| In this dissertation, I examine the concept of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1973; Lamont and Lareau 1988; Lareau 2002) as it applies to teachers' evaluations of native and immigrant students' academic and social behaviors. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, I examine how rates of fifth grade student participation in cultural capital-building activities, such as playing sports or taking music or art lessons, vary by race and nativity status. I also examine how parental contact and involvement with their child's school and teacher varies by race and nativity status. I find that rates of student and parent involvement in cultural capital-building activities generally favor native students. I then test whether or not teachers give positive or negative evaluations regarding native and immigrant students (1) literacy skills, (2) approaches to learning, and (3) interpersonal skills, and if cultural capital influences these teacher evaluations.;Prior research suggests that cultural capital can give some students an edge in the classroom. Given that native students and their parents tend to have more involvement in cultural capital-building activities, I predict that teachers' evaluations of native students' skills will be more positive than their evaluations of immigrant students. In most cases, immigrant students are not systematically evaluated more negatively by teachers than their native peers. In fact, the results show that Hispanic and Asian immigrants make actually receive higher teacher evaluations regarding literacy and learning skills than native students. However, the overall differences in these native/immigrant student teacher evaluations generally do not seem to be affected by the possession of cultural capital. Race, nativity status, and cultural capital do not seem to have any influence on teachers' evaluations of students' interpersonal skills. |
