Hispanic Student Population Research Articles

Examining the Home Learning Environment Practices for Emergent Bilinguals: Insights from Parental Survey

This study aims to investigate the general practices of bilingual students’ home learning environments and to compare the variation in practices as a function of parents’ length of stay in the USA, educational levels, and household income by analyzing the results of a large-scale parental survey in an urban area in the southwestern United States, serving a predominantly Hispanic student population. The data consisted of 959 parents’ responses. The findings show that parents’ practices of engagement in students’ learning, discussions for students’ future, emotional support, students’ media consumption, disciplinary practice, and support for students’ autonomy vary in multifold ways as a function of their backgrounds. For example, while most parents, regardless of their background, were not prone to supporting children’s autonomy when deciding children’s routines at home, those with higher educational and income levels tend to more frequently participate in children’s classrooms or discuss children’s college entrance and career paths. The study discusses the implications of the findings and limitations.

SchoolHEAT: Racial and Ethnic Inequity in School Temperature.

Exposure to high environmental temperature is detrimental to health through multiple pathways. This paper describes disparities in school-based high-temperature exposure at metropolitan schools in the United States. Using school location and sociodemographic data from the National Center for Education Statistics, neighborhood data from the US Census Bureau, and land surface temperature (LST) data from the Aqua Earth-observing satellite mission, we find that for every 10% more Black or Hispanic residents in the neighborhood, schools have LST 0.25°C and 0.38°C hotter, respectively. When the Black or Hispanic student population is greater than the neighborhood population, LST is an additional 0.20°C and 0.40°C for each 10% increase in students over neighborhood population, respectively. Black and Hispanic students are overrepresented in the hottest schools, making up 58.7% of students in the hottest 20% of schools, compared to only 30.0% of students in the coolest 20% of schools.

Moscas en La Leche: A Critical Evaluation of Hispanic-Serving Institution Campus Spaces Through Photovoice Methodology

ABSTRACT The Hispanic-Serving Institution designation is based on enrollment with the overarching goal to ensure specialized support for Hispanic students. Despite the intentional funding, some institutions reap the financial benefits while not bolstering resources and support for the Hispanic population, or at least without seeing positive outcomes. Past research has illustrated this through dollars spent per student by racial category and with analysis of student support programs. The purpose of this study is to investigate perceptions of Hispanic students on the physical space (i.e. facilities, classrooms, and art) of campuses, seeking to understand how students’ experiences at HSIs are influenced by their perception of physical space. In this study, we utilize photovoice methodology to conduct a single-institution case study approach, focusing on a four-year research university that has been designated as an HSI in the southwest United States. We find that some physical spaces like the library, football stadiums, and academic colleges on HSI campuses are causing distress amongst the Hispanic student population resulting in students purposefully avoiding important student support spaces.

Shifting to a high impact practice-centered student worker staffed research desk: a Hispanic serving institution perspective

PurposeThe authors seek to demonstrate, from a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) perspective, the importance of utilizing High Impact Practices (HIPs) for not only more meaningful student employment initiatives, but to benefit the campus community and prepare Hispanic students for success post-graduation.Design/methodology/approachEvaluation of current practices in academic libraries aided the design of the new staffing model, location and name. A survey of research desk student assistants was designed and implemented approximately one academic year after changes were executed. Survey data combined with follow-up interviews summarized the qualitative-focused assessment of the research desk's evolution and verified the validity of maintaining HIPs in libraries for Hispanic student success.FindingsThe transition of the reference desk to a student-staffed research desk was successful in that librarians were able to dedicate more time to other endeavors, such as campus outreach and collection development. The High Impact Practice (HIP)-focused desk model, along with new, customized onboarding and training materials, fulfilled their goals of giving student assistants meaningful employment on campus while also bridging the gap between the library and the mostly Hispanic, first-generation student population. An assessment from the student assistants' point of view helped them further analyze the new research desk model. They found that student assistants noticed the ease with which their peers approached the desk and how their skills learned on the research desk transferred to their classes and future careers.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the COVID-19 pandemic and the restructuring of library personnel the authors were unable to implement library patron surveys to evaluate the new desk model.Originality/valueMany academic libraries and partners have made the transition to student-staffed help desks or offer peer-to-peer tutoring or mentoring services. HIPs positively impact marginalized student populations scholastically, but no current studies discuss the effect on the Hispanic student population from an HSI perspective. This study illuminates the wholistic influence HIPs have on Hispanic student assistants, not only their work and peers, but the affect on their academic and personal lives.

