Navigating and Negotiating Home, School, and Peer Linkages in Adolescence

Final Report: Project 3.3 Principal Investigators: Margarita Azmitia - University of California, Santa Cruz Catherine R. Cooper - University of California, Santa Cruz Project Period: June 1996-July 2002 Purpose This project investigated how families, schools, peers, and community organizations support and challenge students' academic achievement and educational, occupational, and moral goals during the transition from elementary to junior high school. Two studies were carried out. The first study (with a school-based sample) was a two-year longitudinal project that followed 168 European-descent and Latino low- and middle/upper income students from elementary to junior high school (sixth through seventh grade). Data includes classroom observations and teachers' ratings of students' competence and parents' involvement in their children's schooling (sixth grade only), parent and student interviews (sixth and seventh grade), and academic data (grades and achievement test scores; sixth and seventh grade). The second study (with a Program-based sample) assessed how community organizations provide safe places for at-risk youth, teach them about school and life, and help them plan for the future. We worked primarily with the Cabrillo Advancement Program, a community college outreach program designed to increase low-income students' college attendance. Participants were primarily low-income Latino, the largest low-income group in our community. Data include program application essays, interviews, field observations, surveys, and school grades and classes from sixth grade through high school. We first present the research design, data collection/instrumentation, and sample characteristics for each study. Then, we summarize the findings pertinent to each study by research question, with the findings for the first two questions combined. Study 1: School-Based Sample Research Design This two-year longitudinal study followed students during the transition from elementary (sixth grade) to middle school (seventh grade). Students attended public schools in a small coastal city in central California. Five elementary schools and three middle schools participated in the study. Two cohorts of students comprise the final aggregated sample. Data from Cohort 1 were gathered in1994-1996 during the OERI funding cycle of the National Center for Research on Cultural Diversity and Second Language Learning (NCRCDSLL), and data from Cohort 2 were gathered in 1998-2000, during the funding cycle of CREDE. The elementary schools were selected because district officials indicated that these schools served higher percentages of Latino and low-income students than other elementary schools. In their estimation, the selected schools served between 20% and 40% Latinos and between 25% and 38% low-income students, with most of the low-income population being Latino. Low-income was defined as eligibility for free or reduced-price lunches. The middle schools selected were the feeder schools for the participating elementary schools. Students and their families were recruited through letters distributed to sixth-grade students. Follow-up phone calls were made to families who did not return the consent form within the allotted period. Across classrooms and cohorts, student participation ranged from 71-88%, indicating good representation of the sixth-grade population of participating schools. The resulting ethnic (60% European American and 40% Latino) and low-income (19% European American and 66% Latino) distribution of the sample approximates school district figures. Data Collection/Instrumentation Except for the peer interview, all measures were given to both cohorts. However, parent and child/adolescent versions of the Paths of Life Interview were revised extensively in 1998 when Cohort 2 was recruited. Thus, some analyses only pertain to Cohort 2 (recruited with CREDE funds). Measures of the Family World Parent and Student Home Interviews: Participants were interviewed during the spring of sixth grade (prior to the transition to middle school) and seventh grade (following the transition to middle school). The primary caregiving parent (typically, the mother) and the student were interviewed at home in the language of their choice (English of Spanish). The parent and student were interviewed individually in separate spaces. The interview was audiotaped and transcribed verbatim for coding. Parents completed the Path of Life Interview (Azmitia, Cooper, Rivera, Lopez, Ittel, & Dunbar 1994, revised in 1998). This one-and-a-half to two-hour interview gathers: • family demographics • parental monitoring of selected student activities • parents' perceptions of the safety of the school and neighborhood information on the target child's after-school activities, including detailed sections on chores and homework • parents' perceptions of what the target child learned from or taught his or her siblings • parents' perceptions of how the target child and a sibling were doing in school • parents' educational and career goals for the target child and a sibling, including challenges their children might face attaining their goals • parents' perceptions of the target child's and a sibling's path in life (good, bad, or crossroads) including values they were trying to teach and the challenges each child might face staying on (if on the good path), returning to (if on the bad path), or choosing (if at the crossroads) the good path of life. Students completed the child and adolescent version of the Paths of Life Interview (Azmitia, Cooper, Rivera, Lopez, Ittel, & Dunbar, 1994, revised in 1998). This 45-minute to one-hour version of the Path of Life Interview includes sections on: • students' route to school and activities before school, • after-school activities, including detailed sections on chores and homework, • students' likes and dislikes about school, • students' perceptions of their parents' views of their friends, • sibling learning and teaching, • students' confidantes on the topics of friends, the future, and problems and worries, • students' perceptions of the transfer of learning from school to home and home to school • students' educational and career goals Measures of the School World Classroom observations of math and language arts lessons were gathered during the spring quarter of participants' last year of elementary school, sixth grade. Observers participated in an extensive training sequence including videotapes of classrooms and live classroom coding before beginning observations for the study. Inter-observer reliability was assessed throughout the classroom observation period. A focal child methodology was used in which each child was observed during four 15-minute periods, twice in math and twice in language arts lessons. The observations were distributed such that each child was observed about every two weeks. Each 15-minute period was segmented into three 5-minute segments. Observers sat at the back of the classroom and recorded their observations on a checklist that indicated presence or absence of each coding category during the observation period and allowed for additional comments and glosses. The coding scheme was based on the concept of activity setting that figures prominently in Ecocultural Theory (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). The following categories were coded during each 5-minute segment: Activity Setting: Math or Language Arts Dominant Participant Structure (Personnel interacting with child): None (Focal Child working alone), Teacher with whole class, Teacher with Focal Child, Small Group including Teacher, Small Group including only students. Scripts: (the nature of the child's interaction with others) Help Seeking, Help Offering, Correction, Positive or Negative Evaluation, Referring to others, Answering a Question or Request, Pacing, Attention Management, Off-task Behavior. For each interaction script, observers noted who had initiated it (Focal Child, Peer, or Teacher). In addition, observers noted the time of day, the ethnicity and gender of others interacting with the focal child and the language (Spanish or English) used during the interaction. After completing each 15-minute observation, the observer spent 5 minutes writing a summary of the observation segment, which included the scripts and goals of the lesson (e.g., explain a concept, work on computation skills, practice oral reading) as well as the key events of the period. Teacher Ratings. Sixth grade teachers were asked to rank-order the Latino and European American students in their classrooms according to their performance in (1) language arts (English) and (2) math. We used these ratings because our piloting had showed that there was often not enough variance in teachers' grades to assess students' relative competence, and achievement test scores were very low or non-existing for many Latino students. Teachers also completed Harter's (1985) measure which assesses, among other dimensions, the teacher's perception of each student's behavior (deportment, adherence to rules and routines). Finally, teachers rated each parent's involvement in school on a 7-point rating scale ranging from 1 = not involved to 7 = very involved. Measures of the Peer World Peer Interview (Cohort 2 only). Students completed the Circle of Friends interview (Azmitia, Cooper, Wishard, Thrush, & Ittel, 1998) at school during the spring of sixth and seventh grade in the language of their choice. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. This 30-minute interview assesses: students' circle of best and close friends and acquaintances they routinely interact with and friends' age, gender, ethnicity, school, how well they are doing in school, and whether students spends time at or outside school with them. frequency with which students engage with friends in various positive (e.g., reading books) and negative (e.g., skipping school) activities, friends with whom students discuss positive and negative events in their lives students' perception of peer pressure on various domains (e.g., academics, drugs), students' perceptions of their positive and negative qualities. for seventh graders only, students' perception of whether peers support or discourage academics. Sample Characteristics Cohort 1 included 39 European American (18 boys and 21 girls) and 35 Latino (18 girls and 17 boys) participants. In this cohort, 23% of the European American and 58% of the Latino participants were low-income. The participants were drawn from two public elementary schools in Santa Cruz, California. Cohort 2 included 65 European-American (32 boys and 33 girls) and 37 Latino students (19 boys and 18 girls), recruited from four public elementary schools in Santa Cruz, California. One of these elementary schools had also participated in data collection for Cohort 1). Unless indicated, findings and implications will be based on analyses of the aggregated sample, which included 168 students (13 students were not available during year 2, seventh grade.) Attrition was comparable across ethnic and gender groups. The aggregated sample was distributed as follows: Ethnicity Income   Low Middle/High Latino 45 23 European American 19 81 Latino families. The majority of fathers (85%) and mothers (81%) were immigrants, with most immigrating from Mexico. Mean age for mothers was 36.38 (SD = 5.37), and for fathers, 39.4 (SD = 6.86). Most mothers had a junior high education, mean grade completed = 8th (SD = 3.92); fathers were only slightly more schooled, mean grade completed = 9th grade (SD = 5.89). Eighty-three percent of fathers and 85% of mothers were employed, with most working in unskilled or semi-skilled positions in the service industry (restaurants and hotels), factories, or agriculture (typically, canneries or other food processing plants). There were no significant differences in schooling and occupations of high vs. low-income parents. The poverty of low-income families was long-standing, with many parents spontaneously indicating they hoped their children would not suffer the same hardships they had; many middle/high income parents indicated they had also experienced poverty as children. Forty-six percent of fathers and 29% of mothers reported that they were proficient speaking English; 37% of fathers and 29% of mothers indicated they were literate in English. Fifty-nine percent of families spoke primarily Spanish at home. In 72% of families, both parents lived in the home. Forty-three percent of students were also immigrants, typically from Mexico. Eighty-five percent were fluent in Spanish, and 76% could read and write it. Most students (92%) were fluent in English and could read and write it. Interestingly, approximately 40% chose to be interviewed in Spanish during the first year of the study (sixth grade), but by seventh grade, only 15% did so. Students had an average of 2.34 siblings (SD = 1.15), with slightly more older (M = 1.5) than younger (M = 1.08) siblings. Approximately 20% had other relatives living in the home, typically grandparents or parents' siblings. European American families. Most parents and students were born in the U.S. (mothers = 99%; fathers = 97%; students = 100%). Mean age for mothers was 43.06 (SD = 5.42), and for fathers, 46.02 (SD = 9.33). Most parents had completed at least some college (mean grade completed mothers = 14.62, SD = 2.16, fathers = 15.08, SD = 3.46). Eighty-four percent of the fathers and 85% of the mothers were employed, with most fathers working in professional, business/administrative, or skilled manual jobs and most mothers employed in professional, business/administrative, or clerical positions. There were no statistically significant differences in the schooling or occupations of low and middle/high income parents. However, there were more parents who had not completed high school in the low-income group. Also, for approximately half of the low-income group their poverty was recent, typically stemming from divorce, work injuries or loss of employment, or illness. In 65% of the families, both parents lived at home. Students had an average of 1.59 (SD = 1.06) siblings, with slightly more younger M = .92 (SD = 1.08) than older M = .74 (SD = .86) siblings. Study 2: Program-Based Sample Research Design This study was designed as a long-term research partnership with the Cabrillo Advancement Program of Cabrillo Community College in Aptos, California. The program was begun in 1991 to increase low-income students' access to college. The founder, Robert Swenson, also the founder of Cabrillo Community College, was inspired by Etzioni's communitarian philosophy and by Lang's I Have a Dream Program (Kahne, 1999) to build an endowment from private donors, both individuals and businesses, and develop partnerships with families and five local middle and junior high schools, to which donors designate scholarships. The program offers tutoring by college students, Saturday academies and Summer Institutes, family involvement activities, and academic guidance from 6th grade through high school to help "at-risk" students stay on track to college. Upon graduation from high school, the students are awarded $1000 scholarships to attend Cabrillo Community College. Each year, the program director and teachers at each participating school choose recipients and alternates on the basis of sixth-grade students' application essays and their potential, motivation, and grades. On their essays, youth are asked to describe their career goals, challenges and obstacles to achieving them, and how they would contribute to their communities in the future. Students can write in Spanish or English about their goals. In our research partnership, which began in 1995, we train ethnically diverse college students working in community programs as researcher-practitioners, enhancing their mentoring skills, educational leadership, and university studies. We build on their roles as front-line staff of programs and as students. In the project, we embed Bridging Multiple Worlds measures in program activities and interview youth, young adults, parents, teachers, program executives, and funders to map factors that create resources for students as they move across their worlds of families, peers, and school and along the academic pipeline (Cooper, Denner, & Lopez, 1999). Data Collection/Instrumentation We help the program monitor indicators of success with research tools and data analysis systems to foster students' progress, gain feedback about program effectiveness, and sustain program funding. With the director, we set up a longitudinal database for children's program attendance, grades and demographic data as well as program essays so staff could ask questions useful to them, such as what "kind of kid" participated and who did not? Who attended particular activities such as tutoring? Do students' grades rise and fall or are they stable? How did graduating students view the most valuable program components and what did they suggest for improvement? We used indicators occurring naturally in the community, such as application essays, attendance records, and school transcripts, and measures tapping the five dimensions of the Bridging Multiple Worlds Model. As part of the partnership with the program, we adapted the Multiple Worlds Measure (Cooper, Jackson, Azmitia, Lopez, & Dunbar, 1994) into activities for the annual Summer Institute (Dominguez et al., 2001). All materials were written in English and Spanish. Activities included charting career pyramids or timelines of students' career and personal goals; mapping their circle of friends, listing who helps and who causes them difficulties across key topics; and graphing math pathways of classes and grades towards college and career goals. We focused on students' reports of who helped and caused them difficulties across 5 