Eliana D. Rojas

Increasing Academic Achievement and College-Going Rates for Latina/o English Language Learners: A Survey of School Counselor Interventions

This study was conducted to identify the extent to which school counselors use various intervention strategies to promote college attendance for Latina/o English Language Learners (ELLs). Specifically, school counselors across the Northeast (n = 198) were asked to identify activities they implement on behalf of Latina/o ELLs to increase college-going rates. The results suggested the importance of the following: collaborating with multiple school and community stakeholders, addressing the inadequacy of resources through advocacy and leadership, and keeping track of dropout, graduation, and college-acceptance data for Latina/o ELLs to ensure equitable access to educational opportunities.

Encountering Spaces of Resistance When Implementing Research-Based Strategies for English Language Learners (ELLs)

This article discusses research findings from follow-up studies on the effects of purposeful programming designed to prepare educators who participated in either of two professional development federal grants funded by the U.S. Department of Education (REALL 2007 and LEAD 2012) to address the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). The qualitative data gleaned through focus group interviews and responses to questionnaires collected in these studies describe both educators’ sense of self-efficacy (Bandura, 1994) and their students’ transformations as they experience success. The longitudinal data collected over a 6-year period include narratives of resistance encountered by the grant participants in spaces such as schools, districts, and the broader community, and how these challenges were approached.