Analysis of Food and Housing Insecurity among University Students at a Public Hispanic-Serving Institution

ABSTRACT This study explores food and housing insecurity among university students at a public Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) located in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Classification and regression trees were used to identify the principal factors leading to food or housing insecurity in a predominately Hispanic student population. An analysis of Hispanic university students is needed to better understand the challenges of the fastest growing group with the highest enrollment gain. Findings will inform decision makers and faculty in their efforts to address food and housing insecurity and enhance the responses necessary to better serve Hispanics and all students.

U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Instructional Leadership Reflections

ABSTRACT This research contributes to the field of Educational Administration by presenting the instructional leadership practices used by three borderlands school principals to develop Hispanic students' postsecondary navigational capital using community cultural wealth (Yosso, Tara J. 2005. Whose Culture has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education 8, no. 1: 69–91). Whereas, the Hispanic student population in Texas continues to increase, the number of Hispanic school principals has not. According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA 2016–2017), Hispanic students represent 52% of the Texas public schools while Hispanic school principals account for 23% of principals in Texas (TEA 2011–2015). In addition, as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) legislation signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015 takes root in public schools all states are required to conduct educational equity audits. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Education requires that each state provide a state plan to ensure equitable access to excellent educators for all students (DOE 2015). In that case, this study presents culturally relevant leadership recommendations for school principals working on addressing Texas Hispanic students' educational gap by unpacking the instructional leadership strategies used by three borderlands school principals.

The Roles of Teacher Expectations and School Composition on Teacher–Child Relationship Quality

Teachers provide emotional and behavioral supports essential for success in the classroom. This study examined the roles of child interpersonal skills, teacher expectations, and school racial and poverty compositions on the quality of relationships formed between teachers and children. A subsample from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort 2010–2011 data set was used to fit two-level, multivariate regression models. Findings showed children with higher interpersonal skills had lower conflict and higher closeness with teachers. High teacher expectations were associated with less conflicting relationships. At the school level, the association between teacher expectations and teacher–child conflict was moderated by the Asian and Hispanic student population, and teacher–child closeness was moderated by the Asian student population. In addition, a higher proportion of school poverty and high teacher expectations was associated with lower teacher–child conflict. Overall, findings suggest the importance of investigating teacher–child interpersonal processes within a school context.

Nursing Faculty Readiness for Student Diversity

Using a modified Participatory Action Research model, 531 participants attending a nurse educators' conference spent three hours doing immersive collaborative work to identify perceived barriers experienced by diverse student groups and create strategies for educators to address perceived challenges related to diversity. Initially, six diverse speakers representing minority or underrepresented populations (such as Hispanic, African-American, LGBTQ, International, and other diverse student populations) in nursing education briefly shared their stories and experiences as a student and/or nurse being from an underrepresented group. After the presentation, the participants/nurse educators participated in rotating small groups through a World Cafe model to generate (a) perceived themes around common challenges and barriers faced and (b) practical strategies to facilitate inclusion of students from various diverse populations. The goal of the work was to enhance nurse faculty's readiness for student diversity in the classroom and clinical setting.

