leverage racial equity plans created by diverse district teams.
  3. Ensure that racial equity is at the center of efforts to revamp district structures and supports so that Black and Latinx students and families are engaged and thriving.

The overarching goal for these districts was to increase the safety, well-being, and engagement of Black and Latinx students and their families. More specifically, each district identified its own improvement area focused on racial equity change for Black and Latinx stakeholders and developed a theory of action for that improvement area.

Over the course of the project, the districts refined their theories of actions to focus on addressing a systemic problem. For example, one elementary school district in the Central Valley initially aimed to increase participation and engagement of Latinx families in school events by focusing on recruitment of Latinx families. Later, the district team shifted its focus to implementing culturally responsive practices that would make their schools more inviting to Latinx families and improve their sense of belonging. A second school district in Los Angeles County initially set out to establish an African American Advisory Committee (AAAC) to engage and support Black students and families primarily through more school and district events. Later, the district team shifted to supporting teachers and staff with culturally and linguistically responsive (CLR) training to implement CLR practices throughout school sites. The district team leveraged the AAAC to communicate with students and families about CLR and expected changes in adult practices at schools. “Our focus,” Browder shared, “was on addressing and changing adult practices, not ‘fixing’ students and families.”

BUILDING DISTRICT CAPACITY TO RECOGNIZE IMPLICIT BIAS AND TO CHANGE SYSTEMS AND PRACTICES

REL West designed the Equity in Action project to support these five districts through an equity-focused process. REL West facilitators Browder and Van Houten wanted to provide responsive coaching to the districts to ensure that they were meeting teams where they were. Accordingly, the facilitators utilized participant feedback and ongoing dialogue with each district’s team leads to inform the activities of the next successive coaching session toward building capacity for racial equity change.

REL West’s equity-focused process, involving a variety of knowledge- and skill-building activities, helped each district tackle its racial equity work. Initial REL West-led sessions intentionally focused on forming district equity teams that were diverse in ethnicity and roles, as well as understanding the research on important concepts of educational equity, racial equity, racial trauma, and systemic racism. These steps in the Equity in Action process enabled district teams to develop common knowledge and a shared language as they began to uncover the root causes of particular inequities. Additionally, REL West facilitators coached the district teams on how to conduct courageous conversations using conversation protocols with probing questions to examine equity mindsets and unearth bias-based beliefs.[6]

To further build the capacity of the district teams, REL West introduced equity-centered tools and processes so that teams could gather information through stakeholder interviews, map assets, and collect and summarize data to inform changes to practices and policies. Finally, through REL West coaching, each district team defined its theory of improvement for changing an adult practice, related to its identified disparity or inequity, and developed an implementation plan.

As REL West continued coaching the district teams, both individually and as a cohort, the district teams acquired an equity-focused process to replicate on their own for any racial disparities they identified. From the onset, REL West aimed to help districts prepare for and sustain equity change work as they engaged in developing and acquiring habits of goal-setting, collecting and using data to inform policy and practices, and communicating findings on racial equity to stakeholders.

DISTRICTS LEARN TO ADDRESS BELIEFS, POLICIES, AND PRACTICES THAT IMPACT RACIAL EQUITY

While the districts are still implementing new strategies to reach their long-term goals around equity, the REL West facilitators believe that the project has achieved its more immediate objectives of building district staff capacity to engage in an equity change process. “The Equity in Action participants were able to build a shared language and understanding of equity-related concepts and practices,” said Browder. Van Houten added, “And they’ll be able to apply tools and processes that they now have to other racial equity efforts.”

“The Equity in Action participants were able to build a shared language and understanding of equity-related concepts and practices.” —Erin Browder

Feedback from the district teams about the project and their capacity to work on racial change was overwhelmingly positive. Team members reported that they have gained skills to use research and data on racial equity to inform district policies and practices, as well as to communicate effectively about equity-related data and findings to families, teachers, staff, and administrators.

Many participants in the project noted these positive takeaways:

  • Having expert facilitation and knowledgeable coaching is invaluable. Coaches can help to facilitate equity-related learning, which is often new and challenging for district teams. Comments from district team members included, “It was most helpful to have experts in implementation science, with the tools to support how to go about this work. Having individualized support was very helpful.” Another participant noted, “Having a coach there to push our thinking as well as be a scribe capturing our thinking was extremely helpful.”
  • Focusing on a specific racial equity area allowed for deep exploration. By examining biases and how they shape policies and practices, the teams unpacked the causes of the inequities they want to change. One member said the process was “a great way to reflect and really dive in and learn more about this work before implementing it.”
  • Doing equity work with a diverse district team is beneficial. Forming a team that is diverse in ethnicity and roles contributes to decisionmaking informed by multiple perspectives. One team member wrote, “Coming together as a team worked really well as each one of us comes from a different background and has had different experiences and, therefore, different lenses.”
  • Collaborating with and learning from other districts is supportive. The cross-district design of the Equity in Action project provided useful support, as one participant commented, “It was nice to hear from other districts as a reminder that we’re not alone in wanting change, and that it takes time and it’s complicated.”

One lesson learned was that the work of racial equity change requires ample time. Equity team members need time to build trust, especially if they have not worked together previously on the topic of racial equity. Additionally, team sessions require sufficient time to engage deeply in all of the components of an equity-focused process.

By the end of the project’s eight months, each team had identified a theory of action, developed an implementation plan, and determined implementation and outcome benchmarks to measure progress. Van Houten confirmed, “Participants saw how all the parts of the system — beliefs, practices, and policies — fit together to address racial inequities.”

RELATED RESOURCES

The following REL West resources were developed for the Equity in Action project and may be useful resources to district teams engaging in equity change work.

Equity in Action—Tools

  • Building a District Equity Team. A worksheet with guiding questions for forming a district equity team with members representing different identities, roles, knowledge, and skills.
  • Bias-Based Beliefs Resource. A reflection protocol to guide individuals or a team through examination of biased-based beliefs and behaviors.
  • Communication and Engagement Plan. A two-part tool containing a framework, guiding questions, and worksheets for developing a communication and engagement plan with different stakeholder groups.

