By TERRENCE STUTZ and ROBERT T. GARRETT/ The Dallas Morning News
Wednesday, April 29, 2009

AUSTIN – Texas schools would be graded with new standards – highlighting an emphasis on college readiness in high schools – while student testing would lose much of its punch in lower grades under school improvement bills the Legislature passed Wednesday.

Similar bills approved by the House and Senate would call on high school students to show college readiness on the state's new English III and Algebra II tests to earn a diploma – with the Senate proposing a higher standard for passage than the House.

But elementary and middle school students would no longer have to pass the TAKS test in certain grades to be promoted under both measures.

The bills would take some pressure off teachers and administrators to focus on preparation for state tests by allowing school districts to devise their own promotion standards – utilizing test scores, course grades and teacher recommendations. Students in grades 3, 5 and 8 would no longer have to pass the state test for promotion.

In addition, annual state performance ratings for schools and districts would be revamped, with growth in student achievement – as measured by state tests – the key factor rather than just minimum passing rates of students.

Test scores over three years – rather than just one year – would be considered in performance ratings so a district or campus would not be penalized for one off-year. Student dropout rates and each district's financial condition would be other factors in the ratings.

The Senate approved its school accountability bill first, on a unanimous vote, while the House followed suit Wednesday evening by unanimously approving its bill. The two chambers will iron out their differences on the legislation over the next few weeks.

House Public Education Committee Chairman Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, told House members that the new school accountability system was necessary because the old standards have not been getting results.

"The current system did not help our kids as much as we thought it would," Eissler explained. "We have serious, serious achievement gaps in terms of preparing students for college."

Eissler said while scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills jumped substantially over the years, Texas scores on the ACT and SAT – the nation's two major college entrance exams – have remained flat.

"What we want to do now is aim at college readiness because 86 percent of new jobs in the future will require at least some coursework in college," he said.

Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said for the first time college readiness will be a major part of the school accountability system.

"This bill would make significant changes for students and for schools, but the overarching goal is to raise the bar so that Texas students are prepared for success in life," she said.

Regarding provisions in the bill that would affect low-performing schools, Shapiro said the state education commissioner would have more flexibility to deal with those campuses – including an additional year for such schools to turn around their performance before facing closure.

"Our goal is to do improvement, not punishment – standards, not excuses," she said.

Other provisions in one or both of the bills would eliminate the requirement that school districts spend at least 65 percent of their funds on classroom instruction and prohibit districts from having grading policies that force teachers to give minimum grades to failing students.

An amendment approved in the House would prohibit school districts from regulating the hair length of honor students who have no disciplinary record or unexcused absences.

School districts would be evaluated annually based on student test scores, dropout rates and financial integrity – receiving one of three ratings from good to bad: accredited, accredited-warned and accredited-probation. Districts doing poorly for multiple years would lose their accreditation – and state funding.

Campuses would be rated acceptable or low-performing based on test scores and dropout rates, with high-performing campuses getting recognized for "distinction" in subject areas where they excelled.

High school students would follow one of three graduation plans – basic, recommended and advanced – with most students encouraged to the take the recommended plan to prepare for college. Students in that plan would have to have four credits in each of the four core subject areas – English, math, science and social studies. A credit is equal to a year of instruction in one course.

Two credits in foreign language also would be required along with eight elective credits under the recommended plan.

Students would only be allowed to take the "basic" graduation plan – which has less-rigorous course requirements – with the consent of their parents. Schools that have a large number of students graduating under the basic plan would face an inquiry from the Texas Education Agency under both the House and Senate bills.

Labels: HB 3

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:06 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Texas’ economic future depends on giving Hispanic students a better education

Houston Chronicle
April 10, 2009

The good news for Texas is that more Hispanic students are attending college than ever before. The bad news is that they lag behind all other ethnic student groups in several important areas, and there are few indications that the situation will improve anytime soon.

As reported by the Chronicle’s Jeannie Kever, when compared with other ethnic groups, fewer Hispanic students graduate from high school in four years and fewer of them enroll in college or a technical training program.

A state plan, Closing the Gaps, was created in 2000, with a goal of raising overall Texas college enrollment rates, which then stood at 5 percent of the population, to the national average of 5.7 percent by 2015. The state’s overall enrollment now stands at 5.3 percent. The rate for Hispanics has increased from 3.7 to 3.9 percent.

That’s not good enough, said Raymund Paredes, higher education commissioner for Texas. He told Kever that with such numbers, the state cannot develop a well-educated workforce. “The Hispanic community is key to the economic future of Texas,” he said.

He’s right: In Texas, and particularly Houston, Hispanics are by far the fastest-growing ethnic group, making up more than 40 percent of the city’s total population, and projected to become a majority by 2030.

Individual universities and colleges have set their own goals, with programs to help Hispanic students enroll in college and earn degrees, but results are mixed. A 2008 report from Texas’ Higher Education Coordinating Board said the state was “somewhat above target” in raising the enrollment of white and black students, but “well below target” with Hispanic students.

The state, which should be at the forefront of the effort, is not only dragging its feet, but is actively opposing measures to level the playing field for Hispanic students, especially those classified as LEP — with limited English proficiency. Not only has the Texas Legislature defunded many areas of public education in recent years — cutting per-student funding by about 20 percent for university students and 35 percent for community college students between 2002 and 2007, as per state comptroller Susan Combs — it is still neglecting to offer measures to provide better programs to LEP students.

The state has appealed a 2008 federal district court ruling that it address those students’ needs, the latest in a series of similar rulings since 1981. The recent ruling, to be reviewed in June, pointed out that Texas high schools and middle schools are losing primarily Spanish-speaking students at twice the rate of other students.

“I don’t think our educational system meets the goals of Hispanic students,” said State Rep. Jessica Farrar, a Democrat whose Houston district is heavily Hispanic. “The most fundamental issue is funding. It comes down to the dollars,” she told the Chronicle. “You have to hire talent to teach.”

Texas, with the sixth-largest student population in the nation, ranks 33rd in teacher salaries.

Fortunately, thanks mainly to federal stimulus funds, the new state budget, which the Legislature is preparing to vote on, looks to provide a welcome boost to public education funding.

Among other increases, the House is proposing that $224 million be added to the base amount of $428 million for the Texas Grants college tuition program, and that $25 million be added to the Texas Opportunity Grant program for older students and those in community colleges.

But more funds need to be channeled to the needs of the state’s Hispanic students, and the Legislature should be addressing those needs directly, not by reacting to lawsuits.

Time is fast running out: The Texas State Data Center projects that by 2030 — the same year that Hispanics are predicted to become a majority in Texas — the state’s average household incomes will have dropped $3,000 unless more people complete a college degree.

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/6368634.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:35 PM 0 comments Links to this post

From the UT College of Education website. We have a lot to be proud of indeed!

Angela

College of Education National Rankings 2009
Culture of Excellence Propels College of Education to 3rd in the Nation

The University of Texas at Austin’s College of Education continued its remarkable climb in the U.S. News & World Report - America’s Best Graduate Schools rankings, rising this year to third in the nation among public colleges and schools of education and seventh in the nation overall, tied with Johns Hopkins, Northwestern University, University of California-Berkley and University of Wisconsin-Madison.

U.S. News & World Report uses statistical data from more than 12,000 graduate programs and survey feedback from academic and professional experts nationwide to produce its annual rankings of national graduate programs in education, business, engineering and law. This is the highest ranking that the College of Education has ever achieved.

Last year the college broke into an elite national tier, being placed fifth among public institutions and 10th overall. This year’s rankings position the College of Education in a top-10 category that includes Harvard, Stanford University, Columbia, Vanderbilt and UCLA.

"Since U.S. News & World Report started ranking graduate education programs in 1995," says William Powers Jr., president of The University of Texas at Austin, "our College of Education's rankings have steadily improved, this year reaching third in the nation among public institutions. Innovative research and faculty who are leaders in their fields continue to bring positive recognition to the college, and this consistent show of excellence is to be commended."

The high marks awarded to the College of Education this year also include being ranked number one among public universities that offer both undergraduate and graduate programs and ranked fourth overall in research expenditures. The college is ranked second in research expenditures among public institutions, boasting growth in research and development expenditures from around $1.1 million in 1995 to a current figure of around $31 million.

At the campus level, the College of Education was the most highly ranked college or school for the second year in a row among University of Texas at Austin graduate programs that receive yearly qualitative and quantitative rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

Among the nationally and internationally acclaimed programs and research that fuel the college’s continuing success are:

UTeach, a nationally replicated math and science teacher training program
the Community College Leadership Program, which is ranked number one in the nation
a multi-faceted team of neuroscientists, exercise physiologists and special education faculty who are revolutionizing the study of autism
the newly created, multi-disciplinary Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, led by renowned scholar Dr. Sharon Vaughn
the Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts
the Texas Child Study Center, which partnered with Dell Children’s Medical Center and is the premier mental health services facility for children in Central Texas
studies from top exercise physiologists on how to maximize physical performance and recover after physical exertion
“It’s hard to describe how happy and proud we were to hear this year’s rankings,” said Manuel J. Justiz, dean of the College of Education. “Our extremely talented faculty, dedicated staff and high-achieving students work so diligently. These rankings are a wonderful recognition of their hard work.”

Rankings released April, 2009, by U.S. News & World Report

Last updated on April 23, 2009

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 9:20 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Read Dr. Stephen Krashen's response to an article by Walter Isaacson
titled, "How to Raise the Standard in America's Schools," appearing in Time Magazine on Wednesday, Apr. 15, 2009. I agree with Dr. Krashen that we can find out what works in education better through other means and also that we don't have to conduct census testing for us to find out what works.

-Angela


Do we need national standards?

Sent to Time Magazine, April 24, 2009

Re: "How to raise the standard in America's schools," Time, April 27,
2009.

Walter Isaacson argues that we need uniform national standards so we
can find out what works in education and compare our students to those
elsewhere [April 27]. Neither argument holds.

Progress in educational research does not require uniform tests given
to every student in the country. Just as research is done in many
other areas, educational researchers compare small groups of students
who differ only in the treatment under examination, using highly
reliable and valid measures, and then generalize from these results.
This approach has been very successful, and is a much better method
than testing millions of children, trying to deal with all the factors
other than the treatment that could affect results.

Similarly, if the purpose of nationally standardized tests is to see
how well our children are doing, we do not need to test every child.
We need only a representative sample. When your doctor takes your
blood, he takes only a small amount. He doesn't need all of it.

Stephen Krashen, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus

University of Southern California

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 1:35 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Check out this NYTimes editorial that refers to the McKinsey report posted earlier. And then check out Dr. Stephen Krashen's response sent to the New York Times, April 24. -Angela





April 22, NY Times

By Javier C. Hernandez

WASHINGTON — The lagging performance of American schoolchildren,
particularly among poor and minority students, has had a negative
economic impact on the country that exceeds that of the current
recession, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The study conducted by the management consulting firm McKinsey &
Company, pointed to bleak disparities in test scores on four fronts:
between black and Hispanic children and white children; between poor
and wealthy students; between Americans and students abroad; and
between students of similar backgrounds educated in different parts of
the country.

The report concluded that if those achievement gaps were closed, the
yearly gross domestic product of the United States would be trillions
of dollars higher, or $3 billion to $5 billion more per day.

This was the second report on education issues by the firm’s
social sector office, which said it was not commissioned by any
government, business or other institution. Starting in fall 2008, the
researchers reviewed federal and international tests and interviewed
education researchers and economists.

In New York City, an analysis of 2007 federal test scores for fourth
graders showed strikingly stratified achievement levels: While 6
percent of white students in city schools scored below a base
achievement level on math, 31 percent of black students and 26 percent
of Hispanic students did. In reading, 48 percent of black students and
49 percent of Hispanic students failed to reach that base level, but
19 percent of white students did.

The New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who introduced
the findings at the National Press Club in Washington, said the study
vindicated the idea that the root cause of test-score disparities was
not poverty or family circumstances, but subpar teachers and
principals. He pointed to an analysis in the report showing low-income
black fourth graders from the city outperformed students in all other
major urban districts on reading (they came in second in math).

“Schools can be the game changer,” he said. “We are able to
get very, very different results with the same children.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Klein was in Albany attempting to persuade
legislators to leave control of the city’s schools in the hands of
the mayor, a governance model adopted by the state in 2002 that is due
to expire in June. A crucial measurement of Mayor Michael R.
Bloomberg’s seven years at the helm will be Mr. Klein’s progress
in narrowing the achievement gap in a city where 32 percent of
students are black and 40 percent are Hispanic.

While state test scores have shown improvement since Mr. Klein took
office, eighth-grade scores on federal math and reading tests, known
as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, have not shown
significant increases since 2002.

In an interview after the speech here, Mr. Klein said he would be
the first to acknowledge that the city was not where it needed to be
in closing the gap, particularly in middle schools. But, he added,
there have been signs of progress among younger students, and he
believed the city’s four-year graduation rates — 69 percent for
white students, 47 percent for black students and 43 percent for
Hispanic students — could reach state averages within five or six
years.

He said it would require a focus on finding ways to recruit
high-quality teachers.

Nationally, the gap in test performance between white and Hispanic
students grows by 41 percent from Grade 4 through 12, and between
white and black students it grows 22 percent, the report said.
Students educated in different regions also showed marked variation in
test performance, despite having similar demographic backgrounds. In
Texas, for instance, schools are given about $1,000 less per student
than California schools, but Texas children are on average one to two
years of learning ahead of their counterparts in California.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Klein’s partner in leading an alliance
that is attempting to electrify the cause of making radical changes in
education, criticized those who opposed their efforts.

“There are no sacred cows in this,” Mr. Sharpton said to the
audience of 200 education leaders at the press club.

Arne Duncan, the federal secretary of education, told the audience
that the report showed the need for robust data systems to track
student and teacher performance; for alignment of American standards
with those in other countries; and for incentives to keep good
teachers and principals.

“In many situations, our schools are perpetuating poverty and are
perpetuating social failure,” he said, adding that the federal
education bureaucracy had often hindered past efforts.

He expressed support for the idea of radically restructuring the
bottom 1 percent of schools in the country, possibly by closing and
reconstituting them.

The writers of the study pointed to signs of optimism amid the
dreary numbers. Byron G. Auguste, the director of the social sector
office at McKinsey, which produced the study, said there was evidence
that two dozen countries over the past two decades had significantly
overhauled their educational systems and closed achievement gaps. He
also pointed to high-performing systems in the United States, like
those in Massachusetts and Texas. The trick, he said, would be to
share effective strategies.
--------------
Re: "Study Cites Dire Economic Impact of Poor Schools," April 22.

Stephen Krashen response:


Contrary to NY Schools chancellor Joel Klein's statement, the
McKinsey report on achievement in American schools did not show that
the "root cause" of the achievement gap was "subpar teachers and
principals" rather than poverty. Rather, the report showed that some
high-poverty schools might be doing better than others. The authors of
the report did not dismiss the impact of "out of school factors."

Klein might want to review the vast research showing the negative
effects of poverty on children's learning, including lack of proper
food, high levels of stress and violence, toxic environments,
inadequate medical care, and the lack of reading material at home and
in the community.

A good place is start is David Berliner's recent paper, "Poverty and
Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success," available for
free on the internet at
http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 1:07 PM 0 comments Links to this post

The mandatory test is keeping at least 22,500 California students a year from graduating who would otherwise fulfill all their requirements, researchers say. State education officials defend the exam.

By Mitchell Landsberg | LA Times
April 22, 2009

California's high school exit exam is keeping disproportionate numbers of girls and non-whites from graduating, even when they are just as capable as white boys, according to a study released Tuesday. It also found that the exam, which became a graduation requirement in 2007, has "had no positive effect on student achievement."

The study by researchers at Stanford University and UC Davis concluded that girls and non-whites were probably failing the exit exam more often than expected because of what is known as "stereotype threat," a theory in social psychology that holds, essentially, that negative stereotypes can be self-fulfilling. In this case, researcher Sean Reardon said, girls and students of color may be tripped up by the expectation that they cannot do as well as white boys.

Reardon said there was no other apparent reason why girls and non-whites fail the exam more often than white boys, who are their equals in other, lower-stress academic assessments. Reardon, an associate professor of education at Stanford, urged the state Department of Education to consider either scrapping the exit exam -- one of the reforms for which state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell has fought the hardest -- or looking at ways of intervening to help students perform optimally. Reardon said the exam is keeping as many as 22,500 students a year from graduating who would otherwise fulfill all their requirements. FOR THE RECORD: An article in Wednesday's Section A about California's high school exit exam misstated the findings of a university study about the test. The story said researchers found that girls and non-whites fail the exam more than white boys, who are their equals in other assessments. The study actually found that girls and non-whites fail the exam more than those white boys who are their equals in other assessments. It did not compare them to all white boys.


"No one can be happy with these results," Reardon said. "The exit exam isn't working as it was intended."

O'Connell issued a statement containing measured praise of the report but defending the exam, saying it "plays an important role in our work to ensure that a high school diploma has meaning." Other officials in the Education Department reacted skeptically to the study, sharply rejecting its assertion that the test has no positive effect on learning.

"I'm not ready to agree with that at all," said Deb Sigman, deputy superintendent for assessment and accountability. The researchers, she said, "don't look at grades, they don't look at classroom observation or interviews with children."

But Russell Rumberger, a professor of education at UC Santa Barbara who directs the California Dropout Research Project, called the study "very sophisticated" and said policymakers need to take heed of its conclusions and perhaps consider an alternative test.

State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) issued a statement saying that the research "reinforces the concerns that many of us have had about the exit exam from its inception." She said the results "must make us all pause and take stock of whether the exam could be fixed or is fatally flawed."

The exit exam, which students can take multiple times beginning in their sophomore year, includes math and English tests, with the math aligned to eighth-grade standards and English to 10th-grade standards. It has been criticized both for being too easy and for unfairly denying a diploma to students who otherwise might graduate.

The study, funded by the private, nonprofit James Irvine Foundation, is based on analysis of data from four large California school districts, those in Fresno, Long Beach, San Diego and San Francisco. Reardon said the results were very similar for all four districts, suggesting that the conclusions had broad application for all California schools.

Not surprisingly, the researchers found that the exam was toughest on students in the bottom quarter of their class, based on state standardized test scores. That was also where the study found the strongest inequality of results.

"Graduation rates declined by 15 to 19 percentage points for low-achieving black, Hispanic and Asian students when the exit exam was implemented, and declined only one percentage point . . . for similar white students," the study said. Low-achieving girls had a 19 percentage-point drop in their graduation rate, compared with a decrease of 12 percentage points for boys.

Reardon said he initially was skeptical of the "stereotype threat" effect, but that it has been well-established by social psychologists and appears to apply to the test disparities.

