ABSTRACT
Latinos constitute a large segment of the US population with relatively high levels of religious adherence and low levels of educational attainment vis-a-vis other racial and ethnic groups. Sociological findings on the relationship between religion and education are largely mixed. This chapter examines the gap between these two bodies of research denoting the positive and negative associations between religion and educational outcomes by analyzing the relationship between Latino youth congregational participation. It relates the educational expectations of Latino youth who attend Pentecostal, evangelical, and Catholic Latino congregations in the city of Chicago. Latino youth who attend congregations wherein post-secondary education is more common may have more opportunities to learn about educational opportunities from adults in the congregation. One of the primary intentions of this study is to explore the association between denominational affiliation and the educational expectations of Latino youth congregants.