The Sleep Health Index: Correlations with standardized stress and sleep measures in a predominantly Hispanic college student population

ObjectivesThe Sleep Health Index was developed to address limitations with existing sleep scales, particularly in the measurement of healthy sleep in non-clinical populations. The purpose of the current study was to examine this measure in relation to two widely-used sleep scales and two standardized stress scales. MethodsA sample of 416 undergraduate students completed an online survey that included the Sleep Health Index, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Inventory, Insomnia Severity Index, Perceived Stress Scale, and Index of College Students' Recent Life Events. ResultsSleep health was negatively correlated with self-perceived stress and life-events (−.41 and− .45, respectively), insomnia severity (−.59), and poor sleep quality (−.58). ConclusionsAlthough other measures assessing sleep health exist, there is a paucity of data-driven support for their validity. Our findings provide support for the Sleep Health Index as a measure of healthy sleep and demonstrate an association between psychological stress and sleep health in an undergraduate student population.

Persistence and engagement among first-year Hispanic students

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between engagement indicators and intent to persist of first-year full-time Hispanic students attending public versus private universities. Design/methodology/approach Metadata from the Your First College Year survey from the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) were selected for this study. The approach included using a descriptive correlational design and regression analysis to examine the relationship between engagement indicators and persistence among first-year, full-time Hispanic students and persistence. Purposeful sampling obtained from the HERI data set resulted in a sample size of 1,206 students who attended public institutions and 1,187 students who attended private institutions. Findings Analysis of the results disclosed a positive correlation between first-year Hispanic students’ intent to persist, satisfaction with peer interactions, amount of contact with faculty, first-year programs and sense of belonging. The results of the analysis disclosed differences between public and private institutions. Of the collective variables, satisfaction with amount of contact with faculty and sense of belonging are significant predictors of persistence. Research limitations/implications The sample of the study was limited to the use of archival data and the responses to specific questions obtained from the 2014 YFCY survey. Factors such as insufficient experience at the college students are attending, unwillingness to provide honest feedback and exaggerating specific areas of their behavior or performance may affect students who respond to surveys (Kuh, 2004), affecting the accuracy of the data. Further, 89.7 per cent of the variance in persistence has not been explained. Adding or using different variables and utilizing a more advanced statistical technique may account for additional variance. Cause and effect cannot be determined from correlational analysis, and the possibility exists that an unknown variable may be the cause of a correlation within the study. Incomplete information from predictors, complete separation and overdispersion can lead to SPSS output errors for logistic regression analysis. Social implications It is important for higher education administrators to understand the cultural differences of not only Hispanic students but other ethnic and racial groups. As a global society, public and private higher education institutions are looking for more inclusion of multi-cultural students. Recruitment is obviously important, but to recruit is not enough. It is the responsibility of higher education administrators to do all that is reasonably possible to retain students through graduation. Originality/value Studies have been conducted on academic disparities between Hispanic students and their White counterparts, but few studies exist on the factors associated to persistence among the first-year Hispanic student population. The results of this study may add to the existing body of knowledge and assist with faculty development of programs, decisions on class size, improvements to pedagogy and discussions to improve the campus climate for Hispanic students. Using the resources of HERI, future studies can be conducted involving other races and ethnicities.

The Latinx canon in anthologies: Who are the authors?

ABSTRACTMore than a quarter of all U.S. students in grades K–12 are Latinx. Examining what Latinx texts are included in classroom literature anthologies is essential to ensuring cultural representativeness of the increasing Latinx student population, especially in states such as Texas and California, whose Hispanic student population is more than 40 percent. These states also represent the largest consumers of educational materials and, therefore, greatly influence what content is included in literature anthologies sold throughout the United States. This study analyzed the trends anthologized authors and selections suggests that a Hispanic canon has been shaped and developed as evidenced by the publishers’ inclusion of the same authors and texts in both the 2001 and 2011 anthologies adopted in Texas. Content analysis of the grade 8 anthologies revealed not only the names of the Latinx authors included in these resources, but also authorship trends such as the percentage of Latinx authors, number of times selections were included in the anthologies, and genres represented. These trends revealed a shaping of a Latinx canon that includes award-winning Latinx author and lesser known Latinx authors.

