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Latino Immigrants, Language Assistance Classes, and Dropping Out: A Multi-Level Approach.

Authors :
Alvarado, Steven Elías
Source :
Conference Papers - American Sociological Association; 2006 Annual Meeting, Montreal, p1, 19p
Publication Year :
2006

Abstract

Latino students currently have the highest dropout rates of any population subgroup in the United States. This paper seeks to combine the literature on language assistance classes and tracking in a multi-level modeling framework in order to find an answer to how individual and contextual variables differentially explain why Latino students drop out of high school. I use data from the first three waves of the National Education Longitudinal Study for the Latino sub-sample of 1387 students nested within 393 schools. My hypothesis is that Latinos who have taken language assistance classes prior to 8th grade are more likely to drop out of high school primarily due to tracking in non academic classes. The preliminary findings suggest that language assistance classes may have a negative effect on the probability of dropping out of high school - especially for students who attend urban schools with gang conflicts. A tentative conclusion from these results is tha t contrary to the stated hypothesis, having had taken language assistance classes prior to 8th grade may in fact arm Latino students with some skills and/or resources which deter them from eventually dropping out of high school. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
Database :
Supplemental Index
Journal :
Conference Papers - American Sociological Association
Publication Type :
Conference
Accession number :
26642668