Labels: California, high-stakes testing

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:44 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By Dana Hull | Mercury News
04/08/2009

Alyssa Lopez, 18, attends Del Mar High School in San Jose in the morning. Every afternoon, she rides the bus to take Jeff Schmidt's three-hour video class at the Central County Occupational Center, a vocational center in San Jose. She's creating a short documentary about animal rights and learning how to edit the images with the latest computer software.

"I was going to drop out of school until I found out about this class," said Lopez, who does not have a computer at home. "This is all hands-on learning. I love movies, and I want to learn everything that I can about how they make them. I would cry if they shut this program down."

But the future of her course, and other vocational classes across the state, are in question.

For decades, programs like regional occupational centers, high school counseling, or gifted and talented education got dedicated education funds. So-called "categorical" programs made sure there were services to properly educate California's diverse student body, from teaching migrant students to training principals on how to use technology.

But under the state budget deal crafted this spring, legislators broke such "categorical" programs into three tiers, giving strong protection to two groups but lumping more than 40 programs into a so-called "Tier III" that allows their funds to be raided, or the programs to be eliminated completely. The idea was to give superintendents flexibility in balancing shrinking budgets.

"We wanted to knock down the walls," said H.D. Palmer of the California Department of Finance. "School districts said, 'If you're not giving us money, at least give us maximum flexibility.' "

Now supporters for programs as disparate as adult education, music and California Indians are pushing Sacramento to get them out of Tier III. And as local school districts begin crafting next year's budget, groups are urging their superintendents to spare their programs instead of using the money to pay for, say, class size reduction.

"This was a major shock to the bureaucratic structure that's been in place for 30 years," said Brett McFadden of the Association of California School Administrators. "Each program has its own constituency and its own followers in the education community, and now everyone is like 'Oh My God, we're going to be cut.' Everyone is lobbying for their program to be spared."

Push for flexibility

School districts had been pushing Sacramento for more categorical "flexibility." With state education dollars shrinking, school officials argued, it made less and less sense for the state to be in charge of chopping up the money. Let local people make the hard decisions instead.

"One district may say our biggest need is staff development," said Dennis Meyers of the California Association of School Business Officials. "Another district might say our priority is technology. We finally have a funding system that sends money to the local level without too many strings attached. The problem is that we got it in a really bad budget year."

Originally, every program was supposed to be on the table. But certain issues, like class size reduction, had enormous support from teachers and parents, who immediately began a campaign to save it. Other programs like special education came with federal mandates that helped to protect them. Educators associated with the vast majority of the programs in Tier III, however, are deeply worried. And while everyone is grumpy, advocates for adult education, regional occupational centers and gifted and talented education are complaining the loudest.

"Basically everyone who is in Tier III wants out," said Rick Pratt of the California School Boards Association, a keen observer of the months-long budget wrangling. "We pushed for there to be no sacred cows — for basically everything to be Tier III. But there was a lot of horse-trading that went on, and the outcome is a compromise driven by politics instead of sound public policy."

Teri Burns, a Sacramento lobbyist with School Innovations and Advocacy, is concerned that GATE, or gifted education, now finds itself in Tier III. Children who usually have large vocabularies, ask numerous questions and learn at a swift pace are often identified by teachers and standardized tests as "gifted" when they are in the third grade.

GATE could be gone

Such students attend GATE classes where the work is usually more challenging, requiring different textbooks, specially trained teachers and field trips. The new tier system means school districts could decide to use money that used to go toward GATE for something else entirely.

Nora Ho, principal of Ruskin Elementary in San Jose's Berryessa Union School District, also worries that GATE is in the cross hairs.

"Being in Tier III means they don't have to give us anything," said Ho. "GATE is vulnerable to cuts because people think that gifted children will make it no matter what."

Ho said nothing is further from the truth: Bright children often get bored and act out in class when they are not challenged.

"There's a lot of training on how to work with kids who are not doing well. But there's very little training on how to work with the advanced kids," said Ho. "Leave me enough money so that I can continue training my teachers."

It's unlikely, however, that the tiers will go away.

"My sense is that there's not much political will to move from the structure that was created," said Jennifer Kuhn, director of K-12 education with the state Legislative Analyst's Office. "It's a Pandora's box."

Labels: California, school finance, tracking

posted by Patricia Lopez at 11:43 AM 0 comments Links to this post

April 24, 2009
Since 2001, and starting with Texas, ten states have passed laws allowing undocumented students to qualify for lower in-state tuition rates. These statutes continue to be controversial (California’s is currently being challenged in the courts; Oklahoma's was repealed) and legal scholars have written extensively about whether or not they conflict with federal law. Stella M. Flores, meanwhile, has focused on another question – whether or not they work.

Flores, an assistant professor of public policy and higher education at Vanderbilt University, finds that they do. In two forthcoming studies, she finds, first, that foreign-born, noncitizen Latinos are 1.54 times more likely to enroll in college if they live in a state with an in-state tuition policy, compared to similar students who don't. Also she finds that, at least in the case of the University of Texas at Austin, undocumented students are as likely to persist in college as their Latino peers with U.S. citizenship.

“We’re now at a time when we’re asking, do they enroll, and the research shows, yes, they are enrolling. And do they persist? And in this particular case, yes they are persisting,” Flores says. “So what’s next? Are they completing? Well, that’s the next question to answer. The larger question is what do we do with this educated human capital, this motivated capital.” (That's a question some propose answering on the federal level with the DREAM Act, which would provide a route to permanent residency for undocumented students who complete at least two years of college or military service. The bill has stalled in Congress since it was first introduced in 2001; the College Board released a report advocating for its passage Tuesday.)

The federal DREAM Act may not have passed, but many now use the term to describe state-level, resident tuition policies, Flores writes. Flores’ study on enrollment, “State Dream Acts: The Effect of In-State Resident Tuition Policies on the College Enrollment of Undocumented Latino Students in the United States,” is forthcoming in The Review of Higher Education.

It addresses the research question: “Did the introduction of in-state resident tuition benefits to undocumented students in Texas, California, Utah, New York, Washington, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kansas and New Mexico have an impact on their college participation rates, compared to similar students living in U.S. states without an in-state resident tuition policy?” (For those of you counting states, yes, that’s nine; the tenth with an in-state tuition law, Nebraska, was not included in the sample. Nebraska’s law was passed most recently, in 2006, and, Flores writes, “I am limited to data that do not extend far enough to measure this state’s enrollment trends.”)

Flores’ dataset is a subset of the Current Population Survey, sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the years 1998 to 2005. The analysis compares college enrollment of foreign-born, non-citizen Latinos (an imperfect proxy for the undocumented, necessitated by limitations in government survey data, Flores writes), with that of several control groups. “Despite variation in immigration rates, history, and incorporation of Latino immigrant students into each respective state’s school system, the data in this analysis indicate that the policies significantly increased the college-enrollment rates of Latino foreign-born non-citizens, a large percentage of whom are undocumented. Foreign-born non-citizen Latinos are indeed more likely to enroll in college after the implementation of the tuition policies than their counterparts in states without the tuition benefit,” Flores writes.

The second study, finding equal rates of persistence at UT Austin, and co-authored with Catherine L. Horn, at the University of Houston, is forthcoming in The Journal of College Student Retention. “One interesting tension in this policy story is that the incentive for undocumented students to enroll and persist in college has often been characterized as an irrational investment given current limitations to apply those benefits of an earned college education to the formal U.S. labor market as a result of unresolved citizenship status,” the authors write. “A major drawback of the in-state resident tuition legislation is that it only guarantees a tuition discount, as students with undocumented status do not qualify for any federal aid. Moreover, even if these students do graduate from college, they are not permitted to work in the U.S. without legal authorization.”

— Elizabeth Redden
© Copyright 2009 Inside Higher Ed

Labels: dream act

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 2:56 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Interesting social experiment. Is this racial or racist? How else could this sense of solidarity be accomplished particularly in light of the value of diversity? It's also too bad that it's all caught up with test scores, too. Race is the national obsession but could this have been handled in a better way?
-Angela

Sacramento-area schools use race-based assemblies to push standardized tests
dlambert@sacbee.com

PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY, APR. 22, 2009

The bleachers in the Laguna Creek High School gym were filled earlier this week with students gazing at an outline of Africa on a big screen.

Almost all of them were African American, called together for one of five "Heritage Assemblies" high school administrators organized to pump up kids for STAR testing this week.

"Last year we scored the highest percentage increase of any group," Vice Principal Hasan Abdulmalik hollered at the crowd.

Most students cheered back in response, but a handful were unhappy they'd been divided along racial lines. And so are some parents.

Students at Laguna could go to any rally they wanted, but the gatherings were designated for specific races – African Americans in the gym, Pacific Islanders in the theater, Latinos in the multipurpose room.

Laguna Creek Principal Doug Craig said dividing the students by race allowed staff to talk about test scores without making any one ethnic group feel singled out in a negative manner.

"Is it racist? I don't believe it is," Craig said.

Schools are under increasing pressure to help students do well on "Standardized Testing and Reporting." It's actually a battery of tests that gauge how well schools are teaching their students collectively and in subsets that include race and special needs.

If a school falls short of federal benchmarks for more than two years, it could face sanctions under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and ultimately can be taken over by the state.

"No Child Left Behind is a double-edged sword," said Craig. "We're doing things as a school that we never had to do. We're being held accountable."

California schools are required to make huge increases on test scores over the next four years, a reality that has some schools and their districts feeling desperate.

"There is a lot of pressure from the high-stakes testing going on," said Elk Grove Superintendent Steven Ladd.

He said the pressure is increased because there is little incentive for students to take the test and schools are required to have at least 95 percent of students participate.

But the pressure is no excuse, some families say.

Tracy and Herbert Houston said they were angry when their son Kyle was asked to pick an assembly based on race. The mixed-race couple have taught their children that skin color doesn't matter.

"My son texted me and asked me which one to go to," said Tracy Houston. "He didn't know where to go because I've never raised him to be black or white. … I tell my children they are part of the human race."

Laguna Creek ninth-grader Kevion Claiborne attended the African American assembly Monday; he wasn't happy about the groupings.

"We should all go together," he said. "It doesn't matter if you are black, white or any race."

Senior Camille Watts, who headed up the student presentation at the rally, said separate assemblies make sense because the tests measure and compare the students based on race.

"It ultimately sends the wrong message," said Sharroky Hollie, a professor of teacher education at California State University, Dominguez Hills, and the owner of the Center for Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning in Inglewood. "The intent is important, but there are many other ways you can do that and have everybody in the same room."

He said the practice, however, is becoming more common up and down the state.

"I think schools are trying really hard, but not having success," Sharkey said. "But they are not addressing the students' culture instructionally, instead waiting until two weeks before the test and doing heritage rallies."

Laguna Creek isn't the only school in Elk Grove Unified to hold race-specific STAR assemblies. Florin High School and James Rutter Middle School are doing it.

Monterey Trail High School held STAR assemblies based on ethnicity last year, but students this year asked administrators to divide them by grade level instead, said Elizabeth Graswich, district spokeswoman.

Most schools in the region hold rallies or assemblies to motivate students before they take the tests. And most are offering incentives for high scores.

Students at Arlington Heights Elementary School in San Juan Unified School District are celebrating Sweet Success Week this week – five days of motivating activities leading up to STAR testing.

"When our testing schedule is finished, we reward ourselves with a whole school ice cream party," said third-grade teacher Lynne Sharpe via e-mail.

Folsom Cordova Unified School District just took delivery on passes to the Esquire Imax Theater, some of which will be used as incentives for students on STAR testing, said Stephen Nichols, spokesman for the district.

Laguna Creek isn't limiting its efforts to assemblies either. Staff members are offering "STAR Cards" that earn high-scoring students homework passes or an extra point on a test, among other things. The school also has a fall barbecue for the class with the biggest improvement in scores.

ShareThis
Call The Bee's Diana Lambert, (916) 321-1090.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 2:04 PM 0 comments Links to this post

April 23, 2009
Study Cites Dire Economic Impact of Poor Schools

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
WASHINGTON — The lagging performance of American schoolchildren, particularly among poor and minority students, has had a negative economic impact on the country that exceeds that of the current recession, according to a report released on Wednesday.

The study, conducted by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, pointed to bleak disparities in test scores on four fronts: between black and Hispanic children and white children; between poor and wealthy students; between Americans and students abroad; and between students of similar backgrounds educated in different parts of the country.

The report concluded that if those achievement gaps were closed, the yearly gross domestic product of the United States would be trillions of dollars higher, or $3 billion to $5 billion more per day.

This was the second report on education issues by the firm’s social sector office, which said it was not commissioned by any government, business or other institution. Starting in fall 2008, the researchers reviewed federal and international tests and interviewed education researchers and economists.

In New York City, an analysis of 2007 federal test scores for fourth graders showed strikingly stratified achievement levels: While 6 percent of white students in city schools scored below a base achievement level on math, 31 percent of black students and 26 percent of Hispanic students did. In reading, 48 percent of black students and 49 percent of Hispanic students failed to reach that base level, but 19 percent of white students did.

The New York City schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who introduced the findings at the National Press Club in Washington, said the study vindicated the idea that the root cause of test-score disparities was not poverty or family circumstances, but subpar teachers and principals. He pointed to an analysis in the report showing low-income black fourth graders from the city outperformed students in all other major urban districts on reading (they came in second in math).

“Schools can be the game changer,” he said. “We are able to get very, very different results with the same children.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Klein was in Albany attempting to persuade legislators to leave control of the city’s schools in the hands of the mayor, a governance model adopted by the state in 2002 that is due to expire in June. A crucial measurement of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s seven years at the helm will be Mr. Klein’s progress in narrowing the achievement gap in a city where 32 percent of students are black and 40 percent are Hispanic.

While state test scores have shown improvement since Mr. Klein took office, eighth-grade scores on federal math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, have not shown significant increases since 2002.

In an interview after the speech here, Mr. Klein said he would be the first to acknowledge that the city was not where it needed to be in closing the gap, particularly in middle schools. But, he added, there have been signs of progress among younger students, and he believed the city’s four-year graduation rates — 69 percent for white students, 47 percent for black students and 43 percent for Hispanic students — could reach state averages within five or six years.

He said it would require a focus on finding ways to recruit high-quality teachers.

Nationally, the gap in test performance between white and Hispanic students grows by 41 percent from Grade 4 through 12, and between white and black students it grows 22 percent, the report said. Students educated in different regions also showed marked variation in test performance, despite having similar demographic backgrounds. In Texas, for instance, schools are given about $1,000 less per student than California schools, but Texas children are on average one to two years of learning ahead of their counterparts in California.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, Mr. Klein’s partner in leading an alliance that is attempting to electrify the cause of making radical changes in education, criticized those who opposed their efforts.

“There are no sacred cows in this,” Mr. Sharpton said to the audience of 200 education leaders at the press club.

Arne Duncan, the federal secretary of education, told the audience that the report showed the need for robust data systems to track student and teacher performance; for alignment of American standards with those in other countries; and for incentives to keep good teachers and principals.

“In many situations, our schools are perpetuating poverty and are perpetuating social failure,” he said, adding that the federal education bureaucracy had often hindered past efforts.

He expressed support for the idea of radically restructuring the bottom 1 percent of schools in the country, possibly by closing and reconstituting them.

The writers of the study pointed to signs of optimism amid the dreary numbers. Byron G. Auguste, the director of the social sector office at McKinsey, which produced the study, said there was evidence that two dozen countries over the past two decades had significantly overhauled their educational systems and closed achievement gaps. He also pointed to high-performing systems in the United States, like those in Massachusetts and Texas. The trick, he said, would be to share effective strategies.


Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 2:00 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Clearly, a sign of the times. -Angela

18 April 2009
Steve Taylor

AUSTIN, April 18 - The House version of the state budget includes a
provision asking Texas’ 40 public universities to consider setting up
centers that study the history and culture of Mexican Americans.

The provision was added as an amendment by state Rep. Roberto Alonzo,
D-Dallas, during Friday evening’s marathon debate on the $178.4
billion state budget for 2010-11. Alonzo’s amendment won unanimous
approval.

“We have centers for Mexican American studies at UT-Austin,
UT-Arlington, the University of Houston and other universities and
they have been a very positive experience,” Alonzo said, in an
exclusive interview with the Guardian after his amendment was
accepted. “I would like all 40 public universities to look at setting
up such centers.”

Alonzo said such centers study the history, culture, economics and
politics of Mexican Americans. He said such centers will help the
state prepare for the rapidly changing demographics that are sweeping
the state.

By 2020, the Texas Hispanic population is expected to outnumber the
Anglo population, according to the State Demographer’s office.
Comptroller Susan Combs produced a report on the state demographer’s
projections. Between 2000 and 2040 the Hispanic population will triple
in Texas’ urban areas, from 5.9 million to 17.2 million. In rural
areas, the Hispanic population is expected to double, from 777,000 to
1.6 million, Combs reported.

In 1980, the Hispanic population of Texas was just under 3 million. By
2040, there will be 18.8 million Hispanics in Texas. This projection
indicates that the Hispanic population will grow by 530 percent from
1980 to 2040. These changes are being driven both by high immigration
rates and high birth rates, Combs reported.

“These centers for the study of Mexican American life are important
because of the big and continuous change in the demographics of the
state of Texas,” Alonzo said. “A center teaches students, all
students, the history the culture, the economics, the politics of
Mexican Americans. The rest of the state needs to know. Mexican
Americans need to know.

Alonzo pointed out that Mexican Americans have shaped the history of
Texas. He said if that were not the case, the Colorado River would be
the Red River, San Antonio would be St. Anthony, and Amarillo would be
Yellow.

“We were part of Mexico. After the1848 war, the decision was made that
Mexicans that live here could keep their Spanish language, their
culture, their heritage and their lands. The reality is many people
today do not know this. These centers will help with the change and
manage the change that is coming,” Alonzo said.

Alonzo then proceeded to take out his state legislator ID card. The
front of the ID was in English and the back was in Spanish.

Texas’ public universities will not be forced to introduce centers
focusing on Mexican American studies. He said in his experience
forcing universities to do things does not work.

“I just want to bring it to their attention. There have been studies
at UT-Arlington which show that students are happy to be there because
of the Center for Mexican American Studies. I have seen how well it
works. I have been part of it. I think it would be a very positive
experience for all the universities that set up a program like this,”
Alonzo said.

In 2003, Alonzo succeeded in getting every community college in Texas
that has a high or fast growing Hispanic population to set up Mexican
American Studies centers. This came about through a request from
Richland College in Dallas. “They came to me to ask if the legislature
could help set up a center. It had bipartisan support and I worked
with then-Rep. Fred Hill, R-Dallas,” he explained.

