Mexican Roots American Schools

The children of Mexican immigrant families are the fastest growing population in American schools today. Education can be the key to a better quality of life, especially for a population that faces breathtakingly high poverty rates and few other opportunities for social mobility. But these children are too frequently considered at risk academically. What more can be done to help them succeed? Mexican Roots, American Schools offers a fresh take on this timely and critically important issue by focusing on the first years of elementary school and the complex interplay of learning with other aspects of children's lives. Its social policy recommendations will be essential reading for educators, policymakers, and parents alike. Based on the first-ever national study of the school readiness of Mexican immigrant children, this book examines how various aspects of their lives--including health, the home environment, and childcare arrangements--help or hurt their academic performance. Drawing a comprehensive picture, it shows that these children start school behind their peers and only fall farther behind over the years. The author forcefully maintains that this situation does not need to continue. Crosnoe outlines which factors make the most difference, and recommends policy initiatives that would help change things. In addressing educational inequality, we need to target the earliest years of school and pre-school programs, offer resource centers and services for students and parents, and consider how health and home inevitably seep their way into the schools.

Improving the educational success of the children of Mexican immigrants is crucial to the future prospects of these children as well as to the American population at large. This book documents how various aspects of these children's lives help or hinder their learning in elementary school.

In The Other American Dilemma, Rubén Donato and Jarrod Hanson examine the experiences of Mexican immigrants, Mexican Americans, and Hispanos/as in their schools and communities between 1912 and 1953. Drawing from the Mexican Archives located in Mexico City and by venturing outside of the Southwest, their examinations of specific communities in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, and Texas shed new light on Mexicans' social and educational experiences. Donato and Hanson maintain that Mexicans—whether recent immigrants, American citizens, or Hispanos/as with deep roots in the United States—were not seen as true Americans and were subject to unofficial school segregation and Jim Crow. The book highlights similarities and differences between the ways the Mexican-origin population and African Americans were treated. Because of their mestizo heritage, the Mexican-origin population was seen as racially mixed and kept on the margins of community and school life by people in power.

Examines how Mexican Americans experienced "unofficial" Jim Crow inside and outside the American education system, and how they used the courts, Mexican Consul, and other resources to challenge that discrimination.

The “Latino Education Crisis” not only threatens to dash the middle class aspirations of the nation’s largest immigrant group, it is also an ominous sign for democratic engagement and global competitiveness for U.S. society as a whole. This timely book argues that this crisis is more aptly characterized as a “Mexican Education Crisis.” This book brings together voices that are rarely heard on the same stage—Mexican and U.S. scholars of migration, schooling, and human development—to articulate a new approach to Mexican-American schooling: a bi-national focus that highlights the interpersonal assets of Mexican-origin children. Contributors document the urgency of adopting this approach and provide a framework for crossing national and disciplinary borders to improve scholarship, policy, and practice associated with PreK–12 schooling. Contributors: James D. Bachmeier, Frank D. Bean, Susan K. Brown, Benilde García Cabrero, Cynthia García Coll, Regina Cortina, Ivania de la Cruz, Guadalupe Ruiz Cuéllar, Claudia Galindo, Francisco X. Gaytán, Edmund T. Hamann, Nadia Huq, Mark A. Leach, Gabriela Livas Stein, Carmina Makar, Mary Martinez-Wenzl, Vilma Ortíz, María Guadalupe Pérez Martínez, Leslie Reese, Rosaura Tafoya-Estrada, Edward Telles, Ernesto Treviño, Víctor Zúñiga “This volume is one of a kind. . . . It represents a first step in what we hope will be an ongoing relationship between the institutions and the researchers on both sides of the border who have both an appreciation for the importance of this work and a dedication to improving the educational opportunities of those students that we share in time, space, and culture.” —From the Foreword by Patricia Gándara and Eugene García “A fresh, eye-opening array of essays that highlights how the economic and cultural vitality of the U.S. and Mexico is so tightly interwoven in colorful and breathtaking ways. Setting aside strident allegations of how immigrants differ from mainstream society, the authors illustrate our commonalities, how Mexican parents are among the most pro-family, hardest working families in our society. 'Bien educado' is not just metaphor: it animates how immigrant parents raise engaged children, along with a vibrant optimism about getting into America.” —Bruce Fuller, Professor, Education & Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley “Regarding Educación is an extraordinary achievement. World-class scholars from both the U.S. and Mexico come together to engage one of the most important developments in education in the 21st century: How do we educate the children we share across transnational borders to thrive in an ever more interconnected, miniaturized, and fragile global world? The answers they provide are timely, riveting, and humane. It is a book every teacher, every policymaker, and every engaged citizen interested in globalization and education must read.” —Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Education, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

Addresses the historical origins of Spanish-speaking people in the United States, the rise of stereotypes, the growth of efforts at self-definition, and related matters.

Comprehensive and integrative, The Oxford Handbook of Poverty and Child Development describes the contextual and social ecology of children living in poverty and illuminates the biological and behavioral interactions that either promote optimal development or that place children at risk of having poor developmental outcomes.

This edited volume presents an overview of research and policy issues pertaining to children from birth to 10 who are first- and second-generation immigrants to the U.S., as well as native-born children of immigrants. The contributors offer interdisciplinary perspectives on recent developments and research findings on children of immigrants. By accessibly presenting research findings and policy considerations in the field, this collection lays the foundation for changes in child and youth policies associated with the shifting ethnic, cultural, and linguistic profile of the U.S. population.