American academic literature is rich on qualitative and quantitative studies dealing with school success and failure of different ethnic groups. This article reviews the findings and conclusions of scientific literature which refer to academic success of ethnic minorities in the U.S. in order to highlight some of the risk and protective factors. The core themes found in the literature are the following: the influence of gender; the risk of Americanization; the family-school relationship; the communication discourse used at school; the disruption of parental roles; social mirroring, the advantage of immigrant's optimism; positive beliefs and expectations of parents towards education; the multicultural curriculum; culturally relevant pedagogy; the role of teacher expectations; and the importance of ethnic associations and social networks.

School success and failure Children of immigrants ethnic minorities

[No Keywords available]