Development of a Tool to Assess Inference-Making and Reasoning in Biology

Making inferences and reasoning with new scientific information is critical for successful performance in biology coursework. Thus, identifying students who are weak in these skills could allow the early provision of additional support and course placement recommendations to help students develop their reasoning abilities, leading to better performance and less attrition within biology courses.

“She Did Not Find One That Was for Me”: The College Pathways of the Mexican and Central American Undocumented 1.25 Generation

In this article, Daysi Ximena Diaz-Strong draws on interviews with Mexican and Central American 1.25 generation undocumented young adults to examine what shaped their access to financial resources in their college-going transitions. Although scholars have demonstrated that school agents and peers are critical to accessing resources and that stratified schools create unequal access to resources, this knowledge derives from the experiences of the 1.5 generation, and little is known about the college pathways of the undocumented 1.25 generation. Through a social capital lens, Diaz-Strong shows how undocumented 1.25 generation immigrants encounter structural disadvantages in accessing resources and how, arriving in adolescence, they experience below-level course placement and have little time to learn the US system. This article extends our understanding of the factors shaping the college pathways of undocumented youth and shows how immigrants’ life stage on arrival interacts with school sorting mechanisms to create differential access to financial resources.

The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Teacher Perception on Low Achievers

Using Rosenthal and Jacobsen's Pygmalion Effect Theory and Bandura's Social Learning Theory, this chapter explores the perceptions of high school English/language arts and math teachers who teach low academic level track courses. The teachers' narratives describe their beliefs regarding academic ability grouping of students and the associated achievement gap that is often a result of this stratifying structure. Findings from the narratives reiterate the importance of teacher awareness regarding the impact of critical pedagogy as a fundamental element of teaching for social justice. The chapter indicates the usefulness of teacher narrative to influence alternative methods for course placement and schedule design in the high school curriculum.