Lynn Okagaki

Parenting and Children’s School Achievement: A Multiethnic Perspective:

The present study is an examination of the relations between parenting and the school performance of fourth- and fifth-grade children (mean age = 10 years, 2 months) in 75 Asian-American, 109 Latino, and 91 European-American families. Five aspects of parenting were studied: (a) expectations for children’s educational attainment, (b) grade expectations, (c) basic childrearing beliefs (i.e., development of autonomy, development of conformity to external standards, and importance of monitoring children’s activities), (d) self-reported behaviors (i.e., creating an academically enriching environment and helping with homework), and (e) perceptions of parental efficacy. School performance was measured by school grades and achievement test scores. Ethnic group differences emerged in parents’ expectations for children’s educational attainment, grade expectations, childrearing beliefs, perceptions of parental efficacy, and in the relations between these beliefs and children’s school achievement. These results provide further evidence of the importance of considering the constellation of parents’ beliefs, goals for their children, and the type of help parents can offer children when working with parents to facilitate their children’s school experiences.

Triarchic Model of Minority Children's School Achievement

Schools in the United States have attained greater and lesser degrees of success in providing educational experiences that facilitate the achievement of children of color. Although research from a variety of perspectives has provided a solid foundation for understanding the achievement and underachievement of children of color, much remains unknown in the understanding of the patterns of school achievement among minority children. In the Triarchic Model of School Achievement, the form and perceived function of school, the familys cultural norms and beliefs about education and development, and the characteristics of the child are considered as factors contributing to minority childrens school achievement. It is argued that focusing on only one component provides limited understanding of the complex environment that contributes to minority childrens school achievement.

Encouraging School Achievement in Mexican American Children

Parents of 33 high-achieving and 49 low-achieving Mexican American fourth-and fifth-grade children completed questionnaires on beliefs and values related to education and childrearing. On questions about the value of education in general, the importance of a high school diploma for enabling their children to get good jobs, the amount of education they expect their children to attain, whether or not parents should help children with homework, and the frequency at which they helped their children with schoolwork, parents of high and low achievers did not differ Parents of high achievers were more likely to be upset with grades of Cs and Ds, were more likely tofeel that there were many things they could do to help their children do well in school, and modeled reading skills morefrequently than parents of low achievers. Results are discussedfrom two theoretical perspectives-cultural/ecological theory and primary cultural discontinuities theory.

Ethnicity and Student Engagement

The underachievement of African American, Latino, and American Indian students in the United States has been partially attributed to poor engagement in school (e.g., Connell, Spencer & Aber, 1994; Steele, 1997). In this chapter, we consider the role of ethnicity in student engagement. A number of factors have been posited to influence minority students’ engagement in school. Okagaki (2001) conceptualized these factors into three broad domains: the roles of the student, the family, and the school. We begin with a discussion of factors within the student, such as students’ ethnic identity beliefs, experiences with discrimination, and bicultural efficacy, and the relations of these factors to students’ engagement in school. In the second section, we examine the role that parents’ beliefs, expectations, and behaviors play in ethnic minority students’ engagement in school, paying particular attention to beliefs and values that can be attributed to parents’ cultural models of education (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001; Lareau, 1996). Third, we consider how factors associated with teachers, peers, and friends relate to ethnic minority students’ engagement in school. In particular, we focus on students’ access to same ethnic teachers and peers, the quality of relationships with teachers and friends, and pedagogical practices that may facilitate ethnic minority students’ engagement in school. Finally, we identify the need for stronger empirical research around the identification and amelioration of the discontinuities between home and school cultures.

When Covariation Is Not Enough: The Role of Causal Mechanism, Sampling Method, and Sample Size in Causal Reasoning.