Equity in Action—PowerPoint slides

RELATED EVENTS

By Pamela Fong, REL West

[1] Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. (2021, October). Tracking the COVID-19 economy’s effects on food, housing, and employment hardships. Retrieved from https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/tracking-the-covid-19-economys-effects-on-food-housing-and

[2] Wolfson, J. A., & Leung, C. W. (2020). Food insecurity and COVID-19: Disparities in early effects for US adults. Nutrients, 12(6), Article 1648. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7352694/

[3] Pier, L., Hough, H., Christian, M., Bookman, N., Wilkenfeld, B., & Miller, R. (2021, January). COVID-19 and the educational equity crisis: Evidence on learning loss from the CORE Data Collaborative. Stanford, CA: Policy Analysis for California Education. Retrieved from https://edpolicyinca.org/newsroom/covid-19-and-educational-equity-crisis

[4] Thakur, N., Lovinsky-Desir, S., Bime, C., et al. (2020). The structural and social determinants of the racial/ethnic disparities in the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic. What’s our role? American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 202. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202005-1523PP

[5] Minkos, M. L., & Gelbar, N. W. (2020). Considerations for educators in supporting student learning in the midst of COVID-19. Psychology in the Schools, 10.1002/pits.22454. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7753346/

[6] Fergus, E. (2019). Confronting our beliefs about poverty and discipline. Phi Delta Kappan,100(5), 31–34.

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Celebrating Hispanic Heritage in Education

This was crossposted from the Institute of Education Sciences blog, Inside IES Research.

Hispanic Heritage Month was celebrated from September 15 to October 15 this year. There was much to be thankful for, but also much work still to do. In our work at the Center for the Success of ELs (CSEL), an IES funded National Research and Development Center, our team is diligently working to clarify issues related to English learner (EL) classification and achievement, as well as the special challenges brought on by the pandemic, and to identify future challenges to which we must turn our attention.

Proper Accounting for ELs and their Achievement

The linguistic diversity of our student population is remarkable. Over 300 languages other than English are spoken in U.S. homes with Spanish by far the most common. Although many student and school factors influence time to English proficiency, we do not celebrate often enough the significant accomplishments of these language minority students, including those who enter school as proficient English speakers, but especially those who achieve proficiency in English through their hard work in school and that of their teachers and families.  Many students with Hispanic heritage who are designated as language minority students enter U.S. schools in kindergarten fully proficient in English and are never designated as ELs within the school system. Many more who are initially designated as ELs become proficient in English within 3-5 years of entering US schools.

Our persistent focus on those students not yet proficient in English has merit. Focus placed on students during this stage of their development can improve progress towards English proficiency and student outcomes when students receive access to appropriate instruction and supports that afford access to grade level content. However, to focus exclusively on the achievement of students who are not yet proficient in English fails to recognize the temporary nature of this stage of development for most ELs. This skews our understanding of the achievement of ELs and undermines student efforts toward educational attainment and school efforts to foster that development. This deficit orientation in accounting and reporting creates an aura of inferiority that is at once unwarranted, unhelpful, and unnecessary.

Reclassification Should be Celebrated

Excluding reclassified students from analyses of EL achievement presents a misleading picture and ignores countless individual successes. Numerous studies, including work funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and IES within our group, have found that ELs who have attained proficiency in English perform at least as well as peers who were never designated as ELs. In fact, this comparability appears to be present for many ELs who remain classified as ELs but are scoring in the top performance band of the English proficiency test. The same cannot be said for students who have not yet achieved high levels of English proficiency.

The significant accomplishments of our ELs receive too little attention in our reports and conversations about education. Unfortunately, this statement is true for Hispanic students as well as for students from the hundreds of other language backgrounds who populate our diverse schools. This year, as schools and districts announce their valedictorians, college bound students, rising elementary and middle school students and other academic accomplishments, we should take note of how many of these students began school as ELs and celebrate their success—an outcome achieved by the hard work of teachers and students.

New and Unprecedented Challenges for EL Education

“This is the worst educational crisis ever seen in the region, and we are worried that there could be serious and lasting consequences for a whole generation, especially for the most vulnerable sectors.”  Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank VP for Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Despite these successes and our general optimism for the post-pandemic educational system, there are significant challenges on the horizon as we consider educational practices for ELs. In March 2021, UNICEF estimated that total and partial school closures in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) had left approximately 114 million students in the region without face-to-face schooling. The impact of these school closures is particularly devastating in a region in which the majority of students did not achieve basic proficiency in reading, math, and writing prior to the pandemic. The World Bank estimates that as many as 71% of lower secondary education students in the region may not achieve basic levels of reading proficiency following this pandemic. Their educational risk is further compounded by twin crises of violence and poverty across the region.

This regional crisis is already felt in U.S. schools. Immigration data document a sharp increase in the number of families and unaccompanied minors from Latin America entering the US this past spring. This fall and beyond, U.S. schools will face the challenge of meeting the educational and social emotional needs of these at-risk immigrant youth but must do so with limited guidance from the research community on effective educational programs for newcomer English learners. Previous research with students who entered schools at a young age as ELs may not reliably generalize to students arriving at an older age following the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic and other socio-political challenges, many newcomers have interrupted formal educations, speak very little or no English on school entry, and may demonstrate academic weaknesses in their native language. A significant number are fleeing crises of violence and poverty with related psychological trauma that impacts learning.

Fortunately, this critical gap in research is explicitly acknowledged in the most recent Request for Applications for the National Center for Special Education Research, who set aside their research funding for the current year to specifically address educational challenges linked to the pandemic. Meeting the critical need for evidence-based strategies to ensure successful outcomes for newcomer ELs at significant educational risk will require everyone’s best efforts. The LAC region was disrupted more than any other region on the globe, experiencing the world’s longest school closures and inconsistent or non-existent remote learning options in the context of the deepest recession in decades. The learning loss resulting from this pandemic-related disruption is likely to be deep and pervasive, increasing school dropout and negatively impacting wellness and mental health.

