The academic achievement rates of urban Latino students are significantly lower than those of non-minority youth. To date, most of the research on this topic has focused on learning and motivational characteristics of underrepresented youth in elementary and middle school and much less on urban high schools. This study investigated variables related to learning, motivation, and engagement among high school-aged Latino youth. We found that learning and motivational variables were predictive of academic engagement for Latinos, paralleling work with non-minority samples. Motivational variables are seldom given adequate attention when considering interventions for low-achieving students, despite the abundant literature that demonstrates their connection to academic outcomes. Fortunately, the factors examined in the study are amenable to intervention.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.