school-related topics, and on students' reflections about their peers' program attendance and responses on the Circle of Friends Activity (Azmitia, Cooper, Wishard, Thrush, & Ittel, 1998), which asked youth, among other questions, to list each of their friends and rate how important school was to each friend. As part of a leadership development class in the program's Summer Institute, students completed the Who Helps and Who Causes You Difficulties activity. The 5 open-ended questions ask about who helped them and who caused them difficulties thinking about the future, with schoolwork, with math, staying in school, and thinking about college. These activities are called It's All About Choices/Se Trata de Todas las Decisiones (Dominguez et al., 2001); activities, curriculum, and graphing templates are available at http://psych.ucsc.edu/faculty/ccooper/toolkit/html). Research Questions What continuities, discontinuities, and linkages occur across the daily activities, relationships, and goals of early adolescents' family, peer, school, and community worlds during the transition from elementary to the middle grades? What resources and difficulties do these students and their parents perceive in linking their worlds during this transition? Findings School-based sample Family World Parents. For both ethnic groups and across income levels, parents emerged as key resources in helping students coordinate their family, school, and peer worlds. Students nominated parents, especially mothers, as the most frequent resource for guidance with housework and homework and talking about the future and problems and worries. European American and Latino parents' high educational aspirations for their children were also a key resource for their children's academic pathways. Sixty-six percent of the Latino parents and 74% of the European American parents held college aspirations for their children. The two groups differed primarily in that more Latino parents (10%) than European American parents (1%) had high school completion as their highest aspiration and more European American parents (21%) than Latino parents (9%) hoped that their children would pursue graduate studies or a professional degree. In each ethnic group, low and middle/high income parents' aspirations did not differ. Our finding similar aspirations across ethnic and income groups challenges the common view---often the basis for parent intervention and training programs---that parents' low academic aspirations play a significant part in Latino and low-income students' low academic performance and representation in higher education. When we asked parents about strategies they used to help children attain their educational aspirations, the most frequent across ethnic and income groups were, in order of frequency, giving advice and modeling academic behaviors (58%), encouraging and supporting students (46%), and helping with school work and or planning for college (39%). Latino parents (22%) were more likely than European American parents (11%) to say they talked about mistakes they had made (dropping out of school, getting pregnant) to keep their children in school or focused on college. European American parents were more likely to mention helping with school work and planning for college (57% vs. 21%) and finding opportunities in the community for their children to explore their academic and career goals (18% vs. 3%). In addition, low-income parents (15%) were more likely than middle/high income parents (4%) to mention monitoring children's whereabouts to help them attain their goals, perhaps reflecting greater dangers in the neighborhoods of low-income participants. Because parents viewed moral socialization as key to their children's school achievement and moral path in life, we analyzed Latino parents' beliefs about their children's progress along the path of life, challenges they would encounter, and strategies that they used to keep them on track. We only included those Latino families in which the target students had at least one older sibling who was still in school. In the future, we plan to expand our analyses to include the other Latino students and the European American families. Our work builds on Reese, Balzano, Gallimmore, and Goldenberg (1995) research on Latino parents' concepts of educación (education) and views about good and bad life trajectories (el buen y el mal camino). Four findings are noteworthy. Parents' descriptions of the good path were more likely to be abstract or universal descriptions of living consistent with high moral values (e.g., respect for others and self, honesty) than descriptions of the bad path, which frequently consisted of specific, concrete examples of negative behavior (e.g., drug abuse, premarital sex, gang involvement). Consistent with findings of Reese and her colleagues, parents in this study affirmed that to be a respectful and responsible person was more central to following the good path of life than achieving specific educational or career goals. In contrast to research and policy that emphasizes the vulnerabilities of Latino adolescents, most parents placed their children on the good path. Parents were developmental optimists. While about half believed one or both of their children had experienced a crossroads which could have led them to the bad path of life, and several expressed concern about challenges their children faced, all believed their children would stay on or return to the good path. Parents' concern about potential negative influence of peers was paramount throughout their discussing the path of life, its challenges, and their guidance strategies. Parents used guidance strategies that reflected a high degree of agency, such as modeling and reinforcing desired behaviors, seeking advice and help with teachers, and constraining students' participation in peer activities that could potentially challenge parents' goals and values. Siblings. Older siblings, and especially those who were doing well academically and were on the good path of life, also served as key resources, helping students with homework and talking to them about their problems and worries and dreams for the future. One goal of our study was to test the hypothesis that for immigrant and low-income students, older siblings can serve as culture brokers for school (Parke & Buriel, 1998; Weisner, 1986). Because most low-income European American students did not have older siblings, we tested this hypothesis only with the Latino sample. We found no support for the hypothesis that when parents are unable to help with school tasks, siblings step in to play a greater role. In Latino families where parents had limited English proficiency or levels of education, parents still helped with school tasks to a similar or greater degree than older brothers and sisters. Moreover, the involvement of Latino siblings in students' academics declined from elementary to middle/junior high school. This occurred primarily because students became more selective in who they asked for help. As they moved into middle/junior high school, only students whose older brothers and sisters were doing well in school sought siblings' assistance. Although parents and siblings were key resources for students, the family world also posed some difficulties or challenges for students. Parents reported that they often were unable to help with homework, particularly as their children moved into middle school. In both sixth and seventh grade, 75% of the Latino students and 42% of the European American students reported that at times they were assigned homework no one at home could help with. Furthermore, parents' assistance with homework declined significantly from elementary to junior high school. Siblings', friends' and teachers' help with homework also declined from elementary to junior high school, but this change was not statistically significant. In addition, despite high hopes for their children's educational attainment, as a group, Latino and low-income European American parents expressed more reservations about their children attaining their dreams than middle/high income European American parents. When asked to indicate what level of schooling they thought their children would actually attain, Latino parents (20%) were more likely than European American parents (8%) to indicate they were unsure because one could not really predict the future and low-income European American parents (33%) were more likely than Latino low- and middle/high income parents (15%) or middle/high income European American parents (13%) to express lower expectations (actual attainment) than aspirations (hoped-for attainment). Across ethnic groups and income levels, parents saw financial support as the biggest challenge to students' attaining their educational aspirations. Many low-income parents, especially Latinos, believed they lacked the funds or skills needed to guide their children towards their academic and career