Earlier this year, Alonzo won a top award from the National
Association of Chicano Studies at the group’s state convention in San
Antonio.


© Copyright of the Rio Grande Guardian,
www.riograndeguardian.com, Melinda
Barrera, Publisher. All rights reserved.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:26 AM 0 comments Links to this post

This program as explained in this article seems to putting the onus of failure completely on the student. It doesn't consider that some youth may be "at risk" because they didn't have access to a quality teachers, counselors, and curriculum, or adequate resources. While this program seeks to help youth we need to start addressing and investing in resources as preventative measures so that we're sure to serve ALL students, rather than waiting for the intervention phase when we've already lost high percentages of youth.

-Patricia

Schools’ program offers area-students a second chance

By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER

Lifestyles & Features Editor

The reasons are many: poor attendance, academic challenges, the economy, discipline problems, family situations.

Those are a few of the scenarios that could cause a student to drop out of school. In Beaufort County, the dropout rate — 5.76 percent during the 2007-2008 school year — has decreased in recent years, although it remains higher than the state average of 4.97 percent over the same time period.

But Beaufort County is addressing the issue: It’s examining why students in public schools leave the classroom and also providing an alternative method for dropouts to obtain their high school diploma.

The Beaufort County Schools Pathways to Success program, in its first year, serves more than 60 students who for a variety of reasons never finished high school.

The program’s slogan is “Pathways to Success. Stop. Think. Choose.”

“The North Carolina Legislature has put aside special funding to address dropouts,” said Michele Oros, BCS director of Pathways. “It first set aside $7 million, and we were one of 60 recipients.”

Beaufort County received $150,000 to implement the new program for the 2008-2009 school year. In October, an additional grant was provided to ensure Pathways would continue through the 2009-2010 term, Oros said.

The money must be used to prevent students from dropping out or to fund programs, such as Pathways, that allow those who have already left school to return and finish their high school education.

Pathways targets former students younger than age 21 who are looking for a second chance, Oros said.

Many of them were struggling in the traditional high school setting and were unable to complete the courses they needed to graduate. Pathways focuses on the core curriculum, including four years of math and English courses, and offers some additional vocational and technical elective classes.

“We hope to get some more of these courses on this campus,” Oros said. “We’re trying to expand our range of offerings from what is currently available here.”

Long range plans are in place for the Pathways program, Oros added.

“I personally feel this program has the potential to change the equation by providing students with a true option,” she said. “And it will help the local workforce by having graduates who can be employed gainfully.”

Approved by the Beaufort County Board of Education, Pathways adheres to much of the same criteria in place at Washington, Northside and Southside high schools.

“The same dress code is in place and the same student code of conduct applies here,” Oros said.

Charles Robinson is among students presently enrolled in Pathways. The 19-year-old moved to Beaufort County last year, and like others realized he was falling short on credits.

“I was supposed to graduate last year,” Robinson said. “I fell in love with Pathways. It gave me a fresh start, and they teach you the things you really need to learn. The school is just amazing to me. The teachers have a lot of patience with us, and I feel like they’re not wasting my time and I’m not going to waste theirs.”

Robinson anticipates graduating in June. He’s currently job hunting and planning to attend a community college, where he hopes to study carpentry and masonry.

“I don’t want my kids to blame me for not accomplishing what they want in life,” Robinson said. “If you’re not in school, you’re going to have a hard life. If I had to stay in school for 10 years, I’d still want my high school diploma.”

Robinson hopes he will be an inspiration for younger students in the same situation.

“If I can come back from having ninth-grade credits to graduating, they know they can also do well,” he said. “If I can do it, they can do it.”

Oros said the program is already succeeding. The very first Pathways graduate is now taking classes at Beaufort County Community College.

“Our job does not end by graduating them,” Oros stressed. “We assist them if they want to pursue secondary education, and the door is always open here — no penalties, no questions.”

Labels: Dropouts, pathways

posted by Patricia Lopez at 6:37 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Court weighs state's duty to English learners

By JOAN LOWY
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed to divide into liberal and conservatives camps Monday during arguments in a case that could limit the power of federal courts to tell states to spend more money to educate students who aren't proficient in English.

Some of the court's more liberal justices — David Souter and Stephen Breyer — repeatedly challenged assertions by attorney Kenneth Starr that court oversight of Arizona's English learners program was no longer needed because the Nogales Unified School District, located near the state's border with Mexico, had made progress educating students learning to speak English.

Souter pelted Starr, who as special counsel investigated President Bill Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, with a series of statistics showing a vast gap in academic test scores between Nogales students learning to speak English and native English-speaking students in Nogales and elsewhere in the state.

"I'm sure progress has been made," Souter said, "but it doesn't seem to me that ... you could say the objectives are achieved."

Starr is representing Arizona state legislators and the state superintendent of public instruction, who want to be freed from a lower court order that the state come up with a new program to teach English learners and provide enough money for that program that it can reasonably be expected to achieve its goal. The state could be forced to spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars to comply.

Starr said the amount of money being spent shouldn't be the issue, but rather that the "sea change" that has taken place in state's efforts to address the problem in the nine years since voters passed a ballot measure requiring intense English immersion for students learning the language. He called the court's continued oversight an intrusion into state government.

A key issue in the case, now called Horne v Flores, is the power of federal courts to take over functions of state or local governments when trying to remedy civil rights violations.

Parents of students attending Nogales schools sued the state in 1992, contending programs for English-language learners were deficient and received inadequate funding from the state.

In 2000, a federal judge found that the state had violated the Equal Educational Opportunities Act's requirements for appropriate instruction for English-language learners. A year later he expanded his ruling statewide and placed the state's programs for non-English speaking students under court oversight.

Since then, the two sides have fought over what constitutes compliance with the order. Arizona has more than doubled the amount that schools receive per non-English speaking student and taken several other steps prescribed by the No Child Left Behind Act, a broader education accountability law passed by Congress in 2002.

Breyer said the state's increased spending still only amounts to $300 to $400 extra per pupil when estimates suggest it cost from $1,570 to $3,300 extra per student to get the job done.

Justice Ruth Ginsburg said the district court was careful not to tell the state what methods of instruction it should use or how much it should spend, only that it come up with a plan to address the problems of English learners and sufficient funding that could be reasonably expected to meet the plan's goals.

But Justice Antonin Scalia, part of the court's conservative wing, said he finds "it bizarre that we are sitting here talking about what the whole state has to do on the basis of one (school) district, which concededly is the one that has the most non-native English speakers."

The case has attracted a flurry of legal briefs from school boards, teachers and civil rights groups in support of the Nogales parents and students. An array of conservative legal foundations have filed briefs in support of the legislators and the superintendent of schools.

The lead plaintiff in the case was Miriam Flores, a Nogales mother. She said her daughter had two years of instruction in her native Spanish, then was put into a class with a teacher who did not speak Spanish, the language the daughter — also named Miriam Flores — spoke at home. She began to fall behind and there were complaints she was talking in class. It turned out she was asking other students to tell her what the teacher was telling the class.

___

April 20, 2009 - 2:29 p.m. CDT

Copyright 2009, The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP Online news report may not be published, broadcast or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.




Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/sharedgen/ap/US_Supreme_Court/Scotus_English_Learners.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:40 PM 0 comments Links to this post

A report says that in 2025, 35% of the state's working-age adults will hold a four-year degree, while a college education will be required for at least 41% of job-holders.

By Gale Holland | LA Times
April 16, 2009

With college enrollment rates among the lowest in the nation, California will face a shortage of 1 million college graduates needed for the state's workforce in 2025, a report released Thursday warned.

Unless policy changes are made, only 35% of the state's working-age adults will hold a four-year degree that year, even as a college education will be required for at least 41% of job-holders, the study by the Public Policy Institute of California found.

The state's three public college systems -- the California Community Colleges, California State University and the University of California -- educate 2.3 million students annually, and an additional 360,000 students attend private colleges and universities. But the numbers mask a huge gap between the state's youth population and its college-going and graduation rates, the report found.

Only 56% of California's high school graduates, as opposed to 62% nationwide, proceed directly to college. The state also ranked comparatively low in other measures, including its share of 25- to 34-year-olds with at least a bachelor's degree and the number of college students who graduated within five years.

Many of the state's college students begin at two-year community colleges, but most do not make the transition to four-year institutions, the study found. Although some are seeking certificates, remedial learning or other skills, just 20% to 30% of those with a demonstrated drive to get a bachelor's degree actually transfer to four-year colleges, it said.

And although graduation rates at UC are high, only about half of Cal State's students earn a bachelor's degree within six years, the report said. The state's tuition rates and fees remain among the lowest in the nation, but living expenses and other costs force many Cal State students to work while in school, delaying graduation.

Cal State spokeswoman Claudia Keith said the system has launched several initiatives to improve transfer and graduation rates. Over the last 15 years, California community college transfers to Cal State campuses have risen 34% to 54,971 annually, and transfer applications for fall 2009 are up 13.7% from the same time a year ago, she said.

The report called on educators and politicians to address the enrollment, transfer and graduation issues to try to close the expected gap.

Labels: higher education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 8:50 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Texas’ economic future depends on giving Hispanic students a better education

Houston Chronicle
April 10, 2009

The good news for Texas is that more Hispanic students are attending college than ever before. The bad news is that they lag behind all other ethnic student groups in several important areas, and there are few indications that the situation will improve anytime soon.

As reported by the Chronicle’s Jeannie Kever, when compared with other ethnic groups, fewer Hispanic students graduate from high school in four years and fewer of them enroll in college or a technical training program.

A state plan, Closing the Gaps, was created in 2000, with a goal of raising overall Texas college enrollment rates, which then stood at 5 percent of the population, to the national average of 5.7 percent by 2015. The state’s overall enrollment now stands at 5.3 percent. The rate for Hispanics has increased from 3.7 to 3.9 percent.

That’s not good enough, said Raymund Paredes, higher education commissioner for Texas. He told Kever that with such numbers, the state cannot develop a well-educated workforce. “The Hispanic community is key to the economic future of Texas,” he said.

He’s right: In Texas, and particularly Houston, Hispanics are by far the fastest-growing ethnic group, making up more than 40 percent of the city’s total population, and projected to become a majority by 2030.

Individual universities and colleges have set their own goals, with programs to help Hispanic students enroll in college and earn degrees, but results are mixed. A 2008 report from Texas’ Higher Education Coordinating Board said the state was “somewhat above target” in raising the enrollment of white and black students, but “well below target” with Hispanic students.

The state, which should be at the forefront of the effort, is not only dragging its feet, but is actively opposing measures to level the playing field for Hispanic students, especially those classified as LEP — with limited English proficiency. Not only has the Texas Legislature defunded many areas of public education in recent years — cutting per-student funding by about 20 percent for university students and 35 percent for community college students between 2002 and 2007, as per state comptroller Susan Combs — it is still neglecting to offer measures to provide better programs to LEP students.

The state has appealed a 2008 federal district court ruling that it address those students’ needs, the latest in a series of similar rulings since 1981. The recent ruling, to be reviewed in June, pointed out that Texas high schools and middle schools are losing primarily Spanish-speaking students at twice the rate of other students.

“I don’t think our educational system meets the goals of Hispanic students,” said State Rep. Jessica Farrar, a Democrat whose Houston district is heavily Hispanic. “The most fundamental issue is funding. It comes down to the dollars,” she told the Chronicle. “You have to hire talent to teach.”

Texas, with the sixth-largest student population in the nation, ranks 33rd in teacher salaries.

Fortunately, thanks mainly to federal stimulus funds, the new state budget, which the Legislature is preparing to vote on, looks to provide a welcome boost to public education funding.

Among other increases, the House is proposing that $224 million be added to the base amount of $428 million for the Texas Grants college tuition program, and that $25 million be added to the Texas Opportunity Grant program for older students and those in community colleges.

But more funds need to be channeled to the needs of the state’s Hispanic students, and the Legislature should be addressing those needs directly, not by reacting to lawsuits.

Time is fast running out: The Texas State Data Center projects that by 2030 — the same year that Hispanics are predicted to become a majority in Texas — the state’s average household incomes will have dropped $3,000 unless more people complete a college degree.

Labels: 81st Lege, accountability

posted by Patricia Lopez at 8:38 PM 0 comments Links to this post

73 percent of the children of illegal immigrants are U.S.-born citizens, while 1 in 10 Texas children has an undocumented parent

SUSAN CARROLL | Houston Chronicle
April 14, 2009

A growing share of the children of illegal immigrants are U.S.-born citizens, illustrating a sensitive, demographic shift in the makeup of America’s undocumented migrant population.

The Pew Hispanic Center released a report Tuesday estimating that about 73 percent of the children of illegal immigrant parents were U.S.-born citizens in 2008, up from roughly 63 percent in 2003. During that time frame, the estimated number of children born in the U.S. to undocumented parents increased from 2.7 million to 4 million. The report estimates that at least one in 10 Texas school children has a parent in the country illegally.

Pew’s estimates were based largely on March 2008 Census Bureau survey data, which was adjusted to account for census undercounting and legal status.

The report’s findings highlight an emotional issue in the immigration debate: mixed status families of undocumented parents and U.S.-born children. High-profile immigration enforcement raids across the country in recent years have generated stories of American schoolchildren coming home to find out their parents had been picked up by immigration officials.

The demographic shift will have significant implications through the summer as the immigration reform debate heats back up. Last week, the Obama administration indicated it was gearing up to tackle reform, including creating a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants.

“These are American citizens, and we’re rounding up and deporting their parents,” said Rice University sociologist Stephen Klineberg, calling the overall immigration strategy “totally bankrupt,” and in need of repair.
‘Emotional matter’

Advocates for stricter immigration controls also acknowledged the sensitivity of the debate when it comes to the issue of the growing number of citizen children with illegal immigrant parents. Steven Camarota, director for research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington D.C., said Pew’s data on U.S.-born children “reminds us that the longer that we don’t enforce the law, the more difficult it becomes.”

“The more there are U.S.-born children present, it certainly complicates things, if not as a practical matter ... as a political and emotional matter.”

For example, some anti-illegal immigration groups have proposed eliminating birth-right citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Texas ranks second

The new Pew report offers a demographic snapshot of the nation’s undocumented population, which researchers said tripled in size from 1990 to 2006, before finally stabilizing at roughly 12 million in 2008.

Texas ranked No. 2 in the country in terms of the size of the illegal immigrant population, with about 1.45 million. The state had a higher proportion of illegal immigrants in the workforce — almost 8 percent in Texas compared with 5.4 percent nationally. The proportion of Texas school children with an undocumented parent was also above the national estimate of one in 15.

One of the report’s key findings — that the undocumented population is made up largely of young, working families — bucks the traditional stereotype of illegal immigrants as day laborers and single men standing on street corners, said Jeffrey Passel, a senior demographer for the Pew Hispanic Center.

“This is a different picture than we usually see of undocumented immigrants,” Passel said.

Passel estimated that only about a quarter of the nation’s undocumented population is now made up of men without a spouse or children. According to the report, illegal immigrants are far more likely than people born in the U.S. to live with a spouse and children. Some 47 percent of undocumented households involved a couple with a child in 2008, compared with 21 percent of U.S.-born homes, according to the report.
A shift in patterns

Vanderbilt Sociology Professor Katharine M. Donato said the Pew Center’s findings highlight a marked shift in illegal immigration patterns, which in turn have changed the demographics of the nation’s undocumented population.

Donato said the U.S. immigration system used to be largely cyclical, with workers — legal and undocumented — returning to their home countries on a regular basis, until the massive buildup of agents and infrastructurealong the Southwest border in early 1990s.

Facing more dangerous treks and steeper smuggling fees, many illegal immigrants opted instead to bring their families to the U.S. and settle in here, which accounts for the growth in the share of births in the U.S., she said.

A LOOK AT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Key findings in a new detailed Pew Hispanic Center report on the illegal immigrant population in the U.S.

One in five illegal immigrants — and a third of their children — live in poverty, compared with 10 percent of U.S.-born adults.

Among illegal immigrants ages 18 to 24 who have graduated from high school, 49 percent are enrolled in college or have attended college, compared with 71 percent of U.S.-born high school graduates.

The 2007 median household income of unauthorized immigrants was $36,000, well below the $50,000 median household income for U.S.-born Americans. Researchers found that unlike other immigrant groups, those in the country illegally do not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they live in the United States.

• Among illegal immigrants ages 18 to 24 who have graduated from high school, 49 percent are enrolled in college or have attended college, compared with 71 percent of U.S.-born high school graduates.

• The 2007 median household income of unauthorized immigrants was $36,000, well below the $50,000 median household income for U.S.-born Americans. Researchers found that unlike other immigrant groups, those in the country illegally do not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they live in the United States.

The 2007 median household income of unauthorized immigrants was $36,000, well below the $50,000 median household income for U.S.-born Americans. Researchers found that unlike other immigrant groups, those in the country illegally do not attain markedly higher incomes the longer they live in the United States.

More than half of adult illegal immigrants, roughly 59 percent, had no health insurance during all of 2007.

The report found that the undocumented population had dispersed widely since 1990, with recent and rapid growth in the Southeast.

SOURCE: Pew Hispanic Center

Labels: immigration and education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:31 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By Michelle Garcia and Julissa Reynoso | AlterNet
April 18, 2009

Here we go, once more, into the political battlefield that is "immigration reform."
As the respective armies assemble to hash out who deserves citizenship and at what cost, we question whether true citizenship can be won by Latinos, whether the citizenship of Latinos will transcend immigration status and reach the very heart of what it means to be an American.

In a recent installment of its "Remade in America" series on immigration, the New York Times sets its sights on Irving, Texas, a Dallas suburb, and its Mayor Herbert Gears, whose political survival has depended on the support of Latino voters and his yielding to the prevailing political winds regarding immigration by agreeing to run immigration-status checks on criminal suspects. To illustrate just how emotionally charged the immigration issue is in Irving, readers get this glimpse of recent events at a City Council meeting.

Gears asked a woman testifying about the public harm wrought by immigrants, crime, overcrowding, even disease: "Were you at a meeting, a club meeting, where applause was given to the comment that 'anyone who comes over the border should be shot?' "

"I don't remember if there was applause or not," she said, taken aback.

As a nation we have arrived at a time when to admit in public, before friends and neighbors, support for the use of lethal force on suspected border crossers raises nary an eyebrow.

This is all perfectly reasonable, goes the argument, because presumably we are speaking about illegal border crossers, folks who break the law.

But the article, reflecting current political discourse, lumps together immigrant and "Hispanic;" citizenship status, therefore, is rendered irrelevant.