Stress and Coping among College Students in the Dominican Republic

Background and Purpose: Stress is a common complaint among college students; however, stress is understudied specifically among Hispanics outside of the United States. A cross-sectional study investigating the stress-coping approaches utilized by Dominican college students living in the Dominican Republic (DR) is reported. Methods: Three-hundred three students, 27% male and 73% female, attending a private DR college completed a self-administered survey that inquired about their stress-coping approaches. Results: Older students in good academic standing were five times more likely to engage in exercise in response to stress (p= .006). Smoking cigarettes was significantly higher among White male students (p= .018). Students most often reported listening to music, using more than one stress-coping approach, or exercising in response to stress. Conclusion: This study identified stresscoping approaches utilized by college students attending a private university in the DR. Adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies were described. These findings differ from findings reported in studies conducted among other Hispanic college student populations that more often reported social support as a more commonly-used stress-coping approach.

Stress and Coping among College Students in the Dominican Republic

Background and Purpose: Stress is a common complaint among college students; however, stress is understudied specifically among Hispanics outside of the United States. A cross-sectional study investigating the stress-coping approaches utilized by Dominican college students living in the Dominican Republic (DR) is reported. Methods: Three-hundred three students, 27% male and 73% female, attending a private DR college completed a self-administered survey that inquired about their stress-coping approaches. Results: Older students in good academic standing were five times more likely to engage in exercise in response to stress (p= .006). Smoking cigarettes was significantly higher among White male students (p= .018). Students most often reported listening to music, using more than one stress-coping approach, or exercising in response to stress. Conclusion: This study identified stresscoping approaches utilized by college students attending a private university in the DR. Adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies were described. These findings differ from findings reported in studies conducted among other Hispanic college student populations that more often reported social support as a more commonly-used stress-coping approach.

Stress and Coping among College Students in the Dominican Republic

Background and Purpose: Stress is a common complaint among college students; however, stress is understudied specifically among Hispanics outside of the United States. A cross-sectional study investigating the stress-coping approaches utilized by Dominican college students living in the Dominican Republic (DR) is reported. Methods: Three-hundred three students, 27% male and 73% female, attending a private DR college completed a self-administered survey that inquired about their stress-coping approaches. Results: Older students in good academic standing were five times more likely to engage in exercise in response to stress (p= .006). Smoking cigarettes was significantly higher among White male students (p= .018). Students most often reported listening to music, using more than one stress-coping approach, or exercising in response to stress. Conclusion: This study identified stresscoping approaches utilized by college students attending a private university in the DR. Adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies were described. These findings differ from findings reported in studies conducted among other Hispanic college student populations that more often reported social support as a more commonly-used stress-coping approach.

Gamification as a Teaching Strategy: Is It Effective?


 
 
 Gamification has become a trending concept in online courses for the past 10 or more years. Based on the analysis of psychological and social factors that make electronic games highly used in today’s population, gamification suggests ways to improve education course innovation, student engagement, student motivation, student critical thinking, and student decision-making. The question is, “Is it effective?” This paper evaluates an online graduate course in business administration at a state university with a majority Hispanic student population to determine if the concept is effective as a teaching strategy option.
 
 

On understanding inconsistent disciplinary behaviour in schools

Inconsistent disciplinary administration across schools can inequitably impact students’ education access opportunities by separating certain students from familiar learning environments, especially in misconduct cases that result in longer-term removal. We empirically estimate whether such inconsistencies are attributable to heterogeneity in student body demographic characteristics. The results indicate that a greater number of disciplines that remove students from school for an extended period of time are observed in schools with a higher proportion of black students, but no significant differential punishment effects are observed in schools with a higher Hispanic student population. Furthermore, results of decomposing the marginal effects into conditional and unconditional elasticities indicate that it is not the case that schools with predominantly white student bodies have the least severe punishments and schools with more minority students have the most severe punishments. Rather, schools with inconsistent disciplinary behaviour have a proportion of the inconsistency attributable to the race of the student body.