goals. Further analyses of interview data and our informal discussions with Latino parents at school workshops reveal two additional challenges students faced during the transition to middle school. The first potential difficulty concerns parents' lack of general knowledge about adolescent development, a time when students navigate difficult crossroads and can get on the bad path of life as well as drop out of school. The second potential difficulty involves potential influences on students from older siblings experiencing difficulties Approximately 30% of the parents reported students' older siblings, and especially boys, were having academic difficulties or were hanging out with friends of whom they disapproved. Parents also mentioned their concern that their older children were experimenting with sex, drugs, and alcohol. In a few cases, their children had become teen parents and dropped out of school (especially girls). Interestingly, most parents traced the root of their older children's difficulties to junior high, a finding that supports the assumption in this study that the transitions to adolescence and junior high school are challenging. School World For the most part, our analyses of classroom observations yielded findings that are consistent with prior research on at-risk students. For example, lessons in which the teacher addressed the whole classroom and engaged students in recitation scripts were the most frequent participant structure, and we observed few instances in which a teacher engaged in an extended guidance sequence with an individual student. Most classrooms offered opportunities for students to work together. The small groups were typically composed of same gender and same ethnicity students; on the few occasions in which Latino students who had transitioned to English tried to join a group of European American students, their attempts with resistance, especially in the case of boys. Not surprisingly, lower-achieving students spent more time off-task than higher-achieving students. Contrary to prior research, we found no evidence that during whole-classroom discussions teachers devoted more attention to European American than Latino students. In fact, in the few instances where differences emerged, teachers favored Latinos. Although during English lessons teachers were as likely to call on higher- than on lower-achieving students to read or answer questions, in math they were more likely to call on higher- than lower-achieving students. We observed no significant differences in whether teachers called on boys or girls in either math or language arts activities. Finally, although teachers were seldom nominated as resources, in their interviews both parents and students indicated that their teachers played important roles helping students with homework, particularly as students moved from elementary to middle school. Also, students reported that they believed that their teachers wanted them to succeed academically and go to college, even though few reported that they had engaged in future-oriented discussions with their teachers. Preliminary analyses showed that one potential challenge in the school world is that more students said that their teachers supported their educational and career goals in sixth than seventh grade. In informal discussions with parents and students during the home visits and the school-organized workshops in the evenings suggest two possible reasons for this decline in students' perceptions of teacher support. First, students generally felt closer to their sixth than seventh grade teachers, a finding that is not surprising given the increase in the number of teachers that students come into contact in middle school relative to the "single teacher model" that typifies elementary school (see also Eccles et al, 1993). Second, a few families, and particularly those of Latino boys, felt that some teachers were less supportive of Latino than European American students. As will be seen in our presentation of the findings concerning our third research question, their academic performance was an additional challenge for Latino students. Peer World Not surprisingly, friends were students' most important resource for dealing with issues arising in their peer world. Consistent with prior work with primarily European American middle/high income samples (e.g., Youniss & Smollar, 1985), the salience of friends increased over the transition to middle school. Although this increase was primarily in social domains (such as emotional support and recreation), a greater number of students reported discussing the future with their friends in seventh than sixth grade. Students generally painted a positive picture of their friends and larger peer group, indicating that they helped them with homework and planning for the future and encouraged them in school. This finding is finding contrary to reports that at-risk students' peers often pressure them to disengage from school (Ogbu, 1991). However, the questions in this study were not designed to assess peer challenges in depth. The study of the Program-based sample did serve this purpose. Continuities and Discontinuities Between Worlds There were several important continuities between the family and school worlds. Most importantly, parents and teachers were invested in students' success and helped with school tasks and formulating high educational and career aspirations. Parents generally held positive views of the schools, with low-income parents from both ethnic groups also seeing them as safe havens from the dangers their children often experienced in the neighborhood. However, we saw evidence for home-school discontinuities. Notably, while parents defined success primarily in moral terms, schools' definition of excellence focuses on academic achievement. In addition, teachers rated Latino parents as significantly less involved in their children's schooling than European American parents, even though our analyses of the parent and student interviews showed that at least at home, Latino and European American parents were equally active in promoting their children's future ideation and providing homework assistance (or recruiting others who could help). Possibly, teachers based their ratings on parents' direct participation in school, e.g., volunteering in the classroom, attending school functions). Because of their work obligations or lack of child care, Latino parents were less likely than European American parents to engage in these activities. In both years of the study, parents saw peers as their children's greatest challenge. They worried that peers could derail their children from attaining their educational and vocational goals and from following a moral path in life. Latino parents, and in particular immigrants, also were concerned that their children would adopt peer values that differed from those emphasized in the family. Our informal discussions with teachers also revealed that they shared the parents' concerns about peers. However, although parents and teachers saw the peer world as posing the greatest challenge for the students' academic success and their attaining their educational, moral, and career dreams, in their interviews most parents reported that their children's circle of friends supported schooling, a finding that was consistent with the students' reports. Thus, in this way the family and peer worlds were continuous. Indeed, the students in this school-based study reported very little academic discouragement from peers, although as a group, Latino boys were more likely than Latino girls and European American boys and girls to report peer pressure against academics. Students' family and peer worlds were also linked through parents active monitoring and constraining of peer activities, particularly those activities (e.g., school dances, overnight science camps) that parents' felt were inconsistent with their values. The results of the program-based study provided additional information about the resources and difficulties of students peer worlds and the links between the family and peer worlds. Study 2: Program-Based Sample: Challenges And Resources Across Students' Worlds For students in the community program, family, peer, and school worlds were sources of both challenges and resources in students' dreams and goals for future schooling and careers. In the yearly Bridging Multiple Worlds activities (entitled It's All About Choices; Dominguez et al., 1996), the most frequently named resource were families and the most controversial (both resources and challenges) were peers. Children saw peers, families, and teachers as both challenges and resources in reaching their dreams. Both in 1997 (when we heard from 77 children) and 1998 (84 children), students listed peers as challenges and resources at comparable rates (30% vs. 40% of the students in 1997 and 50% vs. 55% in 1998). For example, students described their challenges by listing