The Department of Teaching and Learning
Hector Rivera, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Rivera is an Assistant Professor in
the School of Education and Human Development. He obtained his doctoral
degree in Developmental Psychology from the University of California at
Santa Cruz in 2001. He conducted his post-doctorate training at the Center
for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE) in the
department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Houston. After
his post-doctoral training, Dr. Rivera worked as a research assistant
professor and scientific advisor at the Texas Institute for Measurement,
Evaluation and Statistics (TIMES) and Department of Psychology at the
University of Houston. His research is focused on child and community
development, classroom learning environments, the efficacy of school
programs, and teacher professional development in urban and rural settings.
Through the office of bilingual education at SMU, Dr. Rivera is currently
conducting a collaborative study with Dr. Bill Pulte on the implementation
of a research-based program for language revitalization of the Chickasaw
Nation. In collaboration with Dr. Patricia Mathes, Dr. Rivera is the
PI for a research project focused on the randomized efficacy trial of a
core-reading curriculum for the primary grades (K-3rd).
Publications
Rivera, H., Torres Elias, A., Pulte, W., & Hall, V. (2008). Principles for the Successful Development and Implementation of Programs Serving English Language Learners (ELLs). In P. Dam, & M. Cowart (Eds). Monograph: Current Issues and Best Practices in Bilingual and ESL Education.
Rivera, H. (2008). Bridging the technology gap for low-income Spanish-speaking immigrant families. Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education Journal, 16 (3), 307-325.
Rivera, H., & Tharp, R. (2006). A Native American community involvement and empowerment to guide their children’s development in the school setting. Journal of Community Psychology, 34 (4), 435-451.
Rivera, H., Tharp, R. G., Hilberg, R. S., Bird, C. P., Epaloose, G., Feathers, M. R., Eriacho, W., & Weebothee, M. (in press). In sight of home: School reform in a Native American community. In S. Stringfield & A. Datnow (Eds.), The Imperfect Storm: Successes and failures of school reform efforts in multicultural/multilingual contexts. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Rivera, H. (2004). Resilient Communities: The interplay between community development and child development through effective school reform. In Waxman, H., Grey, J., & Padròn, Y. (Eds). Educational Resiliency: Student, Teacher, and School Perspectives. Age Publisher.
Rivera, H., & Tharp, R. (2004). Socio-cultural Activity Settings in the Classroom: A study of a classroom observation system. In H.Waxman., R. Tharp, and R. Hilberg (Eds.) New Directions for Observational Research in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Classrooms. Cambridge University Press.
Padròn, Y., Waxman, H., Rivera, H. (2003, Spring). Educating Hispanic Students: Obstacles and Avenues to Improve Academic Achievement. Journal of Research and Information, 27-39.
Rivera, H., Galarza, S., Entz, S., & Tharp, R. (2002). Technology and pedagogy in early childhood education: Guidance from Cultural-Historical-Activity Theory and Developmentally Appropriate Instruction. Information Technology in Childhood Education Annual, 181-204.
Padrón, Y., Waxman, H., Rivera, H. (2002). Issues in Educating Hispanic Students. In S. Stringfield and D. Land (Eds.) Educating At-Risk Students: One hundred-first Yearbook of the National Society for the study of Education. University of Chicago Press.
Tharp, G., Feathers, M., Epaloose, G., Bird, P., Hilberg, R., Rivera, H. (2004). Resistance in School/Community Co-constructed School Reform: Scaling Up from Research to Practice in a Native American Community. Project 5.6: Final Report by Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence. In the Harvard Family Research Project: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/projects/fine/announcements/04jun.html
Padròn, Y., Waxman, H., Rivera, H. (2002). Educating Hispanic Students: Obstacles and Avenues to Improve Academic Achievement. Educational Practice Report No. 8. Center for Applied Linguistics: Washington, DC.
Rivera, H. (2001). Program Evaluation Report. Technical Report No. 1. Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native American in Science: Santa Cruz, California.
Rivera, H., Tharp, R., Bird, C., Epaloose, G., Eriacho, W., & Weebothee, M. (2001). Community Educational Values and Beliefs. Technical Report No. 1 submitted to the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence, the Zuni Pueblo School District and Zuni Tribal Council.
Edited Book (in Spanish)
Mejia-Arauz, R., Rivera, H., & Frisancho, S. (2006). Investigar la diversidad cultural: Teoría, conceptos y métodos de investigación para la educación y el desarrollo. Publisher: ITESO- Universidad Jesuita de Guadalajara, México.
Book (academic intervention curriculum for ELLs)
Scarcella, R., Rivera, H., & Rivera, M. (2008). English Language Development. California Gateways. Steck-Vaughn: Harcourt Publisher.
Conference Presentations
Paper accepted for presentation by National Association of Teacher Educators entitled “Addressing the Academic Needs of LEP Newcomer students in Middle School and High School”. Conference on “The global imperative: Educating and assessing the whole child, teachers and community”. Contributors to the paper: Rivera, H., Montgomery, N., Lozano, R., Hall, V., & Madrigal-Hopes, D (To be presented in February, 2009).
Pedagogy and Technology (October, 2008): Invited to present case studies of technology and pedagogy and how they will impact the future frontier to teaching and learning within a socio-cultural conceptual framework for teaching the “whole child.” Conference sponsored by Words & Numbers: Social Studies Conference, Incorporating Technology and ELL into Social Studies. Technology and Community Development (September 2008): Invited to speak at the Annual Gala of Independence by the Mexican Institute of Greater Houston in Houston Texas.
Technology and Community Development (September 2008): Invited to speak at the Annual Gala of Independence by the Mexican Institute of Greater Houston in Houston Texas.
Carlson, C., Rivera, H., Hagan, E., Short, D., August, D. (2006, April). Randomized Trials of Research-based Instruction for Spanish-speaking ELLs: Effects under two Language of Instruction Models. In David J. Francis' symposium on Experimental Investigations and the Language of Instruction with Spanish-speaking English-language Learners. Presented at the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, CA.
Rivera H. (2004, February). Dimensions of community context that affect the language and literacy development of Spanish-Speaking students. Paper presented at the National Association of Bilingual Educators in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Rivera, H., Tharp, R., & Epaloose, G. (2002, April) Development in communities, development of communities: A study of values, beliefs, and opinions on education in a traditional community. Unpublished doctoral dissertation presented at the American Educational Research Association at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Rivera, Hector (2001, July). Development in Communities, Development of Communities: A study of Values, Beliefs, and Opinions on Education in a Traditional Native American Community. Paper presented at the National Indian School Board Association conference, Portland, Oregon.
Rivera, H & Tharp, R. (2000, March). Developmental process of community involvement in school related activities. Paper presented at the Annual Conference for Applied Anthropology, San Francisco, CA.
Rivera, H., Tharp, R. & Guardino, G. (1999, April). Parental/Community involvement in the co-construction of school related activities. Paper presented at the American Education Research Association, Montreal, Canada.
Awards & Fellowships
Institute on Statistical Analysis for Education Policy Training Award, A financial award to participate in statistical training for junior scholars on the use of statistical tools for policy research. All expenses were paid by NCES and U.S. Department of Education. April 2002.
Junior Researcher Professional Development Award, A financial award to present at ISSBD conference and participate in their professional development training on international community research. The training was sponsored by the International Society for the Study of Behavior Development (ISSBD) hosted in Lima, Peru. July 2001.
National Institute of Mental Health, One year of graduate financial support for Graduate Student Professional Development and completion of dissertation. August 2000 - July 2001.
E-mail Dr. Rivera (click here)