Exceptional Outcomes:

How do children of immigrants achieve success despite daunting obstacles? Poverty, language barriers, parentsÆ long work hours, and limited resources work against immigrant childrenÆs efforts to do well in school. Yet some of these students manage to beat the odds, graduate from universities, acquire advanced degrees, and achieve careers in the professional sector.Exceptional Outcomes is a pioneering contribution to the understanding of the factors enabling impoverished children of immigrants to succeed in education and employment. The authors in this volume combine state of the art quantitative and ethnographic research conducted in various parts of the United States to create the most comprehensive portrayal of the ways in which immigrant families and their children overcome a multitude of challenges in their course to assimilation.The research in the volume is based on third survey of the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (CILS), which followed a large sample of second-generation minority youth û from early adolescence into adulthood û and found that less than 1 percent of the sample managed to enroll in college and graduate from a four-year institution in early adulthood. Using qualitative research methods, a further study was conducted to determine what part of their life histories were shared by the subsample and where they diverged. Contributors to this volume found that the events leading to positive outcomes were neither random nor unique to each case. A series of common patterns emerged of great significance to theory and policy design.The articles in this volume have been organized in three major sections: · Theory and Facts û identifies life events and institutional factors that can lead to alternative and exceptional outcomes. + Social Mechanisms û investigates the systems that model educational achievement and make differences in individual lives. + Places and Locations û provides situational context for the institutional and family contingencies that condition patterns of achievement. This fascinating volume of The ANNALS is a must-read for students, scholars, and policymakers concerned with the low representation of immigrant and minority students among college graduates. Although its focus is on the children of immigrants, the book is eminently relevant to the understanding of factors that increase the likelihood of success in education and employment among impoverished children in general.

No Margin for Error: Educational and Occupational Achievement among Disadvantaged Children of Immigrants - Alejandro Portes, Patricia Fernández-Kelly Success Attained, Deterred, and Denied: Divergent Pathways to Social Mobility in Los Angeles's New Second Generation - Min Zhou, Jennifer Lee, Jody Agius Vallejo, Rosaura Tafoya-Estrada, Yang Sao Xiong The Role of School in the Upward Mobility of Disadvantaged Immigrants' Children - Lingxin Hao, Suet-ling Pong Disparities in the Educational Success of Immigrants: An Assessment of the Immigrant Effect for Asians and Latinos - Angel L. Harris, Kenneth M. Jamison, Monica H. Trujillo The Back Pocket Map: Social Class and Cultural Capital as Transferable Assets in the Advancement of Second-Generation Immigrants - Patricia Fernández-KellyEthnic Communities and School Performance among the New Second Generation in the United States: Testing the Theory of Segmented Assimilation - Clemens KronebergFit to Miss, but Matched to Hatch: Success Factors among the Second Generation's Disadvantaged in South Florida - Lisa Konczal, William HallerEducational Hopes, Documented Dreams: Guatemalan and Salvadoran Immigrants' Legality and Educational Prospects - Cecilia MenjívarThe Coming of the Second Generation: Immigration and Ethnic Mobility in Southern California - Rubén G. Rumbaut "Here's Your Diploma, Mom!": Family Obligation and Multiple Pathways to Success - Tekla Nicholas, Alex Stepick, Carol Dutton StepickBecoming American, Becoming Minority, Getting Ahead: The Role of Racial and Ethnic Status in the Upward Mobility of the Children of Immigrants - Philip KasinitzHoratio Alger Lives in Brooklyn: Extrafamily Support, Intrafamily Dynamics, and Socially Neutral Operating Identities in Exceptional Mobility among Children of Mexican Immigrants - Robert C. Smith Norms, Values, and Solidarity: A Durkheimian Perspective on Escaping from the Inner City - Steven Elías Alvarado No Margin for Error and Its Implications for Future Research - G. Cristina MoraWe Are the People Who Love Us and the Stories We Tell Ourselves - Alejandro RivasBook Review Essay: New Faces in New Places: The Changing Geography of American Immigration - Peggy LevittBook Review Essay: Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age - Charles Hirschman