boyfriends, girlfriends, peer pressure, "temptation of friends dropping out", "friends as bad examples", gangs, "bad friends", "bigger students", "illegal friends", and "enemies." Many also listed "drugs", "sex", "having babies", or "pregnancies." As resources, students also listed friends, boyfriends, "bigger students", and girlfriends. In contrast, students were much more likely to list their families as resources than as challenges (70% vs. 10% in 1997 and 73% vs. 10% in 1998). These findings replicate other research on challenges of peers for students' school engagement and also point to how central families were to children on their pathways to college even though many had completed only elementary school. We traced the resources and difficulties of students' family and peer worlds over time with a sample of 33 students (22 females and 11 males) who attended and completed the 1998 and 1999 program Summer Institutes. On average, peers (M = .68) caused the most difficulties for students and differed significantly from mothers (M = .18), fathers (M = .11), and extended family (M = .12) but not from siblings (M = .32). Difficulties remained low and constant for all persons across time. Youth listed different people as resources and challenges (particularly as resources) depending on the topic. For example, on the topics involving support for the future (thinking about the future, thinking about college, and staying in school), students listed parents (particularly mothers) as providing the most resources. Yet, on topics involving instrumental help (schoolwork and math), students listed peers as providing the most resources in Year 2 of the study. That peers became the greatest resource for school work, and especially math, and parents were the key resource for thinking about the future and college illustrates the complementary roles of Latino adolescent students' family and peer worlds. Research Question How are students' resources and difficulties in linking worlds reflected in school achievement and long-term schooling, work, and moral goals? School-based sample Academic achievement. When we examined school records, we found many students, especially Latinos, were missing grades or achievement test scores. Our attempts to track down the missing information have delayed analyses of this research question. Analyses of students' school records reveal a bimodal distribution for European American students' grades and achievement test scores. Thus, our school-based sample included approximately equal numbers of higher- and lower-achieving students. The distribution of grades for the Latino students was positively skewed, with most students obtaining grades between B and D; their achievement test scores were low, with most scoring below the 40th percentile in both math and English. The teacher rankings of students in their classrooms paralleled these findings. Consequently, as a group, by sixth grade Latino students were already showing more academic vulnerability than European American students. Moreover, no Latino student was an advanced math group, suggesting that academic tracking was already present in sixth grade. By seventh grade, no Latino student was in pre-algebra (advanced math), although few were in remedial classes. Family and School Worlds. While our findings were consistent with the large body of research that has highlighted Latino students' academic difficulties, we also found that students' grades were not linked to their or their parents' future aspirations. Dolores Deharo Mena's (a doctoral student) analyses of changes in the Latino parents' and students' academic and career aspirations and academic performance over the transition from elementary to middle school revealed no evidence of dimming in either parents' or students' aspirations or students' grades. This finding suggests that at least for this sample, students' academic vulnerabilities did not increase during this difficult school transition. Yet, one cannot deny the conclusion that Latino students were already academically vulnerable in elementary school. Our research suggests that intervention programs should begin as early as elementary school; by middle school or high school, it may be more difficult to intervene to improve students' skills and put them on track to college. Although aspirations were not linked to students' academic performance, for the subset of the Latino sample in which the target student had an older sibling in school, we found significant correlations between family resources and students' academic achievement. Higher-achieving students talked more with their families (parents and siblings) about the future and their problems than lower-achieving students, but academic achievement was not associated with family talk about friends. Siblings', parents', and teachers' assistance with homework was also positively linked to students' grades. Our preliminary analyses also suggest that parental monitoring (setting limits, knowing children's homework and school grades, being familiar with friends, supervising activities) is linked to students' academic performance. That is, the children of parents who found ways of monitoring their children as they moved into junior high school were doing better in school and were less likely to be involved in acts of delinquency and truancy than the children of parents who reported low or ineffective monitoring strategies. Peer World. Most European American and Latino students perceived their friends to be moderately encouraging of school achievement. Further, friends' encouragement of school was positively correlated with students' math and English grades. In contrast, friends' discouragement of school was negatively associated with students' math and English grades. Taken together, these findings indicate friends' attitudes towards school are associated with students' school performance. Future goals. A key goal for the future is to map the relation between higher- and lower-achieving students' family, school, and peer worlds and their academic performance and goals. We aim to assess continuities and discontinuities in their pathways to identify the factors that allow some at-risk students to beat the odds and succeed academically. Study 2: Program-based Sample We traced the experiences of 116 students, 76 girls and 40 boys who entered the program from 1995 to 1997 (typical for college outreach programs, girls outnumbered boys). Students were mostly Latino and almost all of Mexican descent. As part of selection, students were considered low-income by their eligibility for federal lunch programs. Participants were chosen by teachers and the program director based on application essays as well as their potential, motivation, and grades. Among those chosen, parents' formal education, usually in Mexico, was typically less than high school and for many at the elementary (primaria) level. They worked picking strawberries or lettuce, on factory lines, or cleaning houses and hotels. Math Pathways to Algebra: Five Consistent Patterns as a Typology. We conducted longitudinal case studies of 30 students from the year they entered the program at sixth grade through ninth grade (Azmitia & Cooper, 2001). Many were immigrants, learning English during these years. When we analyzed their school transcripts, we found that their math and English pathways to college diverged early but some got back on track. We developed a typology of 5 math pathways to Algebra 1, the gateway to college and college-based careers: • consistently high • slowly or rapidly declining (with some dropping out, including youth who became incarcerated or became parents) • increasing • declining but moving back on track by increasing, and • persisting with low grades or in remedial math. By ninth grade, more than half the students had taken and passed Algebra, a key step to eligibility for four-year colleges and universities. Of the remaining students, each was eligible for community college, where Algebra 1 is the only math required for an Associate Arts degree. These pathways diverged early: students who passed Algebra 1 at ninth grade had made higher grades in sixth grade than students who failed Algebra or took remedial classes (that is, they were on the consistently high pathway), while others declined. But some students moved back on track after challenging personal events and others increased from remedial math to Algebra, sometimes retaking Algebra before more advanced classes. Others persisted with low grades or remedial work, and sometimes took Algebra 1 in community college. These findings go beyond group differences in school achievement towards understanding variation and change within groups as well as similarities across them. Tracing more than one pathway to more than one kind of college helps build inclusive opportunities for college and college-based careers. When we conducted an analysis of challenges and resources from families and peers of