Development of a community pharmacy human papillomavirus vaccine program for underinsured university students along the United States/Mexico border

To describe the development and implementation of a human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine patient assistance program (PAP) for university students, and to acquire information on the number who accessed the program and completed the series. University of Texas at El Paso University Student Health Clinic Pharmacy, Fall 2011-Spring 2014. A community pharmacy located within the university student health clinic providing services to an underinsured student population. Existing evidence shows the benefit of using PAP in community pharmacies but is nonspecific regarding the use of PAP for vaccines in an uninsured and underinsured Hispanic student population. The implementation of this unique HPV vaccine program in a community setting aims to increase awareness, access, and rates. Primary measures included results from a needs-assessment questionnaire that were used to implement the HPV vaccine program. After implementation, utilization data were collected on the number of students who qualified and enrolled in the HPV PAP and the number of students who completed the HPV series. The preliminary data from a needs assessment indicated that a majority (72.1%, n = 80) of students did not understand how HPV is transmitted. A total of 89 students qualified for PAP. The majority were women (81%). A total of 71 students (79.8%) received their second dose and 43 (48.3%) completed the series. Although pharmacists continue to provide vaccine services, minorities such as the Hispanic population continue to be underimmunized. Students may not be taking the proper precautions to prevent the acquisition of HPV. For these reasons services such as this HPV vaccine program are warranted. Pharmacists need to continue to educate and advocate on the importance of vaccines and how they prevent disease.

School Climate and the Relationship to Student Learning of Hispanic 10th Grade Students in Arizona Schools

This study provided an analysis of Hispanic 10 th grade student academic achievement in the areas of mathematics, reading and writing as measured by the Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards. The study is based on data of 163 school districts and 25,103 (95%) students in the state of Arizona as published by the Arizona Department of Education. In the study, the quantitative correlations of four independent school climate-related variables with student learning (dependent variable) were analyzed. The independent variables were the following: teachers’ years of experience, teachers’ academic preparation, Limited English Proficiency (LEP) student population and economically disadvantaged student population. The study sought to inform principals and the discipline of Education Administration about the complex school climate issues that relate to student learning in Arizona high schools among the Hispanic student population. In so doing, the study offered informed arguments regarding the complex issue of narrowing the achievement gap of Hispanic students.

Elementary School Personnel's Perceptions on Childhood Obesity: Pervasiveness and Facilitating Factors

Researchers in numerous disciplines have investigated the effects of the school environment on childhood obesity (CHO), one of the greatest current health concerns in the United States. There is a gap in current empirical evidence, however, on school personnel's perspectives of this issue. This study examined school personnel's perceptions of obesity as a problem among school-aged children and their views on factors contributing to obesity. Thirty-one semistructured interviews were conducted with elementary school personnel (teachers, administrators, and support staff) from 5 rural schools with a predominantly Hispanic (58.18%) and Black (30.24%) student population. The constant comparison method was used to identify emergent themes. All but one participant considered obesity to be a problem among elementary children. Factors facilitating obesity most frequently cited by school personnel were home environment, poor nutrition, child control of dietary choices, child inactivity, and entertainment electronics. Child control of dietary choices in both home and school environments was identified as a major contributor to obesity. Further exploration of this control is warranted to understand the complexity of this dynamic and its potential link to CHO.

Getting off on the wrong foot: Longitudinal effects of Hispanic students' stability attributions following poor initial test performance

Though studies have established that following poor performance, attributions to stable causes affect the performance of minority students, few studies have explored the impact of stability attributions over time. This study explored attributions following initial failure among a predominantly Hispanic student population. We measured students' collectivism, stability attributions and grades at three points during the semester. Attributions to stable causes were associated with worse initial grades and lesser gains in academic performance over time. Further, collectivism was associated with greater initial attribution to stable causes but less increase in attributions to stable causes over time.