As we take stock and celebrate the joy and enrichment that Hispanic heritage brings to everyone in the US, regardless of their own heritage, let us commit to doing all we can to ensure the academic success and socio-emotional health of our ELs in the United States.  In doing so, let’s also keep in mind that these students willingly face many challenges in pursuit of their own American Dream, and their success in this pursuit benefits us all.

This year, Inside IES Research is publishing a series of interviews (see here and here) showcasing a diverse group of IES-funded education researchers and fellows that are making significant contributions to education research, policy, and practice. As part of our Hispanic Heritage Month blog series, we are focusing on Hispanic researchers and fellows, as well as researchers that focus on the education of Hispanic students.

David J. Francis is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished University Chair of Quantitative Methods in the Department of Psychology at the University of University. He is also the Director of the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES) and the Director of the IES-funded Center for the Success of English Learners National Research and Development Center.

Jeremy Miciak is an associate research professor at the University of Houston in the Department of Psychology and at the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics (TIMES). He is also a co-investigator on the IES-funded Center for the Success of English Learners National Research and Development Center.

Produced by Katina Stapleton (Katina.Stapleton@ed.gov), co-Chair of the IES Diversity and Inclusion Council and Helyn Kim (Helyn.Kim@ed.gov), Program Officer at the National Center for Education Research for the ELs portfolio.

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Equity Snapshot: Apprenticeships in America

This was crossposted from the U.S. Department of Labor’s blog.

At the Department of Labor, we’re committed to advancing equity across all the programs and populations we support, including our efforts to increase awareness of and opportunities in apprenticeship — a proven industry-driven career pathway where employers can develop their future workforce and workers can get critical experience through paid and credentialed programs.

Though less common in the U.S. than in Europe, U.S. apprenticeship participation is on the rise. In fiscal year 2020 alone, 3,143 new programs were established, representing a 73% increase from 2009, and the number of active Registered Apprentices grew by 51% in the same period. And these programs are incredibly successful: 92% of apprentices retain employment after completing a Registered Apprenticeship and earn an average starting salary of $72,000.

Though apprenticeships have a proven track record of producing strong results for both employers and workers, we still have a long way to go toward advancing equity in apprenticeship participation. In this equity snapshot, we explore what data we have and what we still need to know to ensure apprenticeship programs are equitably serving all populations. Here are some of our key findings:

Though most apprentices are white, programs have become more diverse over time

According to demographic data provided by 686,000 apprentices between 2010 and 2019, 77.5% identified as white, 15.3% as Black, 2.9% American Indian/Alaska Native, 2.1% Asian, 1.6% Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and 0.5% as multi-racial.  With regard to ethnicity, 567,000 apprentices provided information with 18.3% identifying as Hispanic.

But as Figure 1 shows, apprentices have become more diverse over time. This suggests that efforts to boost participation and equity are working — but there’s still more work to be done.

 

Share of Apprenticeship Participants 2010 vs. 2019
 

Figure 1. Share of Apprenticeship Participants 2010 vs. 2019 (plain text)

For many racial groups, apprentice representation was higher than overall labor force participation

When comparing apprenticeship participation to the annual average share of labor force participation across all racial groups (Figure 2), we found Black apprentice representation was higher than their labor force representation in 17 industries, and American Indian or Alaska Native apprentices and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islanders outpaced average representation in 18 industries. This includes construction apprentices, where racial group participation rates mirrored the civilian workforce.

 

Figure 2: Comparison of Apprenticeship Distribution and Labor Force
 

Figure 2. Comparison of Apprenticeship Distribution and Labor Force (plain text)

However, representation of Asian apprentices and apprentices of two or more races fall well below their labor force share

Though some apprentice groups outpaced their peers in the general labor force, this was not the case for Asian apprentices. Whether these issues are structural we aren’t able to address, but we did identify two important issues to note: First, the grouping of Asian sub-groups into a single category may mask additional inequities among these various sub-groups. Second, there are possible identification issues associated with apprentices of two or more races, since survey respondents may self-select into a single racial group without being made aware of the multi-racial category — both of which should be addressed by follow-up surveys to correct and update the data.

Hispanic representation among apprentices is on the rise

Apprentices identifying as Hispanic represented 18.3% of all apprentices from 2010-2019, with an average annual proportion of 15.5%. Hispanic representation among apprentices has been increasing between 2010 and 2019, with the largest jump in representation in 2017 from 14.4 to 22.4%.  The overall labor force participation of Hispanics during this time was 16.3%, demonstrating that that though Hispanics hare overrepresented in Registered Apprenticeship programs, they have historically been underrepresented in the labor force overall.

Black apprentices are less likely to complete apprenticeship programs than their white peers

From an equity standpoint, there should be no significant difference in apprenticeship completion rates for individuals of various racial groups or by gender, but our data indicated that this is not the case. While completion rates are below 35% for all racial groups, which speak to the general difficulty of apprenticeships, completion rates for White apprentices reached 33% but only 24% for Black apprentices. Asian apprentices are the only other group to eclipse 30% completion, which suggests that there are factors in play that are negatively affecting completion equity.

Women make up only a small portion of apprentices

Historically, women have not been well represented in apprenticeship programs or in construction industries (where many apprenticeships exist) in general. Between 2010 and 2019, women accounted for an average of 8.5% of apprentices, and only 3.5% of construction apprentices. One study indicated that difficulties securing childcare and lack of pay for classroom instruction were significant barriers to participation and completion of apprenticeship programs – a common narrative for not only apprenticeships, but labor force participation in general.

Additional data is necessary to conduct a full equity analysis

Though our analysis yielded some helpful insights, we uncovered gaps in available data, making a full analysis of apprenticeship equity difficult. For example, we are only able to collect demographic information from program participants and not from applications, and the percentage of apprentices who did not provide demographic information recently jumped from 0 to 10 percent, leaving us with an incomplete picture of the full apprenticeship landscape.

