Latino Students' Transition to Middle School: Role of Bilingual Education and School Ethnic Context

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.

Latinos’ Changing Ethnic Group Representation From Elementary to Middle School: Perceived Belonging and Academic Achievement

“…For example, Akos and Galassi () found that Latinos perceived the middle school transition as significantly more challenging than did their White and African American peers. Consistent with these perceptions, previous research also documented a significant drop in school belonging, achievement, and engagement when Latinos transitioned to middle school (Espinoza & Juvonen, ; Hughes, Im, Kwok, Cham, & West, ; Wampler, Munsch, & Adams, ). Understanding and contextualizing the middle school transition experiences of Latinos is pivotal to help curtail their risk of academic failure in middle school and subsequent school dropout (Ream & Rumberger, ).…”

“…All of these findings suggest that, like exposure to bilingual education in the Hughes et al. () study, there may be social and academic benefits to ethnic diversity in middle school that might buffer some of the challenges of declining ethnic group representation across the transition to middle school.…”

“…In a later study, Hughes et al. () examined the association between declining ethnic representation from elementary to middle school and teacher‐rated behavioral engagement of Latino students as well as their self‐reported school belonging. The authors then tested whether this association changed depending on whether students were or were not enrolled in bilingual education classes during elementary school.…”

“…Hughes et al. () proposed that being enrolled in bilingual classes throughout elementary school provided a source of social support, motivation, and cultural competence as Latino students transitioned to middle schools with fewer same‐ethnic peers.…”

Indirect Effects of Extracurricular Participation on Academic Adjustment Via Perceived Friends’ Prosocial Norms

“…Example items include “tries hard to do well in school”; “participates in class discussion”; and pays attention in class.” Teachers indicated the extent to which each statement was true on a 1 ( Not true at all ) to 4 ( Very true ) scale. The scale demonstrates good factorial validity (Hughes, Im, Cham, Kwok, & West, 2014). The internal consistency reliabilities( α ) at baseline and grade 9 were .92 and .91, respectively.…”