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EL NUEVO SUR LATINO Y EL RETO QUE ELLO PLANTEA A LA EDUCACIÓN PÚBLICA
Author(s) -
Wainer Andrew
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international migration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1468-2435
pISSN - 0020-7985
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2435.2006.00389.x
Subject(s) - political science , public education , economic growth , development economics , public administration , economics
This paper examines the growth of the fastest growing Latino immigrant communities in the nation during the 1990s and the impact of this growth on the public schools. Much of the highest growth occurred in regions that were quite unprepared to integrate this immigrant group into the educational mainstream. The result in many cases has been a growing “de facto” segregation of immigrant students in terms of standardized test scores, drop‐out rates, and resources vis a vis mainstream students. This segregation is occurring sometimes within the same classroom and sometimes takes on more traditional forms where immigrant students are physically isolated from the mainstream educational milieu. This paper first documents the rapid Latino immigrant growth in northwest Arkansas, central North Carolina, and the Atlanta suburbs. I then focus on the impact that this immigration has had on K‐12 public schools in these high‐immigrant growth regions. Finally, I present some promising practices and policy implications and recommendations for local, state, and federal organizations aimed at a more successful integration of Latino immigrants into the public education systems in these regions. My study is primarily a series of comparative case studies consisting of 108 semi‐structured interviews with teachers, parents, principals, district administrators, community leaders, governmental officials, and students in the impacted communities. In addition to this ethnographic work, I also draw upon federal population statistics such as the US Census and Current Population Survey to document Latino immigrant population growth. My paper concludes that unless increasing resources and attention is given to the growing disparity in Latino immigrant and mainstream student education achievement outcomes, then the school districts in these regions risk inadvertently becoming re‐segregated by ethnicity much as they were prior to the Civil Rights initiatives of the 1950s and 1960s.