Additionally, as mentioned above, our existing data can’t tell us which Asian and Hispanic sub-groups apprentices identify as, which is necessary to identify and address systemic issues facing these groups. And finally, racial groups are not uniformly distributed across the United States, meaning that we should account for geographic concentrations of various populations to get a better sense of apprenticeship accessibility and labor mobility.

These are just a few examples of what we know (and what we don’t) when it comes to assessing equity across apprenticeship programs. We can’t address what we don’t measure and improving the collection and quality of our data will help us better identify where we are making progress and where we need to improve — in our apprenticeship programs and beyond.

Read our full Apprenticeship Equity Snapshot Memo here.

Janelle Jones is the chief economist, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is the deputy assistant secretary for research and evaluation, and Christopher DeCarlo is an economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.

 

Figure 1. Share of Apprenticeship Participants 2010 vs. 2019

Racial Group Share of All Apprenticeships 2010 Share of All Apprenticeships 2019 Percent Change in Apprenticeship Share
American Indian or Alaska Native 3.4% 1.8% -46.3%
Asian 1.7% 2.2% 27.9%
Black or African American 12.8% 17.1% 33.3%
Two or More Races 0.0% 1.4% 3248.1%
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 1.4% 1.3% -6.4%
White 80.7% 76.2% -5.6%

 

Figure 2. Comparison of Apprenticeship Distribution and Labor Force

Racial Group Annual Average Apprenticeship Share
2010-2019		 Annual Average Share of Labor Force
2010-2019		 Change in Share of Labor Force
2010-2019
American Indian or Alaska Native 3.1% 1.0% 43.8%
Asian 2.1% 5.6% 35.8%
Black or African American 14.9% 12.2% 8.7%
Two or More Races* 0.4% 1.9% 20.8%
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 1.6% 0.4% 40.6%
White 78.1% 79.1% -4.8%

(*) Labor force data for individuals of two or more races is available only back to 2015.

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Eight Awesome STEM Programs You Didn’t Know About

This was crossposted from the U.S. Department of Energy blog.

November 8 is National STEM Day
Michael Stewart, U.S. Department of Energy

You hopefully have some of our STEM programs on your radar, like our Solar Decathlon, National Science Bowl®, and Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships and Community College Internships. But, did you know there’s hundreds more programs out of our national laboratories and program offices? November 8 is National STEM Day, and we’re celebrating by taking a look at some of these amazing STEM programs we offer through DOE and the Labs.

1) A Fellowship on Breakthrough Clean Energy Solutions

EarthShots Hydrogen

The Energy Earthshots Initiative, launched at the U.S. Department of Energy this year, is aimed at accelerating breakthroughs of clean energy solutions within the decade. The first Earthshot announced is the Hydrogen Shot, an all-out effort to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade – and to train the diverse workforce needed to make this a reality. Enter the Hydrogen Shot Fellowship, an opening for 1-2 current Bachelors’, Masters’, and Doctoral students to come work with us on clean hydrogen production and infrastructure research. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

Geared towards: current Bachelors’, Masters’, and Doctoral students 

2) A Way to Dive Into Algae Education

The Algae Technology Educational Consortium (ATEC)

When you think of surfboards, biofuels, or flip flops, does algae ever come to mind? Did you know that DOE has free resources to expand your knowledge about algae beyond the sea, to discover how algae is used in sustainable everyday products (like the examples above!). The Algae Technology Educational Consortium (ATEC) is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office and the Algae Foundation that shares education and learning opportunities for students and professionals, including the Algae Academy for grades K-12, a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) program for professionals, biotechnology curriculums, and more.

Geared towards: K-12, professionals, and teachers

3) A Program to Expand Gender Diversity in Science Careers

A widely-popular program for high school students in the Chicagoland area is the Science Careers in Search of Women at Argonne. The annual program brings inspiration, knowledge, and tips for exploring STEM careers directly to high school students with the aim of advocating for greater gender diversity in the STEM workforce. At the annual event, Argonne National Laboratory’s female scientists and engineers mentor students on their career goals, provide networking opportunities, and share Argonne’s work to advance science, including global challenges such as combating the climate crisis.

Geared towards: High School students identifying as female 

4) A Program to Jump-Start Your Inspiration to See Yourself in Nuclear

Navigating nuclear logo

DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy partners with the American Nuclear Society and Discovery Education to provide the highest standard in nuclear science education with Navigating Nuclear: Energizing Our World™. This dynamic, standards-aligned program invites students to explore the many applications of nuclear science and its impact on energy, healthcare, food, and the environment through an interactive suite of free resources. Explore STEM project starters, digital lesson plans, and exciting Virtual Field Trips where you can learn about different careers in nuclear science.

Geared towards: K-12 students and teachers 

5) A Workforce & K-12 Education Program That’ll Blow You Away

The Wind for Schools program is spurring student interest in wind energy and helping train the workforce of tomorrow.

Talk about winds of change! The Wind for Schools program is spurring student interest in wind energy and helping train the workforce of tomorrow. The program provides K–12 and college students hands-on education and experience through the installation and operation of a wind turbine at primary schools. With more than 145 systems installed at host schools across 12 states, Wind for Schools has already introduced thousands of students to wind energy concepts.

Geared towards: current undergraduate students for Wind Application Centers; K–12 schools to host affiliate projects 

6) A Summer Internship to Tackle the Climate Crisis

Want to tackle climate change? The Mickey Leland Energy Fellowship (MLEF) Program is currently accepting applications for their Summer 2022 program. This research program is under the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) and catered to undergraduate and graduate students in STEM majors seeking to gain experience in energy research. Participants will complete a cutting-edge research project at one of DOE’s national laboratories or at DOE headquarters under the mentorship of our scientists and engineers. Participants will also receive a stipend, travel and housing assistance. And the best part is that you will contribute to the FECM mission of minimizing the environmental impacts of fossil fuels while working towards net-zero emissions!  Application deadline is January 10, 2022.