But distinctions must be made. The focus on immigration obfuscates the very real way Latinos, U.S. citizens, are upsetting some folks by challenging the status quo.

Irving happens to be the site of a lawsuit filed in federal court, Benavidez v. Irving, challenging the at-large voting system that opponents say deprives Latinos of electoral representation, and has resulted in an all-white City Council and mayor governing Irving.

At-large systems allow voters to elect citywide representatives rather than pols representing a district. A similar voting model in Dallas was defeated in Dallas in courts.

The Irving situation illustrates a significant and enduring struggle for Latinos -- that of being a "class apart." Such was the argument by three Latino attorneys when they won a pivotal civil rights case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

It was 1954, and the case, Hernandez v. Texas, was brought before the high court to challenge the all-white juries that were pervasive in Texas and was rooted in the argument that although Latinos were "white," they were "a class apart." This civil rights milestone was recently examined in the PBS documentary, A Class Apart.

But now, some 50 years later, the argument that Latinos are a class apart still holds true, but not in the way the Texas attorneys intended.

Race alone is not the issue, but citizenship itself. Indeed, rigid racial binaries in this country obfuscate a glaring reality that endures for Latinos today that goes beyond race. In the eyes of the nation, in national discourse, Latinos of all races and backgrounds lack a true claim to national citizenship.

One only needs to read the news from New Jersey where immigration agents stormed the home of Dominicans to nab undocumented immigrants.

The "Dominicans" were actually U.S. citizens. One only needs to follow the string of anti-Latino attacks -- over 800 in one year -- to see that Latinos exist beyond the racial construct of this nation; and on that frontier our citizenship evaporates.

One only needs to follow the incidents of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, most of whom are of Central American and Mexican descent, swept up in immigration raids from Long Island, N.Y., to Arizona.

And most glaringly, this condition of being a class apart operates at the highest levels of government.

Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is the daughter of Nicaraguan and Mexican immigrants. This fact was repeated in her biographical sketch: She is a new American; she is an immigrant's daughter. But the Obama cabinet consists of several children of immigrants or migrants to this country, who speak at length themselves about scars and challenges of this nation, of this nation's soul.

For example, Eric Holder is known as the first African American Attorney General in the country's history. Holder's parents have roots in Barbados. Patrick Gaspar, White House political director (Karl Rove's former post), is a Haitian American. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is the son of an Israeli father and was a civilian volunteer assisting the Israel Defense Forces during the 1991 Gulf War. The press or the public has not made much of these other first-generation Americans.

But "Latino," the word itself has become synonymous with "immigrant", and those it describes are perpetually seen as immigrants, no matter when their parents arrived on U.S. soil.

And, for that matter, in the case of Puerto Ricans, who are automatically U.S. citizens, and many Mexican Americans from the South and Southwest (who never migrated because their lands were once Mexican territories that were ceded to the U.S. as a result of the Mexican-American War), the situation is even more extraordinary.

The authors of this piece are a Dominican immigrant who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, and a native Texan who never immigrated (nor did her parents). Both are Latinas, but worlds apart in the way their U.S. citizenship materialized.

But in the current paradigm of who can claim citizenship, we are both intrinsically linked to the world of immigration and foreignness.

And to many Americans, Latinos' roots are in Latin America and Mexico, as though having some connection with Latin America trumps any possibility of becoming a "true" U.S. citizen.

This is not the case for any other group with ties with the rest of the world (i.e. most of the United States). This is the U.S.'s historic denial of its Latin American-ness and its failure to recognize that there is no inconsistency with being a Latin American (or Latino) and a U.S. citizen.

To many Americans, including the authors of this article, Latin America is an integral part of U.S. citizenship and history, just as Jewish and Irish and West Indian ancestry are claimed by many a public official.

And like them, we make claim to our citizenship. It is what girds us before the storm of the immigration debate.

Labels: immigration

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:02 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By KIRK SEMPLE | NY Times
April 19, 2009

Champions of a proposal to allow illegal immigrants in New Jersey to pay in-state college tuition could be forgiven for believing, after years of frustration and defeat, that their cause may finally have momentum.

A blue-ribbon panel convened by Gov. Jon S. Corzine to study immigration matters unanimously supported the proposal in a report issued last month, and the governor has also endorsed the idea. Meanwhile, a new, more liberal wind blows in Washington.

But even the most hopeful immigrant advocates in New Jersey concede that these developments may not be enough to push the proposal, which is outlined in several bills, through the State Legislature, particularly during a recession and in a year in which the governor and the entire Assembly faces re-election.

Choosing his words carefully, Shai Goldstein, executive director of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network, said, “We’re cautiously optimistic.” He paused, then added: “There’s been pushback on this.”

The bills, versions of which have languished for years in the Legislature, would allow an illegal immigrant who had attended a New Jersey high school for at least three years and graduated to be eligible for in-state tuition at a publicly supported college or university. (College tuitions and fees paid by out-of-state students are on average more than 90 percent higher than those for New Jersey residents, the panel said.)

Illegal immigrants, advocates argue, should not be penalized for their parents’ actions. Also, they say, allowing students access higher education will encourage more immigrants to excel in high school, multiplying the state’s intellectual capital and empowering its work force.

“Maintaining a well-educated work force is integral to New Jersey’s economic vitality as demand for high-skilled labor begins to outpace supply,” the immigration panel’s report said.

Ten other states, including New York, have granted in-state tuition to illegal immigrants. Of the six states with the largest foreign-born populations, only New Jersey and Florida have not passed legislation providing the benefit. Similar measures were defeated in recent weeks in Colorado and Arkansas.

By some estimates, according to the immigration panel’s report, there are about 28,000 illegal immigrants enrolled in New Jersey’s high schools. Ronald K. Chen, New Jersey’s public advocate and the panel’s chairman, said it was hard to calculate how many students each year might take advantage of the in-state tuition, but he said they might number in “the very low four figures.”

Marisol Conde-Hernandez, 22, is the kind of New Jersey resident the legislation is designed to help. She was born in Puebla, Mexico, and was brought to the United States by her mother when she was 18 months old.

Ms. Conde-Hernandez excelled in school, graduating from South Brunswick High School with a 3.5 grade-point average and a résumé filled with extracurricular activities, even while she was working full time to help support her family. She enrolled at Middlesex County College and then at Rutgers University, where she is a junior majoring in sociology.

Since she is not a legal resident, she pays full tuition and fees at Rutgers, and works full time as a waitress to cover what she expects will total more than $20,000 for two years’ worth of credits.

She has become politically active, joining the lobby for immigration reform and pushing for the passage of the in-state tuition bills. She decided to speak publicly, in spite of her family’s illegal status, in order to help future students and ensure “that their dreams don’t get completely crushed,” she said.

Immigrant advocates say Ms. Conde-Hernandez is a rare exception. When faced with few prospects for affordable higher education, they say, most illegal immigrants underperform in high school or drop out.

Opponents say that the measures could result in illegal immigrants taking college slots from legal residents and would cost the state money that could otherwise be used to benefit citizens.

Christopher J. Christie, the leading Republican challenger to Governor Corzine in this year’s election, called the governor’s support of the measures “astonishing.”

“We need to focus our efforts on providing tax relief for middle-class New Jerseyans,” he said in a statement.

The bills’ supporters acknowledge that this may not be the most opportune political climate in which to push for passage. Anti-immigrant sentiment is high, they say, particularly during a recession that has made many Americans even less tolerant about providing jobs and public education for illegal immigrants.

Moreover, Governor Corzine faces a tough re-election battle, and few think he will expend much political capital on the proposal. Democratic assemblymen may also shy away from the issue to help shore up support among more conservative voters.

Indeed, some legislative offices have been swamped by e-mail messages and phone calls railing against the proposal.

“It’s dead; it’s going nowhere,” declared William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration, a North Carolina-based organization that opposes benefits for illegal immigrants and has been lobbying against in-state tuition measures around the country.

But immigrant advocates in New Jersey say they are going to press hard for passage of the bills. “People demagogue this for ideological reasons,” said Mr. Goldstein of the New Jersey Immigration Policy Network. “We’re talking about simple fairness.”

Labels: immigration and education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 9:56 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Increased Birthrate Exacerbates Issue

By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 15, 2009

A new report providing the most detailed portrait to date of the illegal immigrant population found that it is mostly made up of young families that are having children at a much faster rate than previously known. The study, released yesterday by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, also found that a disproportionate share of such children live in poverty and lack health insurance.

Because any child born in the United States has a right to citizenship, the growing presence of these children is likely to complicate the debate over immigration policies aimed at their parents.

The question of so-called "mixed-status" families is not new. But the increase in the number of children born to illegal immigrants is likely to exacerbate such situations in years to come.

Immigrant advocates and members of Congress, hoping to build momentum for legislation legalizing unauthorized immigrants, have been highlighting the plight of their U.S.-born children in a series of public events across the country in recent months. But the issue also could heighten anxieties in many communities that the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants will increase demands on schools and social services.

The findings, which analyzed census data, also suggest that the impact of the unprecedented increase in illegal immigration over the past three decades will continue to be felt for years to come, even as the size of the illegal immigrant population appears to have leveled off since 2006 at about 10.4 million adults and 1.5 million foreign-born children. By contrast, the number of children born in the United States to illegal immigrants rose from 2.7 million in 2003 to 4 million in 2008.

The growing presence of children of illegal immigrants in schools has also fueled concern over the cost of illegal immigration in many area communities where the foreign-born population has risen rapidly in the past decade. Commissioners in Frederick County, for instance, have repeatedly tried to make public school officials tally the number of such students in hopes of prompting federal lawmakers to increase education funding or step up enforcement. (Last month, the Maryland State Board of Education blocked the effort, saying it could discourage illegal immigrants from enrolling their children in school.)

Children of illegal immigrants now account for about one in 15 elementary and secondary school students nationwide and more than one in 10 students in five states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Texas. The vast majority of these children were born in the United States.

In 2007, the poverty rate for such children was almost twice as high as for those born to either legal immigrants or U.S.-born parents. Similarly, U.S.-born children of unauthorized immigrants were about twice as likely not to have health insurance in 2008 as those born to legal immigrants and three times as likely as those born to U.S.-born parents.

The Census Bureau does not ask people their immigration status. So the authors used a technique that estimates the number of legal immigrants using other government records, such as immigrant admissions, then subtracts that population from the total number of foreign-born estimated by the bureau to come up with the number of illegal immigrants. It analyzed census statistics from March 2008.

The spike in births to unauthorized immigrants -- 70 percent of whom come from Mexico or Central America -- is largely due to their relative youth compared with the general population, as well as their greater propensity to marry and have children.

The result, said co-author Jeffery S. Passel, is "a different picture than what we usually see of undocumented immigrants. We usually see the young male day laborers on street corners. But only a fourth of undocumented immigrants are men who are here by themselves without spouses or children. This is a population that is largely made up of young families."

Passel added that this "complicates greatly the difficulty of coming up with policies to deal with this population. . . . While we may be able to fit people into boxes of 'undocumented,' 'legal,' 'legal temporary,' and 'U.S. citizens,' it's not so easy to fit families into that same set of little boxes."

The study's findings also point to the continued geographic dispersal of illegal immigrants since 1990 across southeastern states with little prior history of immigration.

Although longtime magnets such as Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Texas retained their appeal -- and California continues to house the largest number of unauthorized immigrants -- growth there has slowed compared with such states as Georgia and North Carolina. Similarly, in Virginia, which ranks 10th in number of illegal immigrants, the unauthorized population quintupled since 1990 to 300,000 and accounts for 4 percent of residents and 5.1 percent of workers.

Maryland ranks 11th with an estimated 250,000 unauthorized immigrants, comprising 4.7 percent of residents and 6.7 percent of workers, and the District's 30,000 illegal immigrants make up 5 percent of the population and 7.1 percent of the workforce.

Labels: immigration and education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 9:16 AM 1 comments Links to this post

HOPE YEN, Associated Press
April 14, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents, a report says.

The study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center highlights a growing dilemma in the immigration debate: Illegal immigrants' children born in the United States are American citizens, yet they struggle in poverty and uncertainty along with parents who fear deportation, toil largely in low-wage jobs and face layoffs in an ailing economy.

The analysis by Pew, a nonpartisan research organization, estimated that 11.9 million illegal immigrants lived in the U.S. Of those, 8.3 million were in the labor force as of March 2008, making up 5.4 percent of the U.S. work force, primarily in lower-paying farming, construction or janitorial work.

Roughly three out of four of their children — or 4 million — were born in the U.S. In 2003, 2.7 million children of illegal immigrants, or 63 percent, were born in this country.

Overall, illegal immigrants' children account for one of every 15 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Illegal immigrants also have become more geographically dispersed, increasingly passing up typical destinations like California in favor of jobs in newly emerging Hispanic areas in Southeastern states like Georgia and North Carolina.

In 2008, California had the most illegal immigrants at 2.7 million, double its 1990 number, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey. Still, California's 22 percent share of the nation's illegal immigrant population was a marked drop-off from its 42 percent share in 1990.

The latest demographic snapshot comes as President Barack Obama is preparing to address the politically sensitive issue of immigration reform later this year, including a proposal to give illegal immigrants a path to citizenship.

Though their numbers have soared over the past two decades, the total number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has declined or remained flat in the last few years. Demographers attribute that to slower rates of migration into the U.S. caused in part by the recession, as well as to deportations and stepped-up immigration enforcement during the Bush administration.

Among the findings:

—One-third of the children of illegal immigrants live in poverty, nearly double the rate for children of U.S.-born parents.

—Illegal immigrants' share of low-wage jobs has grown in recent years, from 10 percent of construction jobs in 2003 to 17 percent in 2008. They also make up 25 percent of workers in farming and 19 percent in building maintenance.

—The 2007 median household income of illegal immigrants was $36,000, compared with $50,000 for U.S.-born residents. In contrast to other immigrants, illegal immigrants do not earn markedly higher incomes the longer they live in the United States.

—About 47 percent of illegal immigrant households have children, compared with 21 percent for U.S.-born residents and 35 percent for legal immigrants.

—About three-quarters, or 76 percent, of illegal immigrants in the U.S. are Hispanic. The majority came from Mexico (59 percent), numbering 7 million. Other regions included Asia (11 percent), Central America (11 percent), South America (7 percent), the Caribbean (4 percent) and the Middle East (2 percent).

Children of illegal immigrants hold a delicate place in the U.S. On the one hand, the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that these children — whether they were U.S. citizens or not — were entitled to a public school education. California and a few other states also provide some college tuition breaks to illegal immigrants.

At the same time, the immigrants and their families are among the poorest people in the U.S., easily exploited by employers and subject to arrest at any time. Children who are U.S. citizens cannot petition for their parents to become legal U.S. residents until they are at least 21.

Earlier this year, the Homeland Security Department's inspector general found that more than 100,000 parents of U.S. citizens were deported over the decade ending in 2007, prompting the department to say it would gather more information about families before deporting immigrants.

The Pew analysis is based on census data through March 2008. Because the Census Bureau does not ask people about their immigration status, the estimate on illegal immigrants is derived largely by subtracting the estimated legal immigrant population from the total foreign-born population.

Labels: immigration and education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 9:11 AM 0 comments Links to this post

By JASON DePARLE | NY Times
April 18, 2009

LANGLEY PARK, Md. — Growing up in this corner of immigrant America, Jesselyn Bercian saw herself as an ordinary Salvadoran-American kid. She dropped out of high school, hung out with gangs and identified with poor, streetwise blacks. To the extent she gave it any thought, she considered poverty a Latina’s fate.

How representative is she?

Among children of immigrants as a whole, she is not representative at all. They are an eclectic group, clustered at both ends of the economic spectrum, but on average more educated and less poor than children of the native born. Populations doing especially well include children of Indians, Filipinos, Chinese, Koreans, Nigerians and Russians. But among those who study the children of the poorest immigrants, Jesselyn’s downward path illustrates a major concern.

While poor immigrant families have found economic success in the past, many analysts say today’s generation faces steeper hurdles, especially because good jobs now require more education. The children of those with the least education — most notably Mexicans and Central Americans — are considered especially at risk.

Citing high dropout and incarceration rates, some scholars warn that a sizeable minority of these groups could join the domestic poor in a burgeoning underclass.

But other scholars, mining the same stacks of data, find reason for optimism. Even among the immigrant groups considered at risk, most children surpass their immigrant parents in income and education. And on some measures, including employment, they outperform native minorities.

A debate that began with warnings of “second generation decline” now includes scholars who see a “second generation advantage.”

“I think both sides of this scholarly dispute are right — it’s that they’re looking at slightly different parts of the elephant,” said Eric Wanner, president of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York, which has financed scholars on both sides.

“Although the picture is still mixed, the children of immigrants from many groups are faring better than we had originally feared,” Mr. Wanner said. “But there are still causes for concern, especially among some Mexicans and Central Americans.”

For a demographic overview, The New York Times asked the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington research group, to analyze 2008 census data on immigrants and their children. Among the more encouraging trends was strong generational progress.

As a group, adult children of immigrants have more education and earnings than their parents and are much less likely to live in poverty. The poverty rate for children of immigrants (10.1 percent) is also significantly lower than it is among the children of the native born (12.1 percent).

“The good news here is that second generation adults are making significant progress — both compared to their parents and compared to their peers,” said Jeanne Batalova, the institute scholar who did the analysis. “The not-so-good news is that the progress is not uniform.”

Ms. Batalova also examined Mexicans — the largest immigrant group and one with especially low levels of education. About 56 percent of adult immigrants from Mexico lack high school degrees, and Mexicans account for about a third of all immigrant families. (Salvadorans, who are demographically similar, add an additional 3 percent.)

On average, Mexican-American children have higher incomes and more education than their parents. But a significant minority seem at risk. About 17 percent fail to finish high school (compared with 11 percent of native-born blacks). Their rate of nonmarital births is twice that of their parents. And other studies show them with high incarceration rates.

(On most measures, Ms. Batalova’s examined adults ages 18 to 40; for education, she examined those ages 25 to 40.)

Some scholars liken poor Mexicans to Italians, who were slower than other immigrant groups to reach the middle class but eventually found success. Others worry that their path may follow that of African-Americans, with a significant minority marginalized.

Fears of an immigrant underclass are endemic to ages of mass immigration, and they once applied to groups as varied as the Irish, Italians and Jews. After four decades of peak immigration, restrictions in the 1920s brought immigration to a trickle, but a watershed 1965 law set off a new surge — and eventually new fears.

Unlike their European predecessors, today’s immigrants are mostly Asian, African and Latin American, and some analysts fear that their darker skin will lead to more persistent discrimination. And unlike those in the earlier wave, many came illegally, which lowers their economic prospects and adds worries about deportation to family life. Jeffrey Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center estimates that 55 percent of Mexican immigrants are in the country illegally.