the 28 regulars (based on Ragin's Qualitative Comparative Analysis procedure [QCA; Ragin, 1987], we found two patterns predicted students who took and passed Algebra 1 at 9th grade. One group reported only resources, one subgroup from families and the other from peers. The second group, consistent with Bridging Multiple Worlds theory, indicated that a subgroup of students not only had resources but also challenges. So rather than not having challenges, these strong students found resources. We have begun to consider that different students may be cases that exemplify different models, e.g., "challenge cases" and "social capital cases", rather than that all cases exemplify only one model. This mixed method data analysis technique offers us another way to consider causal configurations of factors across students' families, peers, schools, and communities that make a difference for successful pathways. Children's career dreams on intergenerational pathways. When we analyzed the 116 children's application essays they wrote at 6th grade, we found that they described dreams of college-based careers---becoming doctors, lawyers, nurses, and teachers as well as secretaries, police officers, firefighters, and mechanics. Like the children in the low-income Mexican immigrant families in Study 1 school-based sample, children in the program dreamed of college and college-based careers rather than parents' physical labor and contributing to their communities and families. One case can be traced over time in the reflections of Soledad Rosas, a student in the program. At age 12, she wrote on her application: I would like to be a writer for children's stories that will teach children many things, like becoming interested in reading. I want to help my community by finding economical resources so that the children don't leave their studies...With my determination and effort I will successfully accomplish my goal to obtain these careers. My obstacles are that I have cerebral palsy. Another obstacle is the English language. At age 13, she wrote at the Summer Institute career activities: I want to be a writer and a DJ (disc jockey) at a radio station. I have decided to go to (the University of California at) Berkeley because it has a program for disabled people and I have problems like that. The college is close but not that close. I want to live on campus. The subjects I want to take are the ones I need for my career.Ö My challenges are my disability, working to pay for college, and having problems in college.Ö My resources are my teachers, college, books, and DJ's of other radio stations. At age 17, she celebrated the second anniversary of her own radio show and still held her career dream to be a DJ (although she had begun to think of television as well) and of college studies in broadcasting. When we interviewed young adult tutors and mentors in the program, we found they bridged across generations and from home to college. Like the Latino parents in our school-based Study 1, these young adults defined success in life in terms of morality and schooling. They helped children with homework and linked families, schools, and communities with their dreams and fears for the future. The young adults also gave children a chance to talk and write about their dreams for careers, education, families, and communities (Cooper, Denner, & Lopez, 1999). They valued children's home communities and many shared home languages and sometimes, family histories. Many had learned to be bicultural and could help children understand how to retain community traditions while succeeding in school, college, and community. The program director was also a cultural broker, bridging from families, schools, peers, and communities. The director, Elizabeth Dominguez, described her own theory of how a Latina godmothers or comadres promote children's pathways to success by describing her own family history, in which her parents' comadre bridged between her family and school. Thus, in helping children and youth find pathways to success in the eyes of their families, communities, and schools, the program's young adult staff and director forged links across generations, including senior staff, young adults, and families and children they served. These intergenerational pathways appeared to foster skills children need to succeed across their increasingly diverse worlds along their pathways to college, careers, and adult family and community roles. Research Question What opportunities do students have to develop relationships across ethnic and income groups that contribute to students' coordinating their worlds and schoolwork? School-based sample Our classroom observations revealed few opportunities for cross-ethnic and cross-gender interactions. Cross-ethnic interactions were limited by the ability-based grouping that was common across classrooms. Latino students who had not yet transitioned into English also had few opportunities to interact with their European American classmates. Outside the classroom, sports provided the best opportunity for cross-gender interactions. Yet, few of these interactions resulted in close friendships, as evidence by the demographics of students' circles of friends as reported in their interviews. Our observations revealed that although cross-gender interactions did occur in the classroom, when given a choice most students preferred same-gender work partners. Teachers were as likely to form cross-gender or same-gender student groups. The interview data showed an increase in cross-gender interactions and friendships from elementary to middle school. This increase is consistent with a large body of work that shows that gender barriers become permeable as boys and girls enter adolescence and school dances and other activities encourage cross-gender interactions and dating. Research Question How do relationships with peers and siblings in program-based activities contribute tostudents' school performance and long-term goals? As we examined this question, we found it important to consider families and school worlds along with peers and siblings, who can bridge across worlds into community programs. In addition, we continue to compare the school- and program-based samples since they are demographically similar and allow us to use the quasi-experimental method of a "natural experiment" to compare the pathways of students over time. We conducted a longitudinal study that further strengthened our understanding the role of peers and siblings in the program but for families as well. This also allowed us to test the hypothesis of the program director that a key way the program worked---like a catalyst or enzyme---was by boosting resources youth derive from families and peers. To investigate this hypothesis, we traced these worlds over time with a sample of 33 students (22 females and 11 males) who attended and completed the 1998 and 1999 program Summer Institutes. All but one student were Latino, mostly of Mexican descent. Thirty students were in junior high school (24 7th graders) and three in high school (9th graders) at the time of data collection. Both Peers and Families as Resources and Challenges On average, students reported receiving significantly more help from mothers (M = 2.11) than siblings (M = 0.77), peers (M = 0.80), or extended family (M = 0.88) (see Figure). Students also reported receiving more help from fathers (M = 1.68) than from peers.. On average, peers (M = .68) caused the most difficulties for students and differed significantly from mothers (M = .18), fathers (M = .11), and extended family (M = .12) but not from siblings (M = .32). Youth listed different people as resources and challenges (particularly as resources) depending on the topic. For example, on topics involving support for the future (thinking about the future, thinking about college, and staying in school), students listed parents (particularly mothers) as providing the most resources. Yet on topics involving instrumental help (schoolwork and math), students listed peers as providing the most resources in Year 2. Over time, youth saw both mothers and peers as greater resources, with help from fathers, siblings, and extended family remaining at constant levels and difficulties remaining low and constant for all persons. Peers were resources with schoolwork and math especially in the second year and parents in thinking about the future; these findings show how parents and peers are assets in complementary ways and how the program may be boosting their benefits to students. A Closer look at Peers and Engagement in Programs and School In the program-based sample, we found peers and siblings were key factors in students' engagement in both the program and in school, with striking differences by age and gender. For example, tallies of program attendance rosters at the 1998 Summer Institute revealed that more female (N = 46) and younger (62 junior high school) students attended compared to male (N = 30) and older (14 high school) students. Students' ratings on the Circle of Friends Activity indicated that 39% of students' friends thought school was somewhat important and 47%, very important. As part of our ongoing research partnership with the youth in the program, graduate students on our research team presented these findings to students at a program Saturday Academy in Fall 1998. This group included 53 students (31 females and 22 males). All but one were Latino; 39 students were in junior high school and 14 in high school. Students were asked to write why they thought the findings "were true"; they could write as many ideas as they wanted. In this way, students took part in the intergenerational research partnership and program analysis and helped us understand their experiences beyond the program. Fifteen were among the 33 "regulars." When we asked why they thought many students in the program had friends who thought that school was important to them, the majority (70%) students indicated their friends had a future orientation and held goals of a better future. They thought school was important to their friends because their friends wanted to have good jobs and careers in the future or to just get ahead and be "somebody" in life. One high school female student commented, It's important because they know that school is the path they have to take if they want to be someone in life; that their only way to survive in the world is if they get an education. Two students mentioned their friends thought school was important because they did not want to work in the fields like their family members. One, a junior high school male, wrote: I think most of my friends think that school is important because their parents work very hard in the fields and they don't have too much money so they want to study because they don't want to be in the fields. We built on these findings in developing the Bridging Multiple Worlds Tool Kit as a no-cost, multi-user resource that allows families, schools, and community programs to help children map assets across their worlds and pathways through school. For example, it helps them write about their dreams for the future, see if they are off track in math, show them how to get back on track, and find and use resources across their worlds. These activities for elementary, middle, and high school students are being used for teacher training, in school classrooms, and in statewide evaluations of outreach programs. It also helps researchers understand what factors support and impede youth pathways to college and design further research. Implications These two longitudinal studies revealed how families, schools, peers, and community programs can bridge to careers for youth entering university and community college. Our results show that families, peers, schools, and programs can support both college-bound and remedial students, whom scholars often find to be increasingly pessimistic, disengaged, and alienated as they move through school (Fordham & Ogbu, 1986; Gibson, 1997). Selective community-based programs may help keep these students engaged in school and remain in the academic pipeline or return to it after getting off-track. Our findings also indicate that future studies and interventions will benefit from considering the configurations of students' lives over time with their families, peers, schools, and community programs and from beginning their efforts by late elementary school. Our studies of Mexican immigrant families (the largest immigrant group in the U.S.) show that the family is a key resource for students'. Parents hold high hopes of children moving up from parents' lives of physical labor picking strawberries or lettuce, standing on factory assembly lines, or cleaning houses and hotels, to technical or professional careers (Azmitia et al., 1996). Parents and siblings also help with homework, with formulating future educational, career, and moral goals, and with problems and concerns. In essence, we found that Latino families seek to "beat the odds" and disprove theories of social reproduction---that each society's social class hierarchy tends to be reproduced from generation to generation. Yet, families are also sources of challenges in that many parents lack information about U.S. schools and educational and career pathways and that siblings who have become disengaged from school, have negative peer groups, and have engaged in unlawful behavior can influence the younger students' pathways. Our research also paints schools in a more positive light than is found in much of the research on at-risk students. In particular, teachers were key assets with homework and when they developed a partnership with the community-based program, they also began to play an important role in students' future academic and career pathways. Our classroom observations also showed that teachers treated Latino and European American students and boys and girls similarly. However, it was the case that the recitation script that was the most frequent participant structure in the classrooms seldom provided the rich learning opportunities that are captured in CREDEs five principles. Also, teachers generally underestimated Latino parents' involvement in their children's schooling, a finding that highlights the need for greater dialogue between families and schools so that they can come to understand the ways in which they are both committed to helping students succeed. Our research also highlighted the resources that peers provide for students' schooling and emotional well-being. Our findings add to the body of research which has suggested that peers are an untapped resource for at-risk students' academic and career success. However, peers also were sources of challenges, discouraging some students, and especially Latino boys, from academic pursuits. The outreach program played a key role in helping students work through these challenges by providing students an academically-oriented peer group with whom to develop friendships. Students' older siblings who were in the program also helped by recruiting their younger siblings to participate. Intergenerational Research Partnerships as Assets As policies involving diversity, immigration, and inclusion continuously change, stakeholders value monitoring diverse children's pathways in both quantitative and qualitative terms. Although few controlled experiments exist, analyses of programs deemed effective appear to sustain parents' and other adults' beliefs that schooling will benefit children (Adger, 2001). We have observed partnerships with students, families, community organizations, schools, districts, and universities at local, regional, state, and national levels. Some partnerships build "vertical teams" to support ethnically diverse children and youth navigating from kindergarten through college. We have seen partners become increasingly interested and sophisticated in thinking about longitudinal analyses of qualitative and quantitative data. This work has involved building innovative partnerships among youth, families, schools, and community organizations. Children and youth have commented that the activities help them think about the future. Families hold high educational values and goals, but may be less familiar with the language and practices of schools and need ways to become involved. Community organizations often seek partnerships with families and schools and can provide academic skills, information, high expectations, and a sense of moral goals to achieve on behalf of families and communities, but changes in funding pressure them for program evaluation. School staff tell us they are seeking ways to include families with diverse literacy and linguistic backgrounds. Our work with intergenerational partnerships led to our developing the Bridging Multiple Worlds Tool kit, which includes activities for schools and programs which tap the elements of the model, graphing templates for quantitative work, and materials for longitudinal case studies so partners can link qualitative and quantitative methods. Linking International and Local Builds Inclusion in Multicultural Societies With colleagues in several nations, we are working to coordinate concepts of families, peers, schools, programs, and community organizations; link demographic, institutional, relational, and individual levels of analysis; and thereby unify our writings and recommendations. This has engaged local, state, national, and international partners on ethnic diversity and inclusion. For example, the Bridging Multiple Worlds model and tools, including the It's All About Choices curriculum, are being used by the Santa Cruz County GEAR UP program to enhance inclusion in pathways to college in Watsonville, CA, which includes all four middle schools. GEAR UP is coordinated through the UCSC Educational Partnership Center through its director, Dr. Carrol Moran. The curriculum materials, in English and