Geared towards: Undergraduate and graduate STEM students 

7) A YouTube Collection You’ll Want to Browse for Days!

A screen grab of the JLab Frostbite Theatre collection.

Frostbite Theater is a collection of science-themed videos from DOE Jefferson Lab’s Science Education group. Geared primarily towards middle school students, each Frostbite Theater video takes a quick, focused look at one topic. Whether it’s learning how to draw an atom or doing a virtual experiment with electromagnets, Frostbite Theater has you covered.

Geared towards: Middle School students 

8) A Way to Spend a Day as a River

participants in BNL's program

Have you ever wondered what happens in the day of a life of a river? A collaboration between Brookhaven National Laboratory, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Central Pine Barrens Joint Planning and Policy Commission, explores this very question through their “A Day in the Life of a River” program.

Each year, over 1,500 students and teachers, representing dozens of schools, take a day to go into the field to collect biodiversity and water chemistry data from several Long Island rivers and estuaries. Students and teachers explore careers in environmental science gathering data and samples side-by-side with the many local, state, and federal agency scientists that volunteer their time. Students and teachers learn proper data collection techniques and how to use scientific equipment in the field. The students, teachers, and community stakeholders experience what place-based environmental stewardship is all about.

Geared towards: Elementary, Middle School, and High School students and teachers, Community stakeholders and users of the resources  

And wait, there’s so many more! Visit STEM Rising, our one-stop-shop for STEM activities at the Department of Energy, to browse through our activities by audience (K-12, college & continued learning, teachers, and workforce). Don’t miss any of the action by signing up for our monthly STEM Rising newsletter.

STEM Rising K-12 banner
AnneMarie Horowitz has been with the Energy Department since 2009, and is the Director of STEM Rising, a priority Departmental initiative to highlight the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs and resources of the agency.
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Dual Languages and Dual Experiences: Supporting Educators to Make Data-Based Decisions to Serve Multilingual Children and Their Families

This was crossposted from the Institute of Education Sciences blog, Inside IES Research.

IES has funded scholars that push for equitable educational experiences. Dr. Lillian Durán is one researcher who stands out in this area. Her work has focused on improving instructional and assessment practices with preschool-aged dual language learners (DLLs). Dr. Durán recently was funded to expand the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI) suite of psychometrically robust measures for Spanish-speaking DLLs by developing and validating measures for 3-year-olds.  As a continuation of our Hispanic Heritage Month Series, we asked Dr. Durán to discuss her research with Hispanic student populations.

Lorena Aceves, a Society for Research Child Development Federal Postdoctoral Policy Fellow at the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Head Start on detail with IES, asked Dr. Durán about her work and her experiences. See her responses below.

Photo of Dr. Lillian Durán

Dr. Lillian Durán

How have your background and experiences shaped your scholarship and career?

I am the first generation born in the United States. My mother was born in Rüstungen, Germany in 1931. This was in central Germany that was divided after WWII and became East Germany. She escaped as a young woman and made her way to the United States. My father was born in Nochistlán, Mexico in 1911, and his family migrated to the California when he was six years old because his father worked on building the railroads. In my home, we spoke German, Spanish and English, but English was my primary language. My personal experience in my family has fostered my interest in multilingual homes, and children who are growing up in first generation families.

Professionally, I became an early childhood special education teacher in 1998 and worked for 9 years both in Prince George’s County, Maryland and later in rural southwestern Minnesota. When I moved to Minnesota, I served three counties where Spanish-speaking children were about 25% of the population. I was the only teacher in nine school districts that spoke any Spanish, and I realized the incredible need in the field to support families who speak languages other than English, especially since there are so few teachers and specialists who are multilingual. In Minnesota, I was motivated to pursue a doctorate to fully immerse myself in understanding evidence-based solutions to serving multilingual children and their families.

What got you interested in a career in education science?

When I was a teacher, I had so many questions about best approaches to working with multilingual children and their families. I found myself looking for extra reading and trainings, but there was little information available to help me. At that time, I was a lead teacher and had signed up for my district to participate in a research project with Dr. Mary McEvoy out of the University of Minnesota. She was instrumental in encouraging me to apply to the doctoral program and agreed to be my advisor. In the end, she tragically passed away in an airplane accident, as many reading this will know, and Dr. Scott McConnell stepped in and took me on as an advisee. I tell this story because I think it is important to remember how important mentorship is to women of color out in the field and the incredible impact providing opportunities and encouragement can have. Without Mary pointing out my potential and giving me the confidence to even consider a doctorate, I might never have applied to a program.

In your area of work, what do you see as the greatest research needs or recommendations to address diversity and equity and improve the relevance of education research for diverse communities of students and families?

This is a complex question because the truth is there are many competing priorities. However, I believe an important priority at this point is to develop more effective bilingual language and literacy interventions that support meaningful improved outcomes reflecting community priorities and values. The interventions need to move beyond a singular focus on English language and literacy development to include culturally and linguistically sustaining practices in intervention design. We need to think much more deeply about the outcomes we are working to achieve and conduct more longitudinal research that can document change and performance over time. There is significant evidence that multilingual learners, in particular, need time to progress and that short-term studies cannot adequately capture more meaningful academic and life outcomes. Our current IES-funded project is looking to develop IGDIs for 3-year-olds to help educators make data-based decisions to improve children’s language and early literacy performance in Spanish, as well as to track growth in their development over time. I also think we need to conduct more research with a broader range of understudied populations including more cultures and languages to better understand their needs as the United States increases in diversity. In order to improve equity, we need to move beyond treating all multilingual students as one uniform group and begin to more systematically explore within group differences to effectively differentiate educational approaches to maximize outcomes.

What has been the biggest challenge you have encountered, and how did you overcome the challenge?