In 1992, Herbert J. Gans, a sociologist at Columbia University, published an influential article warning that the children of poor immigrants were at risk of “second generational decline.” He feared that racial bias, and the lack of education, would leave them to “hustle or work in the underground economy” and swell “the so-called underclass.”

Mr. Gans’s piece was speculative — most children of immigrants were still quite young — but it coincided with the start of a major empirical study. Two sociologists, Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, spent a decade tracking 5,200 youths in the metropolitan areas of San Diego and Miami-Fort Lauderdale and voiced similar concerns.

Traditionally, sociologists had talked of “straight-line assimilation” — the idea that successive generations move incrementally closer to middle-class norms. In their contrasting theory of “segmented assimilation,” Professors Portes and Rumbaut argued that different groups assimilate in different ways — some to the values and behavior of the inner-city poor.

“Americanization can be hazardous to your health,” said Mr. Rumbaut, who teaches at the University of California, Irvine.

Tracking children of Mexican immigrants in Southern California, Mr. Rumbaut found that 15 percent dropped out of school, 20 percent of the males were imprisoned, and 30 percent of the females became teenage mothers. The statistical profile resembled that of African-Americans, whom the professors warned the immigrants might join in “a rainbow underclass.”

About 18 million youths are immigrants or children of immigrants. If only the bottom fifth is at risk — and three-quarters of them succeed — that could still swell a “rainbow underclass” by nearly a million people.

“On average, the second generation is forging ahead,” said Mr. Portes, who teaches at Princeton. “But a sizeable minority is dropping out of school, joining gangs, and experiencing adolescent pregnancy — sizeable enough to warrant concern.”

Perhaps Mexican-Americans, like their Italian predecessors, simply need an extra generation to prosper. But one recent historical study found that achievement peaked in the second generation.

Edward E. Telles and Vilma Ortiz, sociologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, tracked down descendants of Mexican immigrants surveyed in the 1960s. In their book “Generations of Exclusion,” they report that progress peaked with the immigrants’ children, with subsequent generations less likely to finish high school or college. Progress not only stagnates, they wrote, “it can even be characterized as backwards.”

Then again, Mr. Telles and Ms. Ortiz were tracking families who arrived a half century ago, into a society that did much less to promote minority advancement. Its predictive powers may be weak.

A more optimistic view recently emerged from a large study of New York City, which compared children of immigrants with children of natives of the same race: West Indians with native blacks; South Americans and Dominicans with Puerto Ricans; and Chinese and Russians with native whites.

Compared to racial peers, the children of immigrants were less likely to get arrested, go to jail, drop out of school or become unemployed, and more likely to graduate from college. The share of West Indians who finished college (28 percent), for instance, was nearly twice that of native blacks (15 percent).

“In every case, the second generation young people we have studied are doing at least somewhat better than natives of the same race,” wrote Philip Kasinitz, John H. Mollenkopf, Mary Waters and Jennifer Holdaway. Their findings were presented in their book “Inheriting the City.”

Having expected generational decline, the scholars found signs of the opposite — a “second generation advantage.” Exposure to dual cultures, they reasoned, may allow the children of immigrants to draw on the strengths of both.

As an example, Mr. Kasinitz cites the willingness of many immigrant children to continue living at home into early adulthood, which makes it easier to build savings or afford college. “In a place with a tight housing market, that’s a huge advantage,” he said.

The contrast between two major studies — one optimistic, one pessimistic, both financed by the same social science foundation, Russell Sage — raises questions over which is more representative.

Some critics argue that the New York study has an optimistic slant: the city is an immigrant-friendly place; the field work was done in the economic boom of the late 1990s; it omitted Mexicans (few lived in New York) and prison inmates.

“The study obscures what is happening at the bottom,” Mr. Rumbaut said.

But Mr. Kasinitz sees a compensating strength: his study examined young adults, while much of the Rumbaut-Portes data focused on the teenage years. A teenage focus “exaggerates the danger,” Mr. Kasinitz said, by potentially mistaking youthful turbulence — like Jesselyn’s — for long-term decline.

“Most people with harrowing adolescences don’t have bad lives,” Mr. Kasinitz said. “There are a lot of second chances.”

For Mexican and other poor groups, some scholars already speculate about the third generation. Mr. Rumbaut worries that it will fare worse than the second — as it becomes more fully assimilated to the inner city — and so does Ms. Batalova of the Migration Policy Institute.

She is especially concerned about the second generation’s low level of schooling.

“It’s a portrait of a lower working class, not an underclass — but the future of people with these characteristics is not very bright,” Ms. Batalova said. “It’s their children — the members of the third generation — who are much more likely to be forming an underclass.”

But with the second generation still young, Mr. Kasinitz declined to guess how their children will fare. “That’s the kind of prediction I’ll leave to meteorology or Nostradamus,” he said. “Thirty years from now, anything could happen.”

Labels: immigration and education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 8:15 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Inside Higher Ed
April 20, 2009

In September, a special panel of the National Association for College Admission Counseling issued a report calling for colleges individually, and higher education generally, to rethink the use of standardized tests. While not calling for the abolition of such testing, the association came out strongly against the use of any test as the sole criterion for key admissions or financial decisions.

Associations of course regularly issue reports calling for colleges or higher education in general to do some things and stop doing other things, but it's rare for these groups to try to systematically follow up with those who ignore the recommendations. It is even more rare for these groups to point fingers at particular higher education groups that praise their reports (and then ignore key recommendations). But NACAC has been trying to take a different approach with its report. Today it is announcing requests it made to the College Board that it explain why it has done nothing about the use of the PSAT as the sole qualifying test for National Merit Scholarships, and to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation about why its policies run counter to the stated policies of the College Board and the new NACAC report.



While the College Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation are ignoring the critique they received from NACAC, the admissions group isn't letting the matter drop. In an unusual move for a group that is part of the higher education establishment, NACAC is releasing today the letters it sent objecting to the use of the PSAT, the responses from the organizations, and a critique of the responses.

David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for NACAC, said that the association doesn't intend to let the matter drop. While not revealing NACAC's next move, he said it is being discussed. "We are committed to pursuing this issue, and are in it for the long haul," he said.

The National Merit Scholarships are among the most prestigious for undergraduate study -- and being designated even a semifinalist can help students gain admission to top colleges. While the value of individual scholarships varies, the total awarded annually is worth around $35 million. While final winners are selected on a variety of criteria, to become a semifinalist, one must have a top score on the PSAT (with qualifying scores varying by state). There is no other measure for reaching semifinalist status -- one must achieve a specific score, which varies by state.

In its letter to the corporation that runs the scholarships, NACAC leaders write that they do not object to using the PSAT as "one valid tool to assess academic achievement," but that they believe it is educationally unsound to use it as the "only factor" to determine scholarship eligibility. A similar letter was sent to the College Board asking why it allows PSAT scores to be used in this way -- even though the College Board is on record as saying that it does not favor the use of its tests as the sole criterion for such decisions.

In their replies, both organizations say that test scores are not being used inappropriately. Letters from both the National Merit Scholarship Corporation and the College Board note that after semifinalists are selected based on the PSAT, multiple criteria are considered in deciding who actually receives a scholarship. The scholarship corporation letter says that using the PSAT is "the most effective, inclusive, and equitable [method] available to consider over 1.5 million students annually on a consistent basis." The College Board notes that it had one of its own task forces review its relationship with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, and that the review had concluded that the relationship was appropriate.

NACAC responds with a new statement in which it says that "neither organization’s response directly addressed the concern expressed by the NACAC Testing Commission." The admissions group notes that while both the College Board and the scholarship corporation cited studies showing value provided by the PSAT, they cited no research about the use of any test score as the single way to make an important decision. "In the absence of such research, existing guidance suggests that the use of cut scores in the awarding of financial aid is not in keeping with ethical practice."

Further, NACAC goes on to say that the use of automatic cut scores for this scholarship is particularly problematic because the National Merit Scholarships are "a fixture in the American collegiate admission landscape" and because the corporation plays a role in "promoting the idea of 'merit' as part and parcel of the admission and financial aid process." NACAC maintains that there is a simple solution: to "augment the initial eligibility criteria to ensure that students who are deemed ineligible due to the single PSAT cut score have other ways to demonstrate merit and be eligible for further consideration."

The letter to the College Board, as well as a letter to ACT, also ask the testing agencies to review how their tests are used by state education agencies in accountability measures. Further, the testing agencies are asked (and agree) to help NACAC with its goal of developing an independent source of information on the use of testing results. The NACAC report on standardized tests, which called for colleges to be much more certain than they are now about the need for testing, noted that many colleges get all of the training about test usage from testing companies.

ACT's response took issue with having its test grouped together with the SAT in much of the NACAC report. ACT argues that its test is closely tied to the high school curriculum and is designed to measure knowledge learned in courses, not aptitude. ACT writes that the authors of the NACAC report "appear to suggest that the ACT and the SAT are based on identical philosophies and that they measure the same skills. This is simply not the case."

NACAC replies that it is "well aware of the differences between the SAT and ACT" but "such differences are, in the opinion of the commission, overshadowed by several important considerations in the discussion about their influence on the admission process: 1. Neither test fully encompasses the breadth and depth of student learning that can be gleaned from an observation of a student’s performance in high school coursework; 2. Both tests perform similarly in predictive validity studies at colleges and universities; and 3. Both tests are subject to misuse by parties not familiar with standards for ethical practice in admission and/or test use."

Labels: higher education, testing

posted by Patricia Lopez at 8:13 AM 0 comments Links to this post

HIGHER EDUCATION

Paucity of black male students is UT's biggest diversity challenge

Scaling back top 10 percent law could help boost numbers, Powers says.



By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Saturday, April 11, 2009



In some ways, Brian Gaston is like many other students at the University of Texas. He graduated in the top 10 percent of his high school class. He's a big sports fan. He plans to attend law school.



In another way, Gaston is unusual: He is black. Just 2,192, or 4.4 percent, of the nearly 50,000 students enrolled at UT in the fall of 2008 were African American. And only 830 of those African American students were men. Black enrollment figures do not include foreign students.



The paucity of black men is the biggest diversity challenge on campus, UT President William Powers Jr. said at a recent legislative hearing. Low enrollment and graduation rates for black men, stemming from many years of social, historical and economic forces, are nationwide problems in higher education.



UT officials say they are trying to address the problem on multiple fronts, such as encouraging more mentoring of black men on campus and offering scholarships to students — many of whom are black or Hispanic — from Texas high schools that historically have sent few graduates to UT.



But another aspect of the university's strategy — urging lawmakers to scale back a state law that entitles the top 10 percent students to attend any of the state's 35 public universities — has proved controversial. The law was enacted in 1997 in an effort to boost minority enrollment, and some lawmakers worry that weakening it could cause black and Hispanic enrollment to erode.



Powers, who does not want to increase the size of the student body, argues that too much of UT's enrollment consists of students admitted under the 10 percent rule — 81 percent of entering freshmen from Texas last year. Limiting admittance of Texas students who graduate in the top 10 percent to about half would allow the university to enroll more students based on factors besides class rank, such as race, extracurricular activities, leadership skills and test scores, he says.



"What I absolutely, firmly believe and will commit to ... (is) we will make more progress" in minority enrollment if the law is scaled back, Powers said at a hearing of the state's House Higher Education Committee last month. "It'll be most dramatic for African Americans, because the numbers are smaller."



The Senate has passed a measure that would give Powers most of what he wants. The proposal's prospects in the House, which rejected a similar plan two years ago, are uncertain. Some House members have expressed skepticism at the university's argument that the law needs to be modified for the sake of minority enrollment.



"They don't have a problem finding a black male fullback or quarterback or shooting guard," Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston, said in a frequently heard refrain.



Of the current freshman class, whose members enrolled in the summer and fall of 2008, there are 375 black students, or 6 percent of the class. . And of those black students, 34, or 9 percent, are athletes on scholarship, UT officials said.



For some black male students, UT can be an intimidating and isolating place, not only because of the small numbers of black students, but also because of prominent historical reminders that blacks once weren't welcomed.



Statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders line the South Mall of the campus, and an inscription dedicates the Littlefield Fountain to the Confederacy. State law barred black students until 1950, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the admission of Heman Sweatt, who had been rejected by UT's School of Law because of his race.



But Gaston, a senior majoring in management who competes on the debate team and plans to attend law school, said adjusting to life at UT "wasn't a big jump."



Although his high school on the outskirts of Houston was predominantly black, his parents exposed him to all kinds of people through Little League baseball, church programs and other activities, he said.



"Coming to a school like UT will prepare you for any of those obstacles you might face in the real world," Gaston said.



One of those is being the only black person in the room. "Often, if I'm not the only black person in my class, I'm definitely the only black male in my class," said Fisayo Ogundele, a senior from Missouri City, southwest of Houston, who is majoring in biology and pre-pharmacy.



UT isn't alone in its low enrollment of black males. Nationwide, women outnumber men in higher education, with black women outnumbering their male counterparts by nearly 2-to-1, the highest margin for any racial or ethnic group.



Fewer than a third of black male college students nationwide graduate within six years of enrolling, the lowest rate among both sexes and all racial and ethnic groups, according to a report by Shaun Harper, an assistant professor of higher education management at the University of Pennsylvania, who wrote the report for the nonprofit Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.



Black men who enrolled as UT freshmen in 2002 posted a graduation rate of 54 percent, but that still falls short of the 75 percent rate for the university's black women and the 76 percent rate for white men.



Young black men in America face other problems besides getting an education, such as incarceration rates and unemployment rates that sharply exceed those of their white and Hispanic counterparts, said Richard Reddick, an assistant professor of higher education administration at UT.



College can be challenging for all students, Reddick said, "but when you're part of a group that's stigmatized as not being high-achieving, that carries a toll."



Ogundele and his roommate, Ewaen Woghiren, both of whom moved to the United States at a young age with their families from Nigeria, cited another cultural factor: There can be a stigma to lifting books rather than weights.



Scholars have coined a term for the aloofness and independence that characterize some young black men and make it difficult for them to succeed in college: "cool pose." The trait is a reaction to the fact that the African American male historically has been demonized and objectified as savage and ignorant, Reddick said.



Still, black students respect intelligence, Reddick said. When he taught at an inner-city school in Houston before earning his doctorate at Harvard University, Reddick said, the insult most likely to provoke a fight was for one student to tell another, "You're stupid."



UT officials say they hope to attract more black male students and improve their graduation rates.



Each year, 130 to 140 scholarships are awarded to freshmen from historically under-represented high schools. Recipients of the Longhorn Opportunity Scholarship get a $5,000 grant each year for four years.



The scholarship helps a lot, said Cardan Samples, a black freshman from Fort Worth who graduated in the top 10 percent of his class. "If I hadn't gotten it I would have tried to figure out a way to go," he said.



UT also is stepping up mentoring efforts, said Gregory Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement. It's never too early to begin planting the college-going seed, he said, noting that pre-kindergarten students at UT's charter elementary school in East Austin are referred to as "little Longhorns."



The university is trying to increase the number of African Americans in its faculty ranks as well, having hired 10 in 2007 and 10 more in 2008. UT has 91 tenured and tenure-track black professors out of 1,995 overall.



"Another measure is that the president and the provost have agreed to make the Center for African and African American Studies a tenure-granting unit," one mark of a full academic department, Vincent said.



Black students at UT say all of these efforts are important. But they also say that families must do more to encourage black males to study hard in primary and secondary school and apply to college.



The election of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president should help inspire families, said Woghiren, a senior from Houston majoring in government.



Ultimately, Woghiren said, there's no secret about what it takes to succeed in school.



"It's self-determination instilled by core people in your life," he said.



rhaurwitz@statesman.com; 445-3604



Find this article at:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/11/0411utblack.html



posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:25 PM 0 comments Links to this post

TEXAS LEGISLATURE

Bill would limit education board's power to set policy
Because of bickering, Senate authors say, most authority would shift to appointed commissioner.

By Kate Alexander
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The pitched political battles over several recent State Board of Education decisions could lead the Legislature to strip the board of most of its authority to set curriculum standards and choose textbooks for public schools.

"I'm not sure that we're serving the best interests of our children at this time," said Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, an author of the bill, which the Senate Education Committee considered Tuesday. The committee did not vote on the proposal.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the 15-member elected State Board of Education are equally at fault for the "partisan bickering and fighting" that has marked recent debates over science and language arts curriculum standards, Averitt said.

"All I hear is that the Republicans want to push their religious views into the curriculum, and the Democrats want to teach our children how to masturbate," Averitt said during the committee hearing Tuesday.

Senate Bill 2275 would give the state's education commissioner, who is appointed by the governor, the authority to approve the curriculum standards and textbooks based on the recommendations of a group of educators. The board members, however, could override the commissioner's decision with a four-fifths vote.

State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, R-College Station, said that under the proposal, only the "education establishment" would shape curriculum and textbook decisions and that the board would simply become a rubber stamp.

"There is nobody to question them if this bill is passed," McLeroy said. "What is wrong with having a debate?"

The political process ensures that parents and Texas voters have a voice in what students learn, he said.

"Regular people have a say-so with the State Board of Education because they elect us," McLeroy said.

But students' needs are overwhelmed by the controversy, said Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, another author of the bipartisan bill.

The proposed approach would ensure educators with experience and expertise in teaching the academic subjects can shape the curriculum and pick the textbooks without political interference, he said.

Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, said he was concerned that the change would mean the people of Texas would no longer have a hand in such critical decisions if the elected state board were essentially removed from the process.

Last month, the board stirred controversy with new science curriculum standards that critics say open the door to attacks on teaching evolution.

University of Texas biology professor David Hillis said the result of that decision is: "Texas students now have a weakened science curriculum, and the science reputation of the state has been seriously injured." This bill will "keep the focus of education on education, rather than on politics," Hillis said.

kalexander@statesman.com; 445-3618

Find this article at:
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/04/15/0415stateboard.html

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 11:09 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Little pre-K access for Latinos

Kids behind at start of school, advocates say

By Margaret Ramirez

Chicago Tribune reporter

April 15, 2009


Inside Casa Infantil Head Start in Logan Square, teacher Janeth Medellin called on her students to form a circle and then started singing a bilingual version of the "Good Morning" song.

"What day is today?" she asked 4-year-old Gustavo. "¿Qué día es hoy?"

When he hesitated, she touched his shoulder and said, "It's OK to answer in Spanish." With that, he shouted in English, "Monday!"

By using bilingual preschool curriculum and providing financial assistance, the Casa Infantil Head Start program is confronting one of the most debated issues in early childhood education: how to raise academic levels of low-income, Latino children.