College students and college-bound ninth and sixth graders read several story problems in which a problem solver tried to find out whether a target factor was causally related to an effect. Each story problem included information about possible mechanisms that could have mediated between factor and effect (mechanisms present vs. absent), sample size (large vs. small), sample method (direct intervention vs. natural occurrence), and results (target factor did vs. did not covary with the effect). The results suggest that adolescents hold a tacit theory of evidence in which the presence of covariation is accorded a kind of primacy so that the presence of covariation overrides other evidence that calls causation into question

Mexican American children's perceptions of self and school achievement

Several theorists (e.g., LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993; Ogbu, 1992) have suggested that ethnic minority childrens beliefs about their ethnicity may affect their self-perceptions in other domains (e.g., academic and social competence). The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations between 4th-and 5th-grade Mexican American childrens beliefs about their ethnicity and their perceptions of themselves, their attitudes toward school, and their school performance. In general, children identified with their own ethnic group over Anglo-Americans, but indicated acceptance of allpeople rather than a preferencefor only people of their own ethnic group. Children s beliefs about their ethnicity were related to their perceptions of their social and behavioral competence, theirself-worth, theirattitudes toward school, and their intrinsic motivation for learning, but not to their school achievement.

American Indian College Students' Ethnic Identity and Beliefs about Education.

Sixty-seven American Indian and 96 European-American undergraduate students responded to questions about their educational and ethnic beliefs and their perceptions of their mother’s and father’s support for education. The American Indian participants completed some additional items regarding their ethnic beliefs and their perceptions of their parents’ cultural beliefs and practices. American Indian students placed greater value on the instrumental importance of education, more strongly affirmed their ethnic identity, and felt closer to their ethnic group than did European American students. For American Indian students, perceptions of mother’s socialization of cultural beliefs and practices were strongly related to students’ ratings of ethnic identity achievement, ethnic practices and belonging, and importance of ethnic identity. Belief in one’s bicultural efficacy was positively correlated with American Indian students’ ratings of academic identity and belief in the instrumental importance of school.

Ethnic Identity Beliefs of Young Adults and Their Parents in Families of Mexican Descent

Goodnow’s (1992) two-step model of intergeneration agreement was applied to parental socialization of ethnic identity. Young adults of Mexican descent (M = 20.3 years, SD =3.1) completed questionnaires on their ethnic beliefs, their perceptions of their parents’ beliefs, and their relationships with their parents. Parents of the young adults answered questions about their own ethnic beliefs and their childrearing goals and practices. The relation between parents’beliefs and young adults’beliefs was mediated by young adults’ perceptions of their parents’ beliefs. The difference between young adults’ beliefs and their mother’s beliefs was a function of the accuracy of young adults’perceptions of their mother’s beliefs and their desire to be like their mothers. The difference between young adults’beliefs and their father’s beliefs was a function of the accuracy of young adults’ perceptions of their father’s beliefs.

Continuity and Discontinuity in Intellectual Development Are Not a Matter of ‘Either-Or’

We hold that the question of whether intellectual development is continuous or discontinuous is not a meaningful one if these two patterns of development are held to be mutually exclusive. Rather, development involves both continuous and discontinuous elements simultaneously. We attempt to demonstrate the validity of our argument successively for psychometric, Piagetian, cognitive, and contextual points of view, and then make the same demonstration in somewhat more detail from the standpoint of the triarchic theory of human intelligence. We conclude that, as it stands, the continuity-discontinuity debate is largely misconceived and that we should instead be thinking in terms of ways in which development is simultaneously continuous and discontinuous with respect to different dimensions of analysis.

I Know That I Should Be Here: Lessons Learned from the First-Year Performance of Borderline University Applicants.

At many higher education institutions, admissions decisions often rely on standardized test scores and high school grades; yet, they are less reliable predictors for applicants falling slightly below cutoff points, what we call borderline applicants. Since borderline applicants are often from underrepresented backgrounds and diverted to 2-year institutions, this may potentially jeopardize efforts to increase campus diversity. Using a mixed-methods approach, two studies investigated an “admissions experiment” designed to increase campus diversity by admitting 34 borderline applicants into a summer bridge program. Study 1 compared program participants’ performance to two comparison samples of regularly admitted students (N = 912). Compared with a matched sample, borderline students performed better after the first semester and comparably after the first year. Study 2 identified program components that helped or undermined participants’ college adjustment and performance. Results suggested several program improvements that might enhance underrepresented students’ performance and experiences on 4-year campuses.