Quite honestly, the biggest challenge I have had to overcome in my life was my childhood. My parents had many challenges and struggles, and I had to care for my own needs and learn how to survive on my own from a very early age. I know this is personal, but I think this experience will resonate with many as we often do not address how many of us who go into education have experienced adverse early experiences ourselves and have had to draw on our inner phoenixes to get to where we are. Once I survived the first 18 years and was able to maintain my sense of self-worth, self-efficacy, and joy, there is not much else the world can throw at me that I can’t survive.

What advice would you give to emerging scholars from underrepresented, minoritized groups that are pursuing a career in education research?

The best advice I can give is to be true to yourself and have confidence in your intelligence and your contribution to the field. Change is difficult for many people, and there are many entrenched ideologies and practices in academic settings that might inhibit your creativity and ingenuity, but don’t let them! During my doctoral program, I had ideas about a Spanish version of the IGDIs. Initial reactions to the idea included, “Why do we need to measure kids in Spanish if we are teaching them in English?” I did not let that discourage me from reading and understanding what it would take to develop a measure in Spanish. After a decade of IES funding, it is clear there is a need for Spanish early language and literacy measures, and there is, in fact, currently a clear mandate to do a much better job of measuring children in their home languages to accurately capture their ability levels and reduce the likelihood that they will be underestimated reinforcing deficit-based stereotypes.

How does your research contribute to a better understanding of the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in education?

A critical but often overlooked part of education is assessment. Without accurate assessment, it is difficult to know whether what we are doing is working. I have had the great fortune to spend the last 10 years dedicated to Spanish assessment development. Having available high quality and psychometrically sound measures in Spanish that programs can use with confidence is critical to promoting equity in educational practices. It is important that measures developed in languages other than English are not simply translations of English measures, but rather true reflections of the cultural and linguistic characteristics of the population of interest. Technical manuals and evidence of the validity of the measure should be readily available just like they are for the English versions. Too often, measures developed in Spanish have undergone a less rigorous development process, and this does not support the accurate measurement of the ability levels of Spanish-speaking students. Therefore, my team’s assessment work has created a roadmap for embedding equity into measurement design, and I hope that our work leads to more strength-based approaches to assessment and intervention with young Spanish-speaking children that honors their home language and culture.

How can the broader education research community better support the careers and scholarship of researchers from underrepresented groups?

I think we need to create more accessible early career funding mechanisms for scholars of color and other underrepresented groups. Securing IES or NIH funding is a daunting process that realistically only pays off for very few of us. Smaller grants that can launch pilot work in emerging fields should be available to seed promising research careers and lines of research. This approach would support innovation and create space for more diverse scholarship and representation. We need to democratize the funding streams and think of new ways that scholars can enter the field with adequate support to launch their work.

Dr. Lillian Durán is an associate professor and associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Education at the University of Oregon.

This interview was produced and edited by Lorena Aceves, a Society for Research Child Development Federal Postdoctoral Policy Fellow at the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Head Start on detail with National Center for Education Research, IES.

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Recognizing 2021 Hispanic National Blue Ribbon Schools

Since 1982, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has recognized public and private schools based on their overall academic excellence or progress in closing the achievement gap among student subgroups. Each year the U.S. Department of Education celebrates the achievements of these great American schools. Throughout its 38-year history, the program has recognized over 9,000 schools and this year, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program recognized 325 schools nationwide. Of the 325 schools, 38 honorees are schools serving a Hispanic student population ranging from 40 to 100 percent, located in 11 states.

Hispanics make up 27.2 percent of all K-12 public school students. These National Blue Ribbon Schools are leading the way in preparing Hispanic students for academic success. The White House Initiative on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics (Initiative) celebrates each one for this national recognition. The Initiative congratulates the administration, staff, teachers, families, and communities that collaborate to ensure Hispanic students are succeeding. These schools are models for other schools with a high or growing Hispanic population on achieving excellence in academic achievement and closing academic gaps. The variety of programming within these schools demonstrates that when students are placed in the education setting that best fits them, excellence follows. The Initiative looks forward to further highlighting these schools and sharing their success.

The 2021 National Blue Ribbon Schools with a high Hispanic student population are:

School City State
Desert View Academy Yuma AZ
Franklin East Elementary School Mesa AZ
Mesquite Elementary School Tucson AZ
University High School Tolleson AZ
Dr. T. J. Owens Gilroy Early College Academy Gilroy CA
Red Hawk Elementary School Temecula CA
North Valley Middle School La Salle CO
AcadeMir Charter School Middle Miami FL
Center for International Education a Cambridge Associate School Homestead FL
Somerset Academy Silver Palms Homestead FL
Hills Elementary School Hills IA
Disney II Magnet High School Chicago IL
Prosser Career Academy High School Chicago IL
Sampson Early College High School Clinton NC
John F Kennedy Elementary School Jamesburg NJ
Coronado Elementary School Hobbs NM
Mesquite Elementary School Mesquite NM
PS 249 Caton (The) Brooklyn NY
Achieve Early College High School McAllen TX
A. P. Beutel Elementary School Lake Jackson TX
Calder Road Elementary School Dickinson TX
Clendenin Elementary School El Paso TX
Gallegos Elementary School Brownsville TX
Hawkins Elementary School El Paso TX
Hidalgo Elementary School Hildalgo TX
Kathlyn Joy Gilliam Collegiate Academy Dallas TX
Lamar Elementary School El Paso TX
Mittie A Pullam Elementary School Brownsville TX
North Houston Early College High School Houston TX
Porter Elementary School Mesquite TX
Ramona Elementary School El Paso TX
South Texas ISD Rising Scholars Academy San Benito TX
South Texas Preparatory Academy Edinburg TX
Spearman Junior High School Spearman TX
Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School At Mountain View Dallas TX
Vista Hills Elementary School El Paso TX
Young Women’s Leadership Academy San Antonio TX
Zeferino Farias Elementary School Alamo TX

In addition, the Department annually recognizes outstanding school leaders from National Blue Ribbon Schools through the Terrel H. Bell Award. This award recognizes principals for their vision and collaborative leadership style that have transformed their schools. This year, the Department recognized eight remarkable principals. Four of the principals are from National Blue Ribbon Schools with a high Hispanic student population.