Latino families with young children constitute a significant portion of the nation's population and future workforce, but several studies show those children are less likely to enroll in early education programs because of various barriers including language, cost, transportation and a shortage of pre-kindergarten spots in poor neighborhoods. For those and other reasons, Latino children lag well behind white children in reading and math skills when they start kindergarten.

Last month, President Barack Obama noted the stubborn gap between white students compared with Latinos and African-Americans, and said the key to raising academic achievement is investing in early childhood education programs—what he called "the first pillar" of education reform. Obama said $5 billion in stimulus funding would be used to grow Head Start programs, expand child care and do more for children with special needs. The president also called for Early Learning Challenge Grants to reward initiatives that raise the quality of pre-K programs.

"Too many in the Republican Party have opposed new investments in early education despite compelling evidence of its importance," Obama said in a speech to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "This isn't just about keeping an eye on our children, it's about educating them."

But debates cut different ways on the best way to improve the underfunded, fragmented early childhood education system. In Illinois, a hodgepodge of early childhood education options exist, including federally funded Head Start, state-funded Preschool for All, private schools and center-based programs operated by non-profit organizations.

Although the reasons for low attendance among Hispanics in preschool programs have not been firmly established, a major factor is a lack of programs in poor neighborhoods. A recent study by the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics surveyed programs in Los Angeles and Chicago and found an overall shortage of pre-kindergarten slots in Hispanic neighborhoods.

Sylvia Puente, executive director for the Latino Policy Forum, said the shortage of preschool programs in Chicago stems from demographic shifts where neighborhoods dominated by older whites became populated by immigrants and a baby boom of younger Latino families. To discuss the issue, the Latino Policy Forum gathered leading educators, school administrators and child-care providers at National-Louis University last month.

"What has happened in the city is that you saw the older white ethnic enclaves become Latino. So, there was limited infrastructure of facilities because it was an older, aging demographic. As the Latino population has moved into those communities, there hasn't been the accompanied capital infusion to build space," Puente said.

Some Chicago child-care providers who primarily serve Latinos said many families are unaware that programs exist or don't understand the value of early childhood education. Others said enrollment requirements often become a barrier for low-income families. Celena Roldán, director of child care for Erie Neighborhood House, which serves about 400 children at four centers, said income verification for some child-care programs disqualifies immigrants who often live together in one home but don't share income.

"Sometimes you have multiple incomes going to one household because there are so many people living there and it appears the family is getting a large income. That's usually not the case," Roldán said.

Even when programs exist in impoverished neighborhoods, early childhood experts said other obstacles remain that delay learning for Latino children. Language is perhaps the most significant issue for recent immigrants, increasing the demand for bilingual teachers that surpasses the low supply.

Parental interaction also is critical, said Eugene Garcia, vice president at Arizona State University and a member of Obama's education transition team. Yet research shows that parental interaction is less likely to happen in Latino homes where both parents work full time and have not completed high school.

"We need interaction in the home," said Garcia, chair of the National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics. "Latino children are behind in communicating in the complex way that schools demand."

In response, some social service agencies in Chicago have developed strategies specifically designed to encourage more parental interaction in early childhood education. Casa Central, the social service agency that runs Casa Infantil, also offers a home-based Head Start program for recent immigrants. During weekly visits, a preschool teacher comes to the home to review lessons with the child while guiding the parent on how to participate.

"The home-based program is really about showing the parent how to be their child's first educator," said Ellen Chavez, director of early childhood development programs for Casa Central, which also helps African-American, Chinese and Polish children. "Even if you don't speak English, there are things you can teach your child to prepare them for school."

Ana Solano, who immigrated from Mexico five years ago, was unaware of the importance of early childhood education until the home-based visits began for her 4-year-old daughter, Ana. She said she immediately noticed a remarkable difference between Ana and her older son, Juan Carlos, who had struggled in kindergarten. "I just thought he would pick everything up in school. With Ana, I see how much it helps and how much better off she will be," she said.

As the Obama administration prepares to release more details of its education plan, providers are hopeful it will recognize the different models needed to bolster academic achievement among Latino children. "We have limited dollars, so the focus is on quality and prioritizing," said Reyna Hernandez, research associate with the Latino Policy Forum. "We want to make sure that whatever the baseline is, that it takes into consideration these needs of Latino children."

maramirez@tribune.com

Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune

Labels: universal pre-k

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 10:21 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Hispanics one-fifth of K-12 students

By Hope Yen, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Roughly one-fourth of the nation's kindergartners are Hispanic, evidence of an accelerating trend that now will see minority children become the majority by 2023.
Census data released Thursday also showed that Hispanics make up about one-fifth of all K-12 students. Hispanics' growth and changes in the youth population are certain to influence political debate, from jobs and immigration to the No Child Left Behind education, for years.

The ethnic shifts in school enrollment are most evident in the West. States such as Arizona, California and Nevada are seeing an influx of Hispanics due to immigration and higher birth rates.

Read rest of story here.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:44 PM 0 comments Links to this post

INSIGHT

Cultural shift

Hispanic study tries to paint bigger picture against the backdrop of a changing city.

By Juan Castillo

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, April 19, 2009

Four years ago, the City of Austin launched a study into the quality of life of its African American residents — an exploration that rose from the ashes of a fire at the Midtown Live nightclub.

Midtown Live wasn't just any club. It was wildly popular with African Americans, and as the blaze consumed the building on a February night in 2005, some Austin police officers and dispatchers exchanged insensitive remarks such as "burn, baby, burn." In the resulting fallout, then-City Manager Toby Futrell talked about the city's need "to fix the leak in our soul."

No such crisis in race relations led to the city's newest and current quality-of-life study focusing on Hispanics, a booming population responsible for an overwhelming share of Austin's growth this decade. But city officials say it is a crisis all the same — one driven by the urgent educational, economic and social challenges that confront an expanding Hispanic underclass, and threaten to cause problems for all Austinites in the future.

"We risk collapsing the entire system due to, if nothing else, the sheer enormity of this piece of our overall community," city demographer Ryan Robinson said in a February report to the City Council.

Though the African American and Hispanic quality-of-life studies had different catalysts, they share important similarities. Like the African American study, the Hispanic initiative addresses transformative shifts in the city's demographic and cultural landscape, and seeks to measure how one racial or ethnic group is faring in comparison with the rest of Austin and with peer populations in selected cities across the country.

And like its predecessor, the Hispanic study prompts a fundamental question: What, if anything, can or should —the city do to improve the quality of life of residents from one racial or ethnic group?

Not much, say opponents, who mostly protest in cyberspace and contend that the city should focus instead on improving the quality of life for all. One anonymous online poster recently asked: "Can someone tell me when the White Quality of Life Initiative will be held?"

City Council Member Mike Martinez says such comments imply that the council does not have the interests of all residents in mind.

"That's simply not true. A rising tide lifts all boats, so when we help the least of us, regardless of ethnicity or gender, we help all of us," said Martinez, who sponsored May's council resolution authorizing the quality-of-life study.

Troubling trends

Latinos are the biggest and fastest-growing minority population in the city, the state and the country. In Austin, they conservatively make up 36 percent of the city population and are projected to account for 70 percent to 80 percent of total city growth this decade.

Austin was once overwhelmingly white but by 2020, Anglo and Hispanic shares of the population will be almost identical, Robinson said.

In some respects, Latinos are flourishing here; their numbers are swelling in the professional ranks and the middle class, as Robinson's report notes. But the report, based on census data, also cites indicators of troubling trends. Among them:

The educational gap for Hispanics in Austin, when compared with Anglos, is the second-largest among 29 U.S. cities.

That gap has implications for the Central Texas work force. The Latino population is considerably younger than the Anglo population, and those poorly educated workers will become a significant component of the work force as Anglos retire.

The median family income for Austin Hispanics is less than half that of Anglos.

The poverty rate for Hispanics in 2007 — 23.1 percent — was the second-highest in the city, behind African Americans at 31.9 percent.

The 7.5 percent unemployment rate for Hispanics (in 2006) also was second-highest, behind African Americans at 9 percent.

With those trends, it makes economic sense for government to identify and strengthen the institutions and populations that are at risk and need the most help, said University of Texas professor Jacqueline Angel.

"It's important to understand why (Hispanics in Austin are) lagging so far behind in terms of earning wages, (and why) their whole sort of socioeconomic profile is highly vulnerable," said Angel, an expert on public and social policy and Hispanic health. "This increasing Hispanic population is going to grow, and this younger strata of workers will be disproportionately responsible for the welfare of all adults."

Common themes

Austin might bea national leader in examining how its Latino residents are faring, said Paul Saldaña, a consultant who is coordinating the public forums for the study. He has not found evidence of similar initiatives elsewhere in the country.

"There's an assumption by some that because of the numbers of the Hispanic population here, there's no need for a quality-of-life study. That's not true," said Saldaña, adding that Latinos in Austin "have been having this conversation about the need for one for some time."

Emilio Zamora, an expert on Mexican American history and a professor at the University of Texas, said the African American and Hispanic life studies are important acknowledgments that the city historically might not have effectively represented all residents.

"We ought to talk to all communities," Zamora said. "And I think the Mexican American community, which is the largest minority community in town and will become the majority community in the city — in the whole area — needs and deserves attention not only because of its growing size but because of its marginalization in the past."

"Both (initiatives) are based on need," said Assistant City Manager Michael McDonald, who was the city's point man during the African American Quality of Life Initiative.

And in both, common themes emerged: African American and Latino residents said they simply wanted equal opportunities. In some instances, they conceded, too, that they could do more to shape their own better futures.

That was the case this month at the Hispanic forum on the cultural arts at the Mexican American Cultural Center. At one lively session in an airy art gallery, about 30 participants brainstormed on how the city could do more to recognize and promote the contributions of Latino artists and their impact on Austin's culture and heritage; to increase their participation at major arts festivals; and to provide equal access to services and to cultural arts funding.

But a few also noted that in recent city elections, Hispanic residents have not turned out in numbers befitting their growing share of the city population, and that Latino leadership development, volunteerism and civic engagement are not what they could be.

"We need to go to the schools, and not just when it's convenient," said Alonzo Reyes, a lieutenant with the Travis County Constable's Office in Precinct 3. "Where are the mentors? Where are the volunteers in education who can set an example?"

But at the first public forum in February, on education, another spirited session had parents and others complaining that the city is not doing enough to keep Hispanic students in school. Some said city officials should hold the school district accountable for underperforming schools in Austin.

In many respects, the forums have reflected the breadth and diversity of the city's Hispanic population and of the topics they've addressed — education, business development, the arts, leadership and advocacy, preserving history and well more than a half-dozen other subjects — proving again that the population is hardly monolithic and that any attempts to improve quality of life will have to be multifaceted.

Government's role

At the time of the Midtown Live fire, the black share of Austin's populationhad fallen notably since 1960, and many African Americans were struggling to keep up with other Austin residents in terms of income, education, homeownership and business ownership. Someblack residents said they didn't always feel welcome in Austin, a city highly regarded by others as a great place to live.

At the same time, critics were telling McDonald that the civil rights struggle had repaired America's race problems, thus making the reason for the quality-of-life study moot. The notion of a postracial era got under his skin a little, McDonald, who is African American, recalled in a 2006 interview.

Though progress had been made, he said, "it's not an indication that things have arrived." He and Futrell said the fruits of the civil rights movement would not have been possible had government not intervened.

Opponents of the study questioned whether city government should enact policies singling out one racial or ethnic group for help. But supporters said it was race-based policies — such as the 1928 city master plan that sought to direct blacks into a segregated community east of downtown and to promote industrial development there — that created some of the lingering problems affecting African Americans. The implication was that government bore at least some responsibility to help correct them.

City officials have emphasized, too, that the initiatives, particularly the public forums, can identify ways in which other institutions — businesses, the school district and the county, for example — can get involved.

The two-year African American Quality of Life Initiative produced 56 recommendations, which the city says it has implemented, though not all are complete. It says it spent about $730,000 from the 2006 city budget on the initiative.

McDonald emphasized that the recommendations benefit all residents, as in the case of city down-payment assistance for homebuyers and sensitivity training for police officers. "That is not just for African American issues; it's across the board," McDonald said recently.

Some critics of both the African American and Hispanic quality-of-life studies charge that the problems of blacks and Latinos are their own doing.

But finding fault is not the point, Angel said. "The real question is how are we going to improve upon what we already have in terms of city services and the quality of life here in Austin." The answers, Angel said, lie in having a strong labor market and an educated population.

"What we all share in this issue is that if we don't have a vibrant economy, we will all suffer," Angel said.

jcastillo@statesman.com; 445-3635

What happens next

A series of public forums — the first phase of the city's Hispanic Quality of Life Initiative — continues April 28 with a look at health issues.

The event is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Rosewood-Zaragosa Neighborhood Center, 2808 Webberville Road.

Previous forums focused on education, economic and business development, and cultural arts.

According to the city, the Hispanic Quality of Life Initiative seeks to address the following questions:

Is the quality of life for Hispanics in Austin markedly different from the quality of life experienced by Hispanics in other cities?

Is the quality of life experienced by Hispanics significantly different from the quality of life experienced by the rest of Austin and other demographic groups?

Is the City of Austin providing program services, financial assistance and other opportunities to enhance the quality of life for Hispanics?

Comments from the forums and community surveys will help shape recommendations on how to make Austin a better place to live for Latinos. A report will be presented to the City Council, tentatively scheduled for June.

Next, a community oversight team will review the report and hold at least one more public forum before presenting a revised document to the council. City staff will create a final report and action plan to present to the council by year's end.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 6:56 PM 0 comments Links to this post

HIGHER EDUCATION
Paucity of black male students is UT's biggest diversity challenge
Scaling back top 10 percent law could help boost numbers, Powers says.

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Saturday, April 11, 2009

In some ways, Brian Gaston is like many other students at the University of Texas. He graduated in the top 10 percent of his high school class. He's a big sports fan. He plans to attend law school.

In another way, Gaston is unusual: He is black. Just 2,192, or 4.4 percent, of the nearly 50,000 students enrolled at UT in the fall of 2008 were African American. And only 830 of those African American students were men. Black enrollment figures do not include foreign students.

The paucity of black men is the biggest diversity challenge on campus, UT President William Powers Jr. said at a recent legislative hearing. Low enrollment and graduation rates for black men, stemming from many years of social, historical and economic forces, are nationwide problems in higher education.

UT officials say they are trying to address the problem on multiple fronts, such as encouraging more mentoring of black men on campus and offering scholarships to students — many of whom are black or Hispanic — from Texas high schools that historically have sent few graduates to UT.

But another aspect of the university's strategy — urging lawmakers to scale back a state law that entitles the top 10 percent students to attend any of the state's 35 public universities — has proved controversial. The law was enacted in 1997 in an effort to boost minority enrollment, and some lawmakers worry that weakening it could cause black and Hispanic enrollment to erode.

Powers, who does not want to increase the size of the student body, argues that too much of UT's enrollment consists of students admitted under the 10 percent rule — 81 percent of entering freshmen from Texas last year. Limiting admittance of Texas students who graduate in the top 10 percent to about half would allow the university to enroll more students based on factors besides class rank, such as race, extracurricular activities, leadership skills and test scores, he says.

"What I absolutely, firmly believe and will commit to ... (is) we will make more progress" in minority enrollment if the law is scaled back, Powers said at a hearing of the state's House Higher Education Committee last month. "It'll be most dramatic for African Americans, because the numbers are smaller."

The Senate has passed a measure that would give Powers most of what he wants. The proposal's prospects in the House, which rejected a similar plan two years ago, are uncertain. Some House members have expressed skepticism at the university's argument that the law needs to be modified for the sake of minority enrollment.

"They don't have a problem finding a black male fullback or quarterback or shooting guard," Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston, said in a frequently heard refrain.

Of the current freshman class, whose members enrolled in the summer and fall of 2008, there are 375 black students, or 6 percent of the class. . And of those black students, 34, or 9 percent, are athletes on scholarship, UT officials said.

For some black male students, UT can be an intimidating and isolating place, not only because of the small numbers of black students, but also because of prominent historical reminders that blacks once weren't welcomed.

Statues of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders line the South Mall of the campus, and an inscription dedicates the Littlefield Fountain to the Confederacy. State law barred black students until 1950, when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the admission of Heman Sweatt, who had been rejected by UT's School of Law because of his race.

But Gaston, a senior majoring in management who competes on the debate team and plans to attend law school, said adjusting to life at UT "wasn't a big jump."

Although his high school on the outskirts of Houston was predominantly black, his parents exposed him to all kinds of people through Little League baseball, church programs and other activities, he said.

"Coming to a school like UT will prepare you for any of those obstacles you might face in the real world," Gaston said.

One of those is being the only black person in the room. "Often, if I'm not the only black person in my class, I'm definitely the only black male in my class," said Fisayo Ogundele, a senior from Missouri City, southwest of Houston, who is majoring in biology and pre-pharmacy.

UT isn't alone in its low enrollment of black males. Nationwide, women outnumber men in higher education, with black women outnumbering their male counterparts by nearly 2-to-1, the highest margin for any racial or ethnic group.

Fewer than a third of black male college students nationwide graduate within six years of enrolling, the lowest rate among both sexes and all racial and ethnic groups, according to a report by Shaun Harper, an assistant professor of higher education management at the University of Pennsylvania, who wrote the report for the nonprofit Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Black men who enrolled as UT freshmen in 2002 posted a graduation rate of 54 percent, but that still falls short of the 75 percent rate for the university's black women and the 76 percent rate for white men.

Young black men in America face other problems besides getting an education, such as incarceration rates and unemployment rates that sharply exceed those of their white and Hispanic counterparts, said Richard Reddick, an assistant professor of higher education administration at UT.

College can be challenging for all students, Reddick said, "but when you're part of a group that's stigmatized as not being high-achieving, that carries a toll."

Ogundele and his roommate, Ewaen Woghiren, both of whom moved to the United States at a young age with their families from Nigeria, cited another cultural factor: There can be a stigma to lifting books rather than weights.

Scholars have coined a term for the aloofness and independence that characterize some young black men and make it difficult for them to succeed in college: "cool pose." The trait is a reaction to the fact that the African American male historically has been demonized and objectified as savage and ignorant, Reddick said.

Still, black students respect intelligence, Reddick said. When he taught at an inner-city school in Houston before earning his doctorate at Harvard University, Reddick said, the insult most likely to provoke a fight was for one student to tell another, "You're stupid."

UT officials say they hope to attract more black male students and improve their graduation rates.

Each year, 130 to 140 scholarships are awarded to freshmen from historically under-represented high schools. Recipients of the Longhorn Opportunity Scholarship get a $5,000 grant each year for four years.

