people

Marta Sánchez

Research Scientist

Marta Sánchez joined the Center in October 2012 after completing her dissertation on Mexican immigrant fathers who parent at a distance of time and geographical space. Sánchez is a member of the North Carolina-based Latino Child and Family Research Group, with whom she has collaborated on research addressing the educational needs of Latino dual language learners. Additionally, she was project coordinator for Madres para Niños, a research study to facilitate the home-school connection between Latino immigrant parents and school personnel with the goal of narrowing the achievement gap of Latino children. She has served as a consultant to national literacy organizations and, prior to moving to North Carolina, Sánchez worked in family literacy and early childhood education with immigrant populations.

As part of that work, she helped develop Parenting towards Literacy/Abriendo camino hacia la lectoescritura, a literacy-based curriculum and questionnaire. A graduate of the University of North Carolina’s School of Education, Sánchez joins Leslie Babinski, Ashley Corra, and other researchers on the IES-funded study, Developing Consultation and Collaboration Skills: ESL and Classroom Teachers Working Together with Students and Families.

Recent Publications

1. Sánchez, M., Gillanders, C., & Criolani, Y. (Spring, 2012). With affection and love: Latino families prepare their children for success in school/Con cariño y amor: las familias latinas preparan a sus hijos para alcanzar el éxito en la escuela,. Milestones, 12-15.


2. Calderón, M., Slavin, R. & Sánchez, M. (Spring, 2011). Effective instruction for English learners,. The Future of Children, 21(1). [index.xml]


3. Calderón, M., Sánchez, M., Rivera Quiroz, L., Jimenez, K. & Jennings, H. (Spring, 2011). National Institute for Literacy’s publications for Spanish-speaking families on language and literacy development. [nceleprereading]


4. Meyers, G., Parish, M. & Sánchez, M. "Optional education: How students get left behind: A special report to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools."  March, 2010  [author's comments]

1. ESL and Classroom Teacher Collaboration: Feedback on a New Model, Presentation for the Carolina Teachers of English for Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Conference: Finding the Common Core, Spartanburg, SC, November, 2012
2. Unauthorized Fatherhood: The Case of the Mexican Immigrant Father, Presentation at the Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature, St. Louis, MO, October, 2010
3. Publishing for New Scholars, Panelist at the Emerging Scholars Symposium, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, February, 2010
4. The Newspaper as Social Actor in the Immigration Debate, Presentation at the Community Responses to 287(g) Conference, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, April, 2008

1. Madres para Niños: Enhancing Immigrant Parents’ Acculturation to Local Schooling Norms and Expectations, Poster presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August, 2011