Welcome to HOLA STEM!
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About Us
¡HOLA! We are the HOLA STEM Lab, dedicated to advancing equity in early STEM learning for dual language learners (DLLs) and their families. Our work investigates how young children’s language experiences, especially in bilingual and multilingual contexts, shape their understanding of mathematics and science. We study how assessment and instructional practices can be designed to more accurately reflect DLLs’ knowledge and promote equity in early STEM learning. We also recognize the vital role that families and home learning environments play in supporting children’s curiosity and engagement with STEM from an early age.
Latino families bring rich linguistic, cultural, and cognitive assets to schools and communities. One in four children in the U.S. are Latinos, and many grow up navigating more than one language. At HOLA STEM, we value bilingualism as a strength and an essential resource for learning. Through an asset-oriented lens, we partner with families, educators, and community programs to recognize and promote the diverse ways in which Latino and multilingual families engage in their children’s early STEM development.
Meet our Team
I am an Assistant Professor in the Human Development program at the University of Maryland. I was born and raised in Argentina. I came to the US to pursue my master’s degree in Comparative and International Education at New York University and then I did my Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Research Methodology at Purdue University.
My overarching research program explores learning contexts that shape how young children develop and learn, with a particular focus on dual language learners (DLLs) from immigrant Latino communities. Latino families bring immense linguistic and cultural assets to schools and communities, yet Latino children are considered among the most vulnerable of young learners. Disparities in learning outcomes, however, rest within structural factors such as cultural and linguistic biases in our knowledge base and the reliance on measures that are not culturally or linguistically sensitive but commonly used to make instructional and policy decisions.
My research program addresses these main issues through two main strands: (a) culturally sensitive measures and (b) contextual factors shaping early learning, with a specific interest in early mathematics skills.
Current Graduate Students
Ninie Asad
Ninie is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology. She is interested in how Latine families support their children’s learning in ways that don’t always fit traditional ideas of academic help. Her goal is to create research and resources that are accessible, inclusive, and useful for families and schools, especially in supporting dual-language learners and diverse learning experiences. Ninie received her dual Bachelor of Science degrees in Human Development and Family Sciences and Psychology from Virginia Tech and in her post-bacc years worked at the Early Childhood Interaction Lab at UMD.
Current Graduate Research Assistants
Maylee Montagut Ascanio
Maylee is a third-year Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology working both at The ECI Lab and HOLA STEM Lab. She is interested in analyzing the role of working memory and gesture-use in latine parents and children's communication, and how it influences early math development. She earned her B.A. in Psychology at Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. For her post-bacc years, Maylee worked as a researcher in the education field, developing and applying tools to measure the quality of early childhood classrooms and caregiver-child interactions in public daycares and schools in Colombia.
Current Undergraduate Research Assistants
Anabel Holguin
Brenda De la Flor
Nicole McCoy
Daniella Avelar
Maria Cabrera Martin
Rebeca Ventura
Past Research Assistants
Gala Campos Oaxaca (GRA)
Emely Ruano
Paola del Campo (GRA)
Tamara Adorno Velazquez
Annalise Chang
Lily Ureta
Kaira Ozobu
Franshesca Orellana Castellanos
Journal Articles
Montúfar Soria, P., Cosso, J., Purpura, D., & Melzi, G. (2025).
Cosso, J., Ellis, A., Camargo Salamanca, S.L., & Susperreguy, M.I. (2025).
Ellis, A., O'Rear, C.D., Cosso, J., & Purpura, D.J. (2025).
Grounding understanding of the home numeracy environment: Within‐group variation in Latine families
Cosso, J., Campos Oaxaca, G., & Purpura, D. J. (2024).
The Home Numeracy Environment of Latine Families: A Mixed Methods Measurement Development Study
Cosso, J., Purpura, D. J., & Yoshikawa, H. (2024).
Examining the factor structure of the home learning environment
Ellis, A., Connor, D. O., Cosso, J., & Purpura, D. J. (2024).
The Home Numeracy Environment and Children’s Early Math Skills: The Moderating Role of Parents’ Math Anxiety.
Cosso, J., Finders, J. K., Duncan, R. J., Schmitt, S. A., & Purpura, D. J. (2023).
