Latino Students' Transition to Middle School: Role of Bilingual Education and School Ethnic Context. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Participants were 204 academically at-risk Latino students recruited into a study when in first grade and followed for 9 years. Using piecewise latent growth curve analyses, we investigated trajectories of teacher-rated behavioral engagement and student-reported school belonging during elementary school and middle school and the association between trajectories and enrollment in bilingual education classes in elementary school and a change in school ethnic congruence across the transition to middle school. Overall, students experienced a drop in school belonging and behavioral engagement across the transition. A moderating effect of ethnic congruence on bilingual enrollment was found. A decline in ethnic congruence was associated with more positive trajectories for students previously enrolled in bilingual classes but more negative trajectories for non-bilingual students.

published proceedings

  • J Res Adolesc

altmetric score

  • 2.6

author list (cited authors)

  • Hughes, J. N., Im, M., Kwok, O., Cham, H., & West, S. G.

citation count

  • 14

complete list of authors

  • Hughes, Jan N||Im, MyungHee||Kwok, Oi-Man||Cham, Heining||West, Stephen G

publication date

  • September 2015

publisher