The scholarship helps a lot, said Cardan Samples, a black freshman from Fort Worth who graduated in the top 10 percent of his class. "If I hadn't gotten it I would have tried to figure out a way to go," he said.

UT also is stepping up mentoring efforts, said Gregory Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement. It's never too early to begin planting the college-going seed, he said, noting that pre-kindergarten students at UT's charter elementary school in East Austin are referred to as "little Longhorns."

The university is trying to increase the number of African Americans in its faculty ranks as well, having hired 10 in 2007 and 10 more in 2008. UT has 91 tenured and tenure-track black professors out of 1,995 overall.

"Another measure is that the president and the provost have agreed to make the Center for African and African American Studies a tenure-granting unit," one mark of a full academic department, Vincent said.

Black students at UT say all of these efforts are important. But they also say that families must do more to encourage black males to study hard in primary and secondary school and apply to college.

The election of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president should help inspire families, said Woghiren, a senior from Houston majoring in government.

Ultimately, Woghiren said, there's no secret about what it takes to succeed in school.

"It's self-determination instilled by core people in your life," he said.

rhaurwitz@statesman.com; 445-3604

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 7:54 PM 0 comments Links to this post

This is a really interesting analysis on the role that language—and conversely, being tongue-tied in American society—and how it impacts people differently. Those for whom for whatever reason, learning English is insurmountable, creates a level of frustration that under particular conditions—including the availability of arms which amount to a "universal tongue"—that leads to violence. Interesting, thoughtful and sad read. Here is a powerful quote:

Shame, indeed, binds the tongue. Thus, while the successful border crosser uses language to overcome shame by refusing silence, while he finds ways to articulate his shame until he rearranges it and redefines himself, his counterpart remains retiring, finding no articulate way to transform himself in the new world.

If the Asian shame-based culture is still prominent, keeping its citizens in line and well behaved, it is the gun culture in America that is most conspicuous. It is there on TV and video games and the Internet and the silver screen, and it is the most accessible language for the tongue-tied. For them the gun -- be it in video games or at the practicing range -- speaks volumes.

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 7:46 PM 0 comments Links to this post

10% Admissions -- the Full Impact
April 6, 2009
Texas legislators may be on the verge of changing one of the most notable admissions experiments in recent years: a state law requiring that all public colleges and universities automatically admit all of those who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.

The focus of lawmakers -- particularly those advocating a change -- has been the difficulty the law places on the University of Texas at Austin. As the most competitive institution in the state, it is highly attractive to anyone eligible to earn admission, and UT leaders say that they are filling such a large share of admissions slots through the so-called 10 percent program that they have lost flexibility and, with it, the ability to admit highly talented students who don’t earn automatic admission. Defenders of the law tend to focus on its impact increasing minority enrollments.


Two new studies suggest both positive and negative impacts of the law that have received relatively less attention in the debate. The studies are scheduled to be released next Friday at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.

One focuses on the high schools that send students to UT -- and finds that the law has led to much broader representation, effectively halting what had been a growing pattern in which a small number of wealthy high schools were increasingly dominating admissions. Not only has the overall number of high schools sending students to Austin increased since the 10 percent program, but the law appears to have shifted high school students’ decisions. At many high schools before the law took effect, those who would have almost certainly been admitted never bothered to apply -- and the law appears to have changed that, the research has found.

A second study could be used to argue against the 10 percent law -- or at least the way it has been carried out at UT-Austin. This study finds that, as the 10 percent law made it more difficult for some applicants to win admission, an increasing number of these rejected applicants used a program allowing transfer from other UT campuses. And as these transfers grew, transfers from community colleges fell. The finding is significant because so many low-income and minority students start their higher education at two-year institutions.

The authors of the studies -- noting the speed with which Texas legislators appear to be moving to change 10 percent -- released them to Inside Higher Ed in advance of their formal presentation in the hope that their findings might inform the debate.

The 10 percent law was adopted in 1997, following a federal appeals court’s ban on the consideration of race or ethnicity in admissions decisions. The law was immediately popular (with bipartisan support). Because so many Texas high schools have ethnically homogeneous student bodies (whether white, black or Latino), the law ensured that healthy numbers from all groups would be eligible to enroll at Austin. When in 2003 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of affirmative action in college admissions, UT started to again consider race and ethnicity in admissions, and opposition to the law started to grow. Among the more vocal opponents have been families and legislators in wealthier parts of the state, which support high quality public schools where (these critics say) very well qualified students in the 11th percentile (or further down) are losing a shot at getting to Austin.

From High School to the Flagship

One of the papers focuses on the issue of which high schools send students to UT. Mark C. Long of the University of Washington, Victor B. Saenz of the University of Texas at Austin, and Marta Tienda of Princeton University analyzed 18 years' worth of data on which high schools sent students to UT, and they found significant shifts beyond the issues of race and ethnicity that tend to dominate discussion of 10 percent.

They start by documenting evidence from prior studies about the role of “feeder” high schools -- those that send a disproportionate share of students to Austin. One part of the research noted that in 1996, just before the law was adopted, 59 high schools accounted for half of UT’s freshman class. (There are more than 1,500 high schools in Texas.) By 2006, there were 104 high schools whose students made up half of the freshman class -- by no means an even distribution, but much more than was the case prior to 10 percent.

The total number of high schools sending at least one student to UT-Austin went up dramatically as this shift was taking place. In 1996, the study notes that UT admitted students from 674 high schools. By 2007, that figure was more than 900. The new high schools were more likely than those previously sending students to have large concentrations of minority students and low-income students (minority and white), to be in rural areas, or small towns and cities. Notably, the researchers found that once high schools experienced success in getting students admitted, they tended to continue to do so.

A key question in the debate over 10 percent is whether the more diverse student pool would continue without the law in its current form. Here, the research team offers evidence to suggest that there are key factors to the law itself -- especially its straightforward nature -- that contribute to its success. The researchers note that, prior to the 10 percent law, nearly all applicants in the top 10 percent of high school classes were admitted, but at high schools whose students have not flocked to UT until recently, very few of these students bothered to apply, pre-10 percent.

“Presumably, many seniors who ranked highly in their class failed to apply because of the opaqueness of UT's admissions policy; as is the case at most institutions, students have no way of knowing whether they qualify for admission or the likelihood of being admitted. This opaqueness would be acute for students at high schools with low sending rates to UT -- a student at such a high school would not have the experience of seeing their older peers' application results,” the draft report on the study says.

“Thus, the apparent increases in access may be due, in part, to the rendering of an opaque de facto policy that admitted nearly all top 10% students to a transparent de jure policy that clearly stipulated the criteria for automatic admission. Not only did this change in admission policy influence the number of admitted and enrolled students to UT, but it also diversified their geographic and socioeconomic origins.”

From Community Colleges to the Flagship

The paper on community colleges notes that for many students, especially low income or minority students, there has never been a great direct path to the flagship university, and transfer has long been viewed as a good option. The paper -- by Rose M. Martinez, a doctoral candidate at UT-Austin, explores what may be an "unintended consequence" of the 10 percent law: reduced transfers from community colleges.

Some applicants who are rejected for admission to UT-Austin are given the option through the Conditional Admission Program (known as CAP) of signing a contract to enroll at another UT campus and to meet certain goals, upon which they will earn a slot at Austin. Others transfer from community colleges. Martinez's study found that prior to the 10 percent law, community college transfer was the more common route in, but that since adoption of 10 percent the reverse is true. This is significant because that program caters to those who feel they were denied a shot at UT, possibly by those being admitted by the 10 percent law.

"While well intentioned, students qualifying for automatic admission are indirectly crowding out community college students at a highly ranked flagship university in a state where too few top ranked institutions exist," says a draft of Martinez's paper.

"Texas has 50 community college districts and 74 community college campuses. Yet, community college students averaged 30.3 percent or 626 students of the fall transfer cohort from 2004-8. If left unchanged, the transfer program may be overrun with CAP students, who are wholly comprised of non-top 10 percent freshman applicants. If so, it begs the question of whether the flagship university can recruit a diverse pool of transfer students or if CAP serves as a subliminal form of cascading of selective freshman applicants."

— Scott Jaschik

posted by Dr. Angela Valenzuela at 8:33 PM 0 comments Links to this post

By David Bacon
t r u t h o u t | Perspective


OAKLAND, CA (4/4/09) -- In a little less than a month, hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of people will fill the streets in city after city, town after town, across the US. This year May Day marches of immigrant workers will make an important demand on the Obama administration: End the draconian enforcement policies of the Bush administration. Establish a new immigration policy based on human rights and recognition of the crucial economic and social contributions of immigrants to US society.

This year's marches will continue the recovery in the US of the celebration of May Day, the day that celebrates worldwide the contributions of working people. That recovery started on May 1, 2006, when over a million people filled the streets of Los Angeles, with hundreds of thousands more in Chicago, New York and cities and towns throughout the United States. Again on May Day in 2007 and 2008, immigrants and their supporters demonstrated and marched, from coast to coast.

One sign found in almost every march said it all: "We are Workers, not Criminals!" The sign stated an obvious truth. Millions of people have come to the United States to work, not to break its laws. Some have come with visas, and others without them. But they are all contributors to the society they've found here.

The protests are a result of years of organizing, the legacy of Bert Corona, immigrant rights pioneer and founder of many national Latino organizations. He trained thousands of immigrant activists, taught the value of political independence, and believed that immigrants themselves must conduct a struggle for their rights. Most of the leaders of the radical wing of today's immigrant rights movement were his students.
In part, the May Day protests respond to a wave of draconian measures that have criminalized immigration status and work itself for undocumented people. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act made it a crime, for the first time in US history, to hire people without papers. Defenders argued that if people could not legally work they would leave. Life was not so simple.

Undocumented people are part of the communities they live in. They cannot simply go, nor should they. They seek the same goals of equality and opportunity that working people in the US have historically fought for. In addition, for most immigrants there are no jobs to return to in the countries from which they've come. After Congress passed The North American Free Trade Agreement, six million displaced Mexicans came to the US as a result of the massive displacement the treaty caused. Free trade and free market policies have similarly displaced millions more in poor countries around the world.
Instead of recognizing this reality, the US government has attempted to make holding a job a criminal act. Some states and local communities, seeing a green light from the Department of Homeland Security, have passed measures that go even further. Mississippi passed a bill making it a felony for an undocumented worker to hold a job, with jail time of 1-10 years, fines of up to $10,000, and no bail for anyone arrested. Employers get immunity.

Last summer, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff proposed a rule requiring employers to fire any worker who couldn't correct a mismatch between the Social Security number given to their employer and the SSA database. The regulation assumes those workers have no valid immigration visa, and therefore no valid Social Security number.
With 12 million people living in the US without legal immigration status, the regulation would have led to massive firings, bringing many industries and businesses to a halt. Citizens and legal visa holders would have been swept up as well, since the Social Security database is often inaccurate. While the courts enjoined this particular regulation, the idea of using Social Security numbers to identify and fire millions of workers is still very much alive in Washington, DC.

Under Chertoff, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted sweeping workplace raids, arresting and deporting thousands of workers. Many were charged with an additional crime - identity theft - because they used a Social Security number belonging to someone else to get a job. Yet workers using those numbers actually deposit money into Social Security funds, and will never collect benefits their contributions paid for. The new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the big raids need to be reexamined, but she continues to support measures to drive undocumented workers from their jobs, and to keep employers from hiring them.

During her term as governor, the Arizona legislature passed a law requiring employers to verify the immigration status of every worker through a federal database called E-Verify, even more full of errors than Social Security. They must fire workers whose names get flagged. This is now becoming the model for Federal enforcement.
Many of these punitive measures surfaced in proposals for "comprehensive immigration reform" that were debated in Congress in 2006 and 2007. The comprehensive bills combined criminalization of work for the undocumented with huge guest worker programs. While those proposals failed in Congress, the Bush administration implemented some of their most draconian provisions by administrative action. Many fear that new proposals for immigration reform being formulated by Congress and the administration will continue these efforts to criminalize work.

In reality, the labor of 12 million undocumented workers is indispensable to the economy, just as is the labor of 26 million people with visas, and the many millions of workers who were born in the U.S. The wealth created by undocumented workers is never called illegal. No one dreams of taking that wealth from the employers who profited from it. Yet the people who produce this wealth are called exactly that - illegal.
All workers need jobs and a way to support their families, not just some. And in a country with schools behind the rest of the industrialized world, with bridges that fall into rivers and people living in tent cities for lack of housing, there is clearly no shortage of work to be done. If the trillion dollars showered on banks were used instead to put people to work, there would be plenty of jobs and a better quality of life for everyone.
Nativo Lopez, president of the Mexican American Political Association and the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, says, "Washington legislators and lobbyists fear a new civil rights movement in the streets, because it rejects their compromises and makes demands that go beyond what they have defined as 'politically possible.'"
The price of trying to push people out of the US who've come here for survival is increased vulnerability for undocumented workers, which ultimately results in cheaper labor and fewer rights for everyone. Under Bush, that was the government's goal -- cheap labor for large employers, enforced by deportations, firings and guest worker programs. This is what millions of people want to change. And the Obama administration was elected because it promised "change we can believe in."

In past May Day marches many participants have put forward an alternative set of demands, which includes tying legalization for 12 million undocumented people in the US with jobs programs for communities with high unemployment. All workers need the right to organize to raise wages and gain workplace rights, including the 12 million people for whom work is a crime. More green cards, especially visas based on family reunification, would enable people to cross the border legally, instead of dying in the desert. Ending guest worker programs would help stop the use of our immigration system as a supply of cheap labor for employers. And on the border, communities want human rights, not more guns, walls, soldiers and prisons for immigrants.

This May Day, immigrants will again send this powerful message. Their marches have already rescued from obscurity our own holiday, which began in the struggle for the eight-hour day in Chicago over a century ago. Today they are giving May Day a new meaning, putting forward ideas that will not only benefit immigrant communities, but all working families.

Labels: immigration

posted by Patricia Lopez at 7:42 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Check out the full report "Sharp Growth in Suburban Minority Enrollment Yields Modest Gains in School Diversity"

-Patricia

by Richard Fry, Senior Research Associate, Pew Hispanic Center
March 31, 2009

The student population of America's suburban public schools has shot up by 3.4 million in the past decade and a half, and virtually all of this increase (99%) has been due to the enrollment of new Latino, black and Asian students, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of public school data. Once a largely white enclave, suburban school districts in 2006-07 educated a student population that was 41.4% non-white, up from 28% in 1993-94 and not much different from the 43.7% non-white share of the nation's overall public school student population. At the same time, suburban school districts have been gaining "market share"; they educated 38% of the nation's public school students in 2006-07, up from 35% in 1993-94.

The most potent driver of all these trends has been the near doubling of the Latino share of suburban school district enrollment -- to 20% in 2006-07, from 11% in 1993-94. Over this same time period, the black share grew to 15% from 12% and the Asian share rose slightly, to 6% from 5%. Overall, white students made up just 59% of the enrollment in suburban public schools in 2006-07, down from 72% in 1993-94.

The movement of minority students into suburban schools has had the overall effect of slightly reducing levels of ethnic and racial segregation throughout the nation's 93,430 public schools. However, trends vary for different minority groups, community types, school districts and, especially, individual schools. For example, despite the sharp rise in the racial and ethnic diversity of suburban district enrollments overall, there has been only a modest increase in the racial and ethnic diversity of student populations at the level of the individual suburban school.

These findings are based on an analysis of the most recent available enrollment figures for the nation's public schools. The National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education collects this information and also classifies school districts as being suburban, city or town/rural districts.

School-Level Diversity in the Suburbs

In 2006-07, the typical white suburban student attended a school whose student body was 75% white; in 1993-94, this same figure had been 83%. So at a time when the white share of student enrollment in suburban school districts was falling by 13 percentage points (from 72% in 1993-94 to 59% in 2006-07), the exposure of the typical white suburban student to minority students in his or her own school was growing by a little more than half that much -- or 8 percentage points.

Meantime, the typical black suburban school student in 2006-07 attended a school that was 34% white, down from 43% white in 1993-94. The typical Hispanic suburban student attended a school that was 31% white, down from 40% white in 1993-94. And the typical Asian suburban school student attended a school that was 48% white, down from 55% white in 1993-94. Thus, suburban minority students' exposure to white students has declined since 1993-94, reflecting the overall lower proportion of white students in suburban district enrollments.

Looking at the exposure of minority suburban students to their own racial or ethnic group rather than to whites, a different pattern emerges for Hispanics than for blacks or Asians.

Suburban Hispanic students are increasingly attending schools whose student bodies have a high percentage of Hispanics. In 2006-07, the typical suburban Hispanic student attended a school that was 49% Latino, up from 42% Latino in 1993-94. By contrast, there was little change during this period in the levels of racial isolation of black and Asian suburban students. In 2006-07, the typical suburban black student attended a school that was 44% black, up only slightly from 43% black in 1993-94, and the typical suburban Asian student attended a school that was 23% Asian, down slightly from 24% Asian in 1993-94.

The National Perspective

The movement of minority students into suburban school districts since 1993-94 has had an impact on national trends in minority student isolation. Nationally, the typical black student in 2006-07 attended a school that was 52% black, down from 54% black in 1993-94. This modest decline is partly attributable to the fact that a greater share of black students are now educated in suburban schools, where they tend to be less isolated than in city schools. Nationally, the typical Hispanic student in 2006-07 attended a school that was 55% Hispanic, up from 52% Hispanic in 1993-94. The increase in Hispanic isolation nationally would have been even greater in the absence of the shift of Hispanic students out of city school districts and into suburban areas. Nationally, the typical Asian student in 2006-07 attended a school that was 23% Asian, up from 22% in 1993-94.

When it comes to increases in public school student enrollment, the suburbs are where most of the action has been over the past decade and a half. Since 1993-94, two-thirds of the 5.1 million increase in public school enrollment nationwide has occurred in suburban school districts. In 1993-94, city school districts educated a majority of the nation's minority students. That is no longer the case. City school districts educated 47% of the nation's Hispanic students in 2006-07, down from 54% in 1993-94. Similarly, city school districts educated 48% of the nation's black students in 2006-07, down from 54% in 1993-94. In addition, a declining share of the nation's Asian students are educated in city school districts. The movement out of city schools has nearly exclusively been suburban school districts' gain because the share of the nation's minority students educated in town/rural school districts has been stagnant or has declined.