The Initiative congratulates the school leaders, principals, support staff, and teachers for their achievements as 2021 National Blue Ribbon Schools honorees.

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Importance of Measuring Spanish Literacy Skills

This was crossposted from the Institute of Education Sciences blog, Inside IES Research.

The Latinx population comprises the second largest ethnic group in the US and has grown more than 600% since 1970. In states like California, Texas and New Mexico, nearly half of people are Latinx and almost one third are bilingual. States in the Northeast, Midwest, and South have also experienced double-digit growth in their Latinx populations since 2010. Millions of children all across the country are growing up in communities where both English and Spanish are spoken. In response to these trends, there has been a push to support and celebrate student bilingualism and biliteracy. Forty states and Washington, D.C. offer a State Seal of Biliteracy for students who achieve proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing in English and an additional language, most often Spanish. In this guest blog, Drs. Ashley Adams Sanabria, Amy Pratt, and Elizabeth Peña discuss the importance of measuring literacy skills in Spanish and their new IES-funded measurement project that aims to develop assessments to measure Spanish language and literacy skills.

Why is it important to measure literacy skills in Spanish?

In the IES practice guide for effective language and literacy instruction for English language learners, the first recommendation is to monitor children’s reading progress and use the data to make informed instructional decisions. Traditionally, this type of assessment has been conducted exclusively in English; however, we risk missing an important part of the constellation of skills that bilingual children possess when we do not assess their Spanish (or other first language) skills. Bilingual children’s language and literacy skills are often divided across both of their languages. Factors like exposure to Spanish versus English, preference for using Spanish versus English, and the language of formal reading instruction will affect a bilingual’s early literacy development. Measuring skills in only one language may make it appear that bilinguals are behind when in actuality, the assessment strategy has not captured the entirety of their skill set.

Furthermore, research shows that bilingual language profiles are dynamic and interact with the type of instruction children receive. Progress monitoring assessments in both languages allow teachers to track how children are progressing in different skills in each of their languages and can provide important information that will inform how teachers plan instruction for bilingual learners. As part of a new IES-funded measurement project, researchers at the University of California, Irvine and San Diego State University are developing the A2i-ALE (Adquisición de Lectura en Español) assessments to measure Spanish language and literacy skills. These new assessments will be computer adaptive and designed to be used alongside the existing Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) English assessments to monitor progress within and across school years for bilingual children in PreK through 3rd grade.

Which literacy skills should be measured in Spanish?

For our project, given we cannot measure everything, a key question we had to consider was which literacy skills to measure in Spanish. The Simple View of Reading holds that reading comprehension is the product of decoding skills and linguistic comprehension. Importantly, this framework can be applied to bilingual reading development, as well. Simply put, students must be able to decode written symbols into their spoken equivalent. But, we need to consider language differences. Languages with transparent orthographies and simple phonological structure, like Spanish, are easier to segment into their component sounds because there is a near 1-to-1 mapping between letters and sounds compared to English which has complex letter-sound mappings.

Once decoded, students must then apply their language skills (for example, vocabulary, knowledge of syntactic structures, background knowledge) to understand the meaning of the text they have just decoded. The Simple View of Reading has important implications for literacy instruction: (a) effective early reading instruction should develop skills in both decoding and language comprehension, and (b) given that these two domains develop relatively independently, reading comprehension outcomes will be enhanced by differentiating the amount of instructional time devoted to each of the two domains depending on individual learners’ skill level in each area.

Applying the Simple View of Reading to improve reading instruction for bilingual learners requires that teachers have valid, reliable information about decoding skills and language comprehension skills in all of their languages and use the information in planning and implementing reading instruction.

What’s next?

In our IES-funded study, we plan to develop A2i Spanish measures that will be designed to (a) describe each bilingual’s unique literacy skill profile in terms of their Spanish language, comprehension, and decoding skills, and (b) monitor children’s Spanish language and reading growth within and across school years. The goal is to inform Spanish language instructional decisions in dual language programs (that is, children demonstrating weaknesses in Spanish word reading or vocabulary could get more Spanish instructional time in those areas), as well as inform literacy instruction for bilingual children in English-only classrooms building on what is known about cross-language transfer.

This year, Inside IES Research is publishing a series of interviews (see here and here) showcasing a diverse group of IES-funded education researchers and fellows that are making significant contributions to education research, policy, and practice. As part of our Hispanic Heritage Month blog series, we are focusing on Hispanic researchers and fellows, as well as researchers that focus on the education of Hispanic students.

Ashley Adams Sanabria is an assistant professor at San Diego State University in the School of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.

Amy S. Pratt is a project scientist at the University of California, Irvine in the School of Education

Elizabeth D. Peña is an associate dean of faculty development and diversity at the University of California, Irvine in the School of Education.

Produced by Katina Stapleton (Katina.Stapleton@ed.gov), co-Chair of the IES Diversity and Inclusion Council, and Helyn Kim (Helyn.Kim@ed.gov), Program Officer for the English Learners portfolio, National Center for Education Research.

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Disrupting the Status Quo to Support Latino Students from Immigrant Families

This post was crossposted from the Institute of Education Sciences blog, Inside IES Research.

Driven in part by massive demographic shifts in the U.S. population, education and social behavioral research has increasingly attended to the growing diversity of the student population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Latinos accounted for more than 50% of the U.S. population growth between 2010 and 2020. While the country’s white population is shrinking, the Latino population grew by 23% in the last decade and now makes up almost 19% of the U.S. population. Although the raw numbers are worthy of attention, the change rate—and what it means for how schools and other systems serve students—may be even more important, especially given that the K12 education system is not built to accommodate such rapid demographic shifts.

Charles Martinez in a suit with an orange tie.

