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The presence of immigrants' children in the nation's
schools is soaring, now representing one of every five students, but middle
and high schools are unprepared to teach them, a new report concludes.
The report, "Overlooked and Underserved: Immigrant
Children in U.S. Secondary Schools," also finds that immigrants' children
are, in effect, far more likely to be schooled in segregated settings than
African-American children, even though black students have tended to wind up
in resegregated schools in the wake of the civil rights era. Immigrant
students generally are clustered in schools with heavy concentrations of
other immigrants.
These children face a vise of isolation and poverty to
a degree unknown by previous generations of newcomers. Three decades ago,
immigrants' children were no more likely to be poor than white, native-born
children. Now, these new arrivals are more than three times as likely to
live in poverty than their white, native-born peers are. Seventeen percent
of foreign-born children lived in poverty in 1970, compared to almost 44
percent in 1995.
The report, conducted by the Urban Institute, a
non-profit policy research organization based in Washington, underscores one
way in which the nation is being transformed by an ongoing wave of
immigration.
The trend has social and economic implications for the
nation. Historically, newcomers arrive seeking a better life than was
possible in their homeland. But the new economy in the U.S. is characterized
by both its seemingly unlimited promise and distinctly unforgiving nature,
and is unlikely to offer even a living wage to those lacking English or
basic skills.
"If you don't educate people, they fall behind in terms
of every social indicator," said Michael Fix, one of the study's authors.
"If you do educate people, they progress rapidly."
Chicago officials said the city's public schools have
done a good job of addressing the needs of immigrant students.
"I like to think that all of our schools with rare
exceptions are ready to meet the challenges" of educating immigrants'
children, said Paul Vallas, chief executive officer of Chicago Public
Schools.
Older children entering the school system have the most
difficult time adjusting, Vallas said, but he added that the school system
has tried to help them and their parents. In particular, parent counselors,
immigrants who have been in Chicago long enough to give guidance to
newcomers, are hired to help new families make the transition.
Some 60,000 children, roughly 1 in 7 of the district's
students, are enrolled in Limited English Proficiency courses, said Blondean
Davis, chief of schools and regions for the Chicago Public Schools. Most of
those students are Hispanic or Polish, she said.
"Chicago is not new to immigrants," she said. "We have
been addressing concerns raised in the report for decades."
Nationwide, though, the presence of immigrants'
children has skyrocketed, tripling in schools in the past 30 years. They now
account for about 20 percent of the school population, more than
African-Americans, who represent 16 percent.
"No American institution has felt the effect of these
[immigration] flows more forcefully than the nation's public schools…” wrote
the report’s authors, Fix, Jorge Ruiz-de-Velasco and Beatriz Chu Clewell… |