Spanish, are being used by families, children, schools, and community programs, policymakers and researchers. The focus of this GEAR UP program is on math pathways, and "It's All about Choices" is being adapted for use by middle school math teachers, led by Ms. Josette Winkler of Rolling Hills Middle School. Leadership by math teachers is proving to be a key factor in scaling up this tool. Our common goal is to enhance access to college and employment for children of diverse ethnic, racial, economic, and geographic communities. Our capacity to be nations "where diversity works" rests on customizing programs for communities while staying attuned to common goals and collaborating among diverse stakeholders--students, families, schools, community programs, legislators, the business sector, and media. Achieving these goals is fostered by building clear models of change, testing them with evidence, and sustaining partnerships among stakeholders as intergenerational research partnerships. Our partnership with families and community programs created intergenerational pathways, through which children became tutors, undergraduates became staff, staff returned to college, and partners of all ages, including undergraduate and pre- and post-doctoral students, played key research roles. We include children and youth as members of research team and their insights benefit us all. For example, when children learned to graph their math pathways towards their career dreams in the community college outreach program, one 12-year-old girl, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, looked up at her peers and exclaimed, "So these are the beginnings of our math roads!" She later told us her career goal is to become a psychologist. Perhaps the most important implication of our research is that families are a key factor -- and possibly the most important one -- in students' developing college goals and readiness. Although this might be expected among college-educated parents, our research shows that students from low-income, minority, and immigrant families often inspire and help their children set and maintain college aspirations. Our research clearly shows that views of immigrant parents as having low educational goals for their children are misleading. Many parents already have goals of college and college-based work for their children, and work long hours to support dreams of a better life for them. However, parents who have not attended college in the U.S. may not know the specific steps associated with helping their children to realize these hopes. So our task is to sustain parents' and children's high hopes rather than implant them for the first time in their minds. Dissemination Each year of the study, we produced newsletters for parents, students, and schools and discussed our findings with parents and school personnel during evening workshops sponsored by the schools. During the summer institutes for the program-based sample, we discussed our results with the students and the program staff and incorporated their suggestions into our instruments and presentations and publications. Presentations Azmitia, M., & Brown, J. R. (2000, July). The family-school partnership: Parents, siblings, teachers, and friends as resources for Mexi can-descent students' school achievement. Paper presented at the biennial meetings of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, Beijing, China. Azmitia, M., Cooper, C. R., Lopez, E., & Rivera, L. (1998, March). Older Siblings' Participation in Mexican-Descent Students' Academic Achievement. American Educational Research Association, San Diego, California. Cooper, C. R. (1998, March) School-Family-Community Bridges along the Academic Pipeline: Insights from the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) Presented at Symposium chaired by Oliver Moles, "School-Family-Community Connections for At-Risk Students: Insights from Diverse Research Programs," American Educational Research Association, San Diego, California. Cooper, C. R. (1998, December) Soledad's dream: Linking identities, relationships, and institutions for the academic success of Mexican immigrant youth. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation meeting, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Cooper, C. R. (1999, April). Bridging multiple worlds: Lessons from a university-community partnership along California's academic pipeline. In D. Scott-Jones (Chair), Preparing for the emerging majority: Crosstalk between East and West Coast researchers studying children and families. American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada. Cooper, C.R. (1999, April). Beyond drive-by research: University-community partnerships to strengthen diversity along the academic pipeline. In invited symposium, L. Allen (Chair), Methodological challenges in research with racial and ethnic minority populations--The unspoken issues. Society for Research in Child Development, Albuquerque, NM. Cooper, C. R (2000, February). From pipelines to partnerships: Family involvement, diverse schools, and children's pathways from kindergarten to college. Invited address, "Isolating Key Spheres of Elementary Equity: Defining Equal Access to Early Learning Opportunities." Early Learning Symposium, Office for Civil Rights, San Francisco, California. Cooper, C. R. (2000, October). Building inclusiveness in multicultural democracies: Diversity and children's agency along the pathway to college. Economic and Social Research Council: Children's 5-16 Conference. London, England Cooper, C. R., Brown, J., Azmitia, M., & Chavira, G. (January , 2001). Cooper, C. R., Brown, J., Azmitia, M. , & Chavira, G. (January , 2001). Mexican immigrant families, schools, community programs, and the good path of life. Paper presented as part of a panel on Family and Intervention Studies: Research and Practice, Conference on Discovering Successful Pathways in Children's Development: Mixed Methods in the Study of Childhood and Family Life. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Pathways though Middle Childhood , Santa Monica, CA. Cooper, C. R., Marshall, R., Dominguez, E., Chavira, G., & Mena, D. (2000, September). The Bridging Multiple Worlds Tool Kit in Classrooms and Programs. Partnership Schools Conference, Santa Cruz, CA. Dominguez, E., Cooper, C. R., Chavira, G., & Mena, D. (March, 2001). What is Success? The Cabrillo Advancement Program's first 10 years and beyond. Presentation to Cabrillo Community College Board, Aptos, CA. Dunbar, N. D., Azmitia, M., & Brown, J. R. (1999, April) Mexican-descent parents beliefs and guidance strategies for their adolescent children's paths in life. Society for Research in Child Development (Albuquerque, New Mexico). Mena, D. D. (2001, April). Testing the dimming hypothesis: Do Latino parents' and adolescents' future goals dim during the transition to junior high school? Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Minneapolis, MN. Publications Azmitia, M., & Brown, J. R. (in press). Latino immigrant parents' beliefs about the "Path of Life" of their adolescent children. In J. Contreras (Ed.), Latino children and families in the United States. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. Azmitia, M., & Cooper, C. R. (2001). Good or bad? Peer influences on Latino and European American adolescents' pathways through school. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 6 , 45-71. Cooper, C. R. (in press). Bridging multiple worlds: Inclusive, selective, and competitive programs, Latino youth, and pathways to college. Affirmative development of ethnic minority students. The CEIC Review: A Catalyst for Merging Research, Policy, and Practice, 9. Cooper, C. R., & Gándara, P. (Eds.) (2001). When Diversity Works: Bridging Families, Schools, Peers, and Communities at CREDE. Journal for the Education of Students Placed at Risk, 6(1 & 2). Cooper, C. R., Denner, J., & Lopez, E. M. (1999). Cultural brokers: Helping Latino children on pathways toward success. When School is Out: The Future of Children, 9. (Packard Foundation). Cooper, C. R., Domínguez, E., Chavira, G., Mena, D., & Marshall, R. (2001). The Bridging Multiple Worlds Tool Kit in Classrooms and Programs. University of California, Santa Cruz. (in preparation for website). Dominguez, E., Cooper, C. R., Chavira, G., Mena, D., Lopez, E. M., Dunbar,N., & Denner J. (2000). It's All About Choices/Se Trata de Todas Las Decisiones: A Curriculum for Building Pathways To College Manuscripts in preparation: Azmitia, M., Brown, J. R., & Cooper, C. R. Parents', siblings', friends', and teachers' emotional and academic support of Mexican-descent early adolescents' during the transition from elementary to junior high school. Grant seeking activities Cooper, C. R., & Brown, J. R. "Continuity and change in Mexican immigrant parents' beliefs about educación and the path of life." University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute $14,996 (funded).