NCES data show that, although there has been overall progress in improving high school graduation rates, the nation’s Latino student dropout rate is 65% higher than White students and almost 40% higher than Black students. Only 20% of Latinos aged 25 to 29 have obtained a college degree—the lowest degree attainment rate of any racial/ethnic subgroup. Growing evidence shows that the disparities in college participation among Latino and first-generation college students may become even more pronounced as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage.

Since 2015, with the support of two IES-funded NCER grants, my team of colleagues and I have led work designed to challenge and innovate how schools support the positive development and college access and success for Latino students from immigrant families. Our Juntos Project was designed to create a new intervention model working directly with teachers, school leaders, and parents of Latino middle school students. The goal of the project was to address common challenges confronting immigrant families as they navigate the U.S. education system, to use effective strategies for recognizing and transforming teacher bias, and to create a school climate that centers equity leadership and builds authentic family-school partnerships—all with the promise to improve academic and school success for Latino students. The second project, Project LEAPS (Latino Education After Public School), which is currently underway, extends the model we developed in Juntos by working with teachers, parents, and school counselors to support the postsecondary readiness (and ultimately the college access and success) of Latino students as they transition from middle school to high school.

Through this work, we continue to learn important lessons about how to be disruptive given that current approaches have too often failed to make a lasting impact on nurturing the academic success and positive behavioral health of Latino students. Here are a few of those lessons:

Parents are the most important teachers in a child’s life. As much as education researchers and professionals attend to the role educators play in student life, our approach is designed to capitalize on the strengths of Latino families and the deep cultural value of familismo, which prioritizes dedication, connectedness, and loyalty to family, as essential targets of our intervention. Notwithstanding the influence of adult agents inside the education system, parents (that is, all of the adults in a child’s life who play a major role in raising them) play the most important and sustained role in raising healthy children. Although the education system frequently frames parents and home environments as “the problem” when considering the challenges of underserved students, data from the NCES National Household Education Survey show that parents of students of color are as likely or more likely to be engaged in their children’s education (for example, checking on homework completion, monitoring school performance) than their white peers. This is especially true for Latino parents, including those who are Spanish speaking and those who have low educational attainment themselves.

Move from a deficit framing to an asset framing. Undoubtedly, many Latino students and their families experience challenges as they navigate the education system. However, many of these challenges are not of their making. The fact that we can mark disparities in educational outcomes and access to higher education by race/ethnicity, poverty, rurality and other factors should be a source of outrage. None of these demographic characteristics should be correlated with school success or can legitimately be described as causal. The true causes stem from deeply rooted inequities embedded in the education system. One way to shift away from a student or family deficit framing is to focus on a more interesting question: What makes students, families, schools, and communities thrive in the face of difficult circumstances? The answers to this question can help us leverage assets that too often go untapped in service of student success.

Attend to within-group variation. Like other racial/ethnic groups, Latinos are not monolithic. Comparative designs in which outcomes for Latino students are contrasted with White students or students from other groups often contribute little to nuanced understandings about how variables linked to these group identifications might explain differences in outcomes. Ample research shows that within-group variation among Latinos on factors such as country of origin, nativity, generational history, language, time in U.S. residency, context of reception for immigrants, and acculturation level are more important in understanding the nature of risk and protection around academic and social behavioral adjustment than are between-group differences. In designing intervention programs for the families and students we serve, our goals are to understand these sources of variation and carefully attend to them in our development work.

This year, Inside IES Research is publishing a series of interviews (see here and here) showcasing a diverse group of IES-funded education researchers and fellows that are making significant contributions to education research, policy, and practice. As part of our Hispanic Heritage Month blog series, we are focusing on Hispanic researchers and fellows, as well as researchers that focus on the education of Hispanic students.

Charles Martinez (@c_martinez) is the dean of the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, and the founding director of the Texas Center for Equity Promotion. He is a first-generation college graduate and a third-generation Mexican American. His Project LEAPS co-investigators are Heather McClure, University of Oregon, and Elma Lorenzo-Blanco, University of Texas at Austin.

This guest blog was produced by Katina Stapleton (Katina.Stapleton@ed.gov), co-Chair of the IES Diversity and Inclusion Council.

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Research Roundup: NCES Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month

This post was crossposted from the National Center for Education Statistics blog.

Breaking down data by race and ethnicity can provide a better understanding of education performance and outcomes than examining statistics representative of all students. In observation of Hispanic Heritage Month, this blog presents NCES findings on the learning experiences of Hispanic students throughout their education careers.

Early Childhood Education

  • In 2019, 43 percent of Hispanic 3- to 4-year-olds and 86 percent of Hispanic 5-year-olds were enrolled in school.

 

K–12 Education

  • Between 2009 and 2018, the percentage of students enrolled in public schools who were Hispanic increased from 22 to 27 percent.

  • In school year 2018–19, the adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR) was 82 percent for Hispanic public school students. The ACGRs for Hispanic students ranged from 60 percent in the District of Columbia to 91 percent in Alabama and West Virginia.
  • Between 2010 and 2020, the percentage of Hispanic 25- to 29-year-olds who had completed at least high school increased by more than 20 percentage points, from 69 to 90 percent.

 

Postsecondary Education

  • In 2007, postsecondary enrollment of Hispanic students surpassed 2.0 million for the first time in history. In 2012, enrollment of Hispanic students surpassed enrollment of Black students, making Hispanic students the largest minority population enrolled in postsecondary education.

  • Between fall 2009 and fall 2019, Hispanic undergraduate enrollment increased by 48 percent (from 2.4 million to 3.5 million students).

  • In 2017–18, there were 99,718 bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanic students at Hispanic-serving institutions, which have a full-time undergraduate enrollment that is at least 25 percent Hispanic.

  • In academic year 2018–19, 17 percent of bachelor’s degrees conferred to Hispanic graduates were in a STEM field.
  • About 58 percent of Hispanic students who began seeking a bachelor’s degree full-time at a 4-year institution in fall 2013 completed that degree at the same institution within 6 years.

 

By Mandy Dean, AIR

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