International Comparisons of the Home Mathematics Environment and Relations with Children's Mathematical Achievement
Ellis, A., Cosso, J., Duncan, R. J., Susperreguy, M. I., Simms, V., & Purpura, D. J. (2023).
Early Home Learning Environment (EHLE) Dataset Codebook
Ellis, A., King, Y. A., Westerberg, L., Connor, D. O., Hornburg, C. B., McElveen, T. L., Zippert, E. L., Cosso, J., Beltrán-Grimm, S., Ehrman, P. C., & Purpura, D. J. (2023).
Unique and combined effects of quantitative mathematical language and numeracy instruction within a picture book intervention: A registered report
Purpura, D. J., O'Rear, C. D., Ellis, A., Logan, J. A. R., Westerberg, L. E., Ehrman, P. C., King, Y. A., Vander Tuin, M., Nordgren, I., Anderson, K., Cosso, J., Zippert, E., Napoli, A. R., Hornburg, C. B., Schmitt, S. A., & Dobbs-Oates, J. (2023).
Effects of Parental Involvement Programs on Young Children’s Academic and Social-Emotional Outcomes: a Meta-Analysis.
Cosso, J., von Suchodoletz, A., & Yoshikawa, H. (2022).
Impact of a Psycho-Emotional Skills-Building Program on Children's Social-Emotional Development in Colombia
Cosso, J., Russo de Vivo, A. R., Hein, S., Reales-Silvera, L. P., Ramirez-Varela, L., & Ponguta, L. A. (2022).
Conceptualizing the Factor Structure of Parents’ Math Anxiety and Associations with Children’s Mathematics Skills
Cosso, J., Ellis, A., O'Rear, C. D., Zippert, E. L., Schmitt, S. A., & Purpura, D. J. (2022).
The Home Mathematics Environment of Dual-Language Learning Children and Their Early Mathematics Skills.
Cosso, J., Purpura, D. J., Maeda, Y., & Bofferding, L. (2022).
Relations between Students’ Mathematics Anxiety and Motivation to Learn Mathematics: a Meta-Analysis
Li, Q., Cho, H., Cosso, J., & Maeda, Y. (2021).
Next Directions in Measurement of the Home Mathematics Environment: An International and Interdisciplinary Perspective.
Hornburg, C. B., Borriello, G. A., Kung, M., Lin, J., Litkowski, E., Cosso, J., Ellis, A., King, Y. A., Zippert, E., Cabrera, N. J., Davis-Kean, P., Eason, S. H., Hart, S. A., Iruka, I. U., LeFevre, J.-A., Simms, V., Susperreguy, M. I., Cahoon, A., Chan, W. W. L., Cheung, S. K., Coppola, M., De Smedt, B., Elliott, L., Estévez-Pérez, N., Gallagher-Mitchell, T., Gardner-Neblett, N., Gilmore, C., Leyva, D., Maloney, E. A., Manolitsis, G., Melzi, G., Mutaf-Yıldız, B., Nelson, G., Niklas, F., Pan, Y., Ramani, G. B., Skwarchuk, S.-L., Sonnenschein, S., & Purpura, D. J. (2021).
Projects
Mathematics in the home of Latino families
In this project, we aim to validate a recently developed measure of the home mathematics environment (HME) for Latino families (HME-L).
With this measure, we aim to shift attention from what Latino families do not know or do to valuing and leveraging their everyday practices and experiences.
Latino STEM home-practices and digital support
In this project, we aim to design family STEM resources (i.e., an app) using a bottom-up approach. We are conducting focus groups with Latino families to learn about their everyday practices and the use of technology.
This work will promote meaningful STEM content in activities and interactions already taking place in Latino families' homes.
Dual language learners' school readiness skills
In this project, we aim to examine how Latine dual language learners (DLLs) perform in different school readiness domains (e.g., science, math) based on the English language skill test (preLAS). We are using two nationally representative datasets.
This work raises concerns about the validity of English-based assessments for Latine DLLs. Being DLL is a cognitive benefit that should be celebrated and encouraged; however, assessments in one language do not accurately capture DLLs’ academic abilities.
Contact Us
We are always happy to meet new people!
Reach out by emailing:
holastem@umd.edu
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