Despite the increase of Latinx enrollment in higher education, the amount of Latinx graduates from higher education has not increased. In order to understand this phenomenon, this study utilizes testimonials and published articles to examine the commonalities of student experiences, primarily first-generation students, when pursuing higher education as well as their challenges throughout higher education. For the purpose of clarity, a first-generation student is defined as someone whose parent(s)/guardian(s) did not attend college. The intention of this study is to identify the disparities that Latinx students experience and to understand why Latinx students are underrepresented in higher education. Ultimately, creating a more thorough understanding of these issues will assist administrators and professors in supporting Latinx students in academic settings.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused students living in rural areas to experience educational disparities. This included familial financial stresses, pushing many migrant students living in rural communities to prioritize work over school. The pandemic shed light on educational disparities featured in rural public-school education systems. The purpose of the study is to examine how the education trajectory of students in rural communities has been affected by the social and economic impacts of COVID-19. To accomplish this, we will examine the extent to which familial needs impacted students’ post-high school educational plans, how financial strain influenced their post-graduation choices, and how students practiced resourcefulness and resilience despite economic hardship. In this community-based qualitative research project, we will conduct semi-structured interviews with Eastern Washington high school seniors who are 18 years of age or older and use phenomenological thematic analysis to gather themes related to our research questions. As part of the research, we will collaborate with a community advisory committee composed of teachers and recent high school graduates from Eastern Washington to develop the project’s research methods and to ensure the analyses and interpretation of interviews are reflective of the students’ experiences. We predict that students will plan to alter their post-high school paths to accommodate their families’ needs. Anti-racist - strength-based - frameworks will be used to make academic support recommendations for students. Ultimately, our study can help inform collaboration with community members to find solutions so we can best support students as they navigate pathways after high school.

This presentation explores how translanguaging is used in bilingual children’s literature and how Latinx authors incorporate Spanish. The use of translanguaging is a common one within bilingual communities, which can be observed in how bilingual children communicate. Pictures books are a method in which children can be exposed to more complex societal and cultural aspects. Bilingual pictures book has the same use as the one mentioned above. However, they also have the task of exposing young children to languages. The purpose of including translanguaging in the text is not to promote proficiency in the student but belonging and understanding. Using a unitary view of language supported by translanguaging (Otheguy et al. 2019), this ongoing investigation aims to find and review bilingual children’s literature in order to identify books where translanguaging has been used and if it has been done successfully.

Over the past five decades, educational linguists have been keenly interested in the effects of Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) and Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs on the academic achievement and literacy skills of language-minority students. Early TBE has been shown to improve oral vocabulary and literacy development in the home language at no cost to English language and literacy development (Durán, 2014). Receiving academic instruction in their native language helps students develop both their academic abilities and English literacy (Cummins, 1976). DLI allows for language proficiency and academic achievement in both languages while also providing a cross-cultural understanding. Valdes (1997), however, questions the quality of DLI instruction, as she examines how language and power relate. Little research has documented how the two types of programs compare. Even less has been done to investigate the students’ perspectives on TBE and DLI. The current study examines the relationship between these two modes of instruction through analyzing survey and interview data collected from current college students who participated in either TBE or DLI in K-12. My initial hypothesis is that students’ experiences in the TBI or DLI program influence their perceptions of how well they are prepared for college-level studies. This is important for teaching and subsequent research, as we learn more about the similarities and differences between TBE and DLI. This study will help the public, educational institutions, and teachers in further improving TBE and DLI programs and in influencing the policies regarding bilingual education.

This study focuses on TRIO: Upward Bound Programs, which have shown to help in increasing college enrollments of low-income students and students of color, and the longer students stay in the four-year program, the better their educational outcomes. Unfortunately, a problem that the program faces is that many students do not stay all four years, and this is especially true for Latinx/ Hispanic students, who have the shortest average duration compared to students with other racial and ethnic backgrounds. Therefore, why do Latinx students have a shorter duration in the Upward Bound Programs? This research project focuses on analyzing one social factor that may be especially important: family involvement since there was more mixed information on this social factor. This project will explore the relationship between family involvement and student duration in the Upward Bound Program through an emailed survey. The emailed survey will be given to 9th – 12th-grade students participating in the LACC Upward Bound Program and will be administered in fall 2021. Students will be asked about their experiences in the program, some of the challenges that they have faced, family involvement and support, and family background and demographic information. Through a qualitative analysis, I anticipate finding that Latinx students with parents who are immigrants face unique challenges that may be affecting their duration in the program compared to other students.