Overall, suburban schools are much closer in racial and ethnic makeup to the nation's public school population as a whole than are city schools, which tend to be disproportionately minority, or rural and town schools, which tend to be disproportionately white. The typical minority student in a city school has fewer white classmates than does a peer who attends a suburban school. In 2006-07, the enrollment of a city school attended by the typical black or Hispanic student was about 20% white and 80% minority. Most of the minority students in these schools were students of the same race/ethnicity as themselves. The typical city black student attended a school with 60% black enrollment, and the typical city Latino student went to a school with 63% Hispanic enrollment.

These levels of racial/ethnic isolation are significantly above those of their peers educated in suburban school districts. Minority students in town and rural school districts tend to have more exposure to white students than do minority students in suburban school districts. The typical town/rural black student attended a school with 47% white enrollment, and the typical town/rural Hispanic student attended a 43% white school. However, minority students in town/rural school districts tend not to be less isolated than their suburban peers. The typical town/rural black student attended a school with 44% black enrollment, and the typical town/rural Latino student went to a school with 47% Hispanic enrollment.

Asian students in town/rural school districts are less isolated than their suburban counterparts. The typical town/rural Asian student attended a school with 5% Asian enrollment, compared with the 23% Asian proportion of suburban schools attended by Asian students.

The Dissimilarity Index: Another Measure of School Segregation

This report examines the changing levels of exposure that minority students have to themselves and to white students, and the changing levels of exposure that white students have to themselves and to minority students. Such isolation/exposure indexes are a commonly used research tool, but they are not the only way researchers measure school segregation. Another widely used measure is the dissimilarity index, which gauges the evenness of the spread of students across the schools in a school district. Formally, it is the proportion of a student group that would have to change schools for all schools in the district to have the same proportion of the group as the district-wide average.

To see if we would find patterns consistent with those of our isolation/exposure analysis, we tabulated the dissimilarity index for all suburban districts and used it to examine the degree of segregation within a particular school district (not a larger geographic area such as a metropolitan area).

We found that trends in the suburban school district dissimilarity index are fairly similar to the trends in the isolation measure reported above. For black and Asian students, there was a small decline in suburban school district segregation from 1993-94 to 2006-07, according to the dissimilarity measure. For Hispanic students, suburban school segregation has increased since 1993-94. These trends are based on the average of the dissimilarity index across suburban school districts. There are, of course, individual suburban districts whose change in the dissimilarity index does not mimic the overall trend.

For each minority group, the level of segregation tends to be greater in city school districts than in suburban school districts, according to the dissimilarity index.

Across all school districts in America (city and suburban as well as town/rural), the dissimilarity index indicates that district-level segregation has declined since 1993-94 for black, Hispanic and Asian students. Part of this decline, again, is to due to the change in the geographic locus of minority education since 1993-94. Suburban school districts tend to be less segregated than city school districts, and an increasing share of each minority student group is being educated in suburban school districts.

In addition to examining the trend over all suburban school districts, this report examined changes since 1993-94 in individual suburban school districts. The analysis examined the fastest-growing suburban school districts in terms of minority enrollment. On the basis of the dissimilarity index, the suburban school districts with the highest levels of racial/ethnic segregation are also noted.

Labels: demographics, Latinos

posted by Patricia Lopez at 1:12 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Ethnic group is the fastest growing, but the least likely to enroll in college

By JEANNIE KEVER | Houston Chronicle
April 4, 2009,

The future of Texas is sitting in room 318 at Austin High School, and right now, it could go either way.

Students in the after-school program — Hispanic and from low-income families, the group least likely to enroll in college — are optimistic.

But who knows?

“I hope to go,” says Neri Gamez, 17, a high school junior who dreams of being a doctor.

Gamez has an advantage: She is in a program run by the Center for Mexican-American Studies at the University of Houston, designed to help Hispanic students enter college and, once there, earn a degree. Academic Achievers is among dozens of programs that address one of the state’s most intractable education problems.

But Hispanics, the state’s fastest-growing ethnic group, have fallen behind in some key areas, and efforts to change that remain piecemeal:

• Statewide, 68 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school within four years, 10 points below the overall rate.

• Just 42.5 percent of Hispanics who graduated from high school in 2007 enrolled in college or a technical training program the following fall, compared with 45.3 percent of black students and 57.5 percent of white students.

• Texas is “well below target” in raising the number of Hispanics in college, according to a 2008 report by the Higher Education Coordinating Board. Enrollment of both white and black students was “somewhat above target.”

And there are no consequences for schools that don’t raise Hispanic enrollment.

“The good news is, there’s a state goal,” said Paul Ruiz, co-founder and senior advisor to the Education Trust, a national group that advocates for at-risk students. “The bad news is, the institutions don’t get it. They set goals for Latino kids at about half the rate the state says we need.”

The issue is complicated by the rapid growth of the Hispanic population; about 36 percent of the Texas population is Hispanic.

“We’ve made progress,” said Raymund Paredes, higher education commissioner for Texas. “Our challenge is, we started so far behind, and the Latino population is growing so fast.”

Unless the numbers change, the state will be unable to field a well-educated work force. “The Hispanic community is key to the economic future of Texas,” Paredes said.
Enrollment edging up

The state plan, known as Closing the Gaps, began in 2000 with the goal of increasing college enrollment to 5.7 percent of the population by 2015. That would raise college-going rates to the national average.

Over the past eight years, overall enrollment has edged up to 5.3 percent from 5 percent. For Hispanics, it’s up to 3.9 percent from 3.7 percent.

More than 1.2 million Texans enrolled in a two- or four-year college or technical school last fall; state goals call for that to reach 1.6 million by 2015. The Coordinating Board’s own estimates suggest it will fall short by 300,000 students.

Gamez, a student at Austin High School, said she understands why so many of her peers don’t go on to college. “They may have to work,” she said. “And once they get a taste of the money, they may decide to skip college.”

Often, no one in their family has attended college, so they don’t know the ropes.

Gamez lives with her mother and 19-year-old brother, both of whom work at a tire store. Her father graduated from college in Mexico and owned a tire shop in Houston but now is in prison, she said. “He didn’t really get to apply his skills.”

She intends to be different.
Patchwork efforts

Paredes and other higher education officials point to the successes.

Hispanic enrollment has grown faster than that of other racial or ethnic groups, and is up 50 percent over the past five years. Two-thirds of the growth was at community or technical colleges, rather than a four-year school.

But the population has grown almost as quickly, wiping out much of the gains.

Paredes notes that improving college-going rates has to start in high school or even sooner, and he has pushed for more stringent high school graduation requirements to better prepare students for college. Those took effect in 2008.

The state has established counseling centers in 250 Texas middle and high schools to improve college counseling. Paredes also has argued, with mixed success, for more financial aid.

“Most Latino students come from poor families, and they’ll need aid to go to college,” he said.

Success is relative.

The University of Texas system touts its diversity, noting that in 2008, Hispanic enrollment was about equal to that of white students, and several campuses have been designated as among the nation’s top in awarding degrees to Hispanics. But most Hispanic enrollment is concentrated at the system’s border schools, including UT-Pan American (86 percent), UT-Brownsville (91 percent) and UT-El Paso (75 percent).

At UT-Austin, 16 percent of students are Hispanic; at UT-Dallas, it’s 9 percent.

The flagship campus could do better, Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa acknowledged. “It does require a real outreach effort,” he said. “It doesn’t happen automatically.”

Which is precisely Ruiz’s point.

Ruiz, who lives in San Antonio, suggests the state should set goals for each institution, with top administrators held accountable for meeting them.

Janet Beinke, director of planning at the coordinating board, said it’s not so easy to impose mandates. “What are you going to do? Take the money away?” she asked. “You have to use carrots.”

But Ruiz disagrees.

“To close the Hispanic gap, institutions have to do things dramatically differently,” he said.

Most rely upon a patchwork of efforts.

The University of Houston, for example, sends recruiters to local high schools and college fairs, said Jeff Fuller, director of student recruitment. Its major outreach comes through the Center for Mexican-American Studies, which began its first program at Jackson Middle School more than 20 years ago.

Progress has been slow.
Multiple stumbling blocks

About 20 percent of UH students are Hispanic, up only slightly over the last five years. (About 40 percent of Harris County residents are Hispanic.) But that was still enough to earn a place among the top 20 colleges and universities awarding degrees to Hispanic students, according to The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine.

The numbers are slightly higher at the University of Houston-Downtown, which has its own outreach programs. About 36 percent of students there are Hispanic.

Rebeca Trevino, who manages the Center for Mexican-American Studies’ Academic Achievers program, said several factors hold Hispanic students back, including money and a lack of role models.

Language, high school preparation and immigration issues all can be stumbling blocks, as well.

“Most of our students are the first in their family to go to college,” Trevino said. “They need people they can relate to.”
A new tradition

Irene Avellaneda, 18, found that in her brother, Hector.

But when Hector Avella­neda, now 22, walked onto the Texas A&M campus in 2004, he had to forge his own path.

The eldest of three children, he was the first in his family to finish high school. College was foreign territory.

“The first semester and first year were kind of rough,” he said.

His GPA dipped to 2.75 that first semester — not terrible, but below the 3.0 his scholarships required — and he was placed on probation.

But he turned that around and will graduate in May, just as Irene finishes her first year at UH-Downtown.

“Hector was a big inspiration,” his sister said. “The younger siblings are always going to look up to the older.”

That now goes double for their youngest sibling, 14-year-old Moses.


WHY COLLEGE?

What are the benefits of a college education?

• More wealth: The National Center for Education Statistics says college graduates earn $1.2 million more during their lifetimes than non-graduates.

Less poverty: Unless more people earn a college degree, the Texas State Data Center warns that average household incomes will drop $3,000 by 2030.

Labels: higher education

posted by Patricia Lopez at 12:06 PM 0 comments Links to this post

By APRIL CASTRO
April 1, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Senate on Wednesday voted to adopt a $182.2 billion state budget for the next two years, including $11 billion in federal stimulus spending.

The Senate voted 26-5 to adopt the two-year budget, the most important bill lawmakers will consider during the five-month legislative session.

Using the federal rescue money, senators were able to craft a spending plan that would not dip into a projected $9 billion balance in the state's Rainy Day Fund. Still, officials cautioned that economic conditions could worsen before the budget can become law.

"Sales tax collections are slowing down faster than what we thought," said Sen. Steve Ogden, who was the lead Senate budget writer.

"I would argue that ... the most prudent thing we can do in the state right now is to hold on to that Rainy Day Fund, make sure things don't get worse before they get better."

Attention next turns to the House, which is crafting a separate version of the budget before the two drafts can be reconciled.

The federal stimulus money, which was part of a law signed by President Barack Obama in February, is helping budgeters close a shortfall between available state revenue and spending needs.

"While other states are facing huge deficits, Senate Bill 1 invests in our state's future by increasing funding for education, higher education, job training programs and transportation," said Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who presides over the Senate. "This budget also uses federal stimulus funds responsibly by working to ensure they will not result in ongoing costs to the state, while allowing us to leave the Rainy Day Fund untouched so it can be used to balance the budget in 2011."

Counting all funds, the plan spends about $53 billion on public education, which makes up the largest portion of spending, based on current school finance law and projected student enrollment growth. But the bill also sets aside $1.9 billion, contingent on the Legislature adopting a new school finance plan.

Democratic critics of the budget expressed concern about measures in health and human services spending, including a provision that Ogden said was intended to prohibit state money from being spent on research that destroys human embryos.

Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, called the budget a "fundamentally flawed document."

"It remains far from clear that this provision won't have a direct impact on scientists and researchers at some of the premier laboratories in the state," Watson said. "And this rider will doubtlessly damage our state's reputation for economic development and scientific discovery."

Watson, who voted against the budget, also criticized the plan for relying on the federal rescue dollars to enable "the state's worst fiscal habits without reforming them."

The budget significantly decreases funding to the Texas Youth Commission, which underwent a massive overhaul after a juvenile sex abuse scandal two years ago. The new proposal would cut spending on the juvenile agency by $81 million and mandates more than 700 employee cuts.

The Senate budget increases state spending by:

_ $600 million for cancer prevention and research;

_ $543 million for state schools;

_ $31 million to equip 2,500 school buses with seat belts;

_ $32.5 million to expand pre-kindergarten to 22,500 more children;

_ $27.1 million to buy and operate 450 patrol cars for the Department of Public Safety; and

_ $10 million to expand Boll Weevil eradication efforts made necessary in southeast Texas by Hurricane Ike;

The budget also prohibits the use of state dollars to purchase Microsoft Vista products.

State dollars, made up mostly of sales tax revenue and other taxes, comprise almost 48 percent of the total budget. Federal funds, including the stimulus money, make up about 36 percent of the budget.

The federal stimulus money is less than 10 percent of the total Senate budget. Another $3.3 billion in federal stimulus money has been set aside for supplemental spending in the current budget period, which ends this summer.

The two-year state budget is the one piece of legislation lawmakers are legally required to adopt during the biennial legislative session, which convened in January and adjourns in June.

Labels: 81st Lege, stimulus

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:44 AM 0 comments Links to this post

Exempting students from standardized test assessments does not mean that the state is no longer able to assess the performance of immigrant and ELL youth. First, TAKS tests are a diagnostic instrument. There are better ways to assess students, especially those who are second language learners. A Compensatory Multiple Measures assessment that takes into account portfolios, teacher evaluations, GPA, in addition to performance on standardized tests is an example of an alternative assessment that not only better serves ELL and immigrant youth but ALL students.

Patricia

Mon, Mar 23, 2009
William McKenzie | Dallas News Op-Ed

Here's a tough call: Should Texas legislators exempt students who are not proficient in English from the TAKS test?

Democratic Rep. Mike Villareal's bill on this subject is slated to come up for review in the Texas House Public Education Committee Tuesday. Rodger and I have talked about this subject before, and I confess real ambivalence. I'm a testing/accountability hawk, so I generally don't like to make testing exemptions. It's real easy to start shortchanging kids when you do that.

But here's the reality: Kids who come here from Mexico in, say, the ninth grade with limited English skills really are at a disadvantage. Some readers may think they or their parents should never have come in the first place, but that's not the point. They are here, the state has an obligation (and a self-interest) in educating them and schools in Dallas and elsewhere have to figure out the best way to get them learning in English and at grade level.

Both are tough because some immigrant children are behind in learning in Spanish, much less English. This is a daily reality for many teachers across the state.

There's also data that shows kids take up to five to seven years to really learn in another language. I'd like to think it could be done faster, but what if that is how long it takes?

I'm really stumped on this. If you give a ninth grader four years of TAKS exemption, then they basically can get out of school without ever taking the state's achievement exam. How's that fair to them, if the world they're going to live in requires at least the skills high school provides?

So, what would you do? What do you think is realistic in situations like this? I'm particularly interested in hearing from educators.

Labels: English language learners, high-stakes testing, immigrant children

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:24 AM 1 comments Links to this post

By BRITTONY LUND
The Lufkin Daily News

Friday, April 03, 2009

A recent piece of state legislation on the top 10 percent rule could make it even more difficult for rural students to have the opportunity to attend state universities like the University of Texas in Austin.

The state Senate passed the bill, by Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) two weeks ago. It still has to go through the House, where it failed two years ago.

The bill, if passed, would limit automatic admissions under the top 10 percent rule to 60 percent of the incoming freshmen class at state colleges and universities. As the law currently stands, all high school graduates in the top 10 percent of their class are granted automatic admission into any state college or university.

Local school officials fear if this bill passes it will cater to students in urban areas, making it even more difficult for students in rural areas, such as Angelina County, to attend any major state universities.

Roy Knight, superintendent at Lufkin ISD, said current data shows outside of those admitted under the top 10 percent law, UT accepts more students from wealthy families, including those who grew up in Highland Park, Austin's West Lake area and Houston's Bellaire area. He believes if they change the law these students will replace students from rural areas.

"My kids are just as entitled," Knight said. "But in the end it's about the kids who come from affluence unable to get into the universities."

Mary Ann Whiteker, Hudson ISD superintendent, is just one of many local school officials who has always supported the top 10 percent rule and does not want to see it change.

"It's allowed opportunities for our rural students to go to flagship universities," Whiteker said. "Due to where our students live they are limited in the opportunities that are available to a lot of students in the urban and suburban areas."

Eric Wright, superintendent at Huntington ISD, said the top 10 percent rule makes admissions into major universities, like UT Austin, fair to all students based on grades.

"If they're having that much demand they need to expand their programs and allow entrance to more students," Wright said.

Gary Martel, superintendent at Diboll ISD, who has a daughter who got accepted into a major university through the top 10 percent rule, said he doesn't think UT really has an admission problem. Even though last year 81 percent of their freshmen admitted fell under the rule, he said not all students admitted choose to go to that school.

And not all students admitted can afford to go.

"I think they're just complaining," Martel said. "There's not that many. We might be trying to fix something that's really not a problem."

Knight also said data shows that of the 81 percent of freshmen admitted into UT last year under the top 10 percent rule, only 70 percent ended up actually attending.

David Flowers, superintendent at Zavalla ISD, also doesn't think changing the rule would be fair to students.

"A student that is in the top 10 percent of their graduating class should be welcome at our state's colleges and universities," Flowers said.

"These top graduates have worked extremely hard and deserve to be admitted to these institutions should they apply."

Labels: 81st Lege, top ten percent plan

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:21 AM 0 comments Links to this post

This is an interesting article and actually has relevance to current Texas policy trying to promote virtual learning. Another concern is that this kind of instruction "virtually" eliminates the need for teachers. A sneaky approach if you're trying to avoid teacher shortage problems. Education without teachers - something to think about.

Patricia


by The Editorial Board
Thursday April 02, 2009, 4:04 PM

Lawmakers should support existing online charter schools while adopting a moratorium to resolve the policy issues they raise

Oregon legislators clearly don't know what to make of virtual education, the online charter schools that serve 4,000 kids in this state, and, by most accounts, serve them well.

The Oregon Education Association, the state teachers union, is pushing a bill in Salem that would cripple online charter schools. Meanwhile, K12 Inc., the private vendor that operates the largest of Oregon's virtual schools, is lobbying for a competing bill that would encourage more online charter schools in the state.

Neither approach, in our view, makes sense for Oregon right now. Lawmakers and state education officials simply are not prepared to resolve the issues raised by online charter schools. Instead, lawmakers ought to pass a bill that places a one- or two-year moratorium on new or expanded virtual schools while ensuring that the existing schools can continue to operate.

As it stands, Oregon has no well-informed policy on virtual schools. The state's largest online school, the Oregon Connections Academy, is run out of one of Oregon's smallest school districts, the Scio School District. ORCA, as the online school is known, has more than 2,500 students. Scio itself had 676 students at the state's last count. One of the questions a work group must answer is whether it is appropriate for small districts to operate large, statewide schools.

There are many other significant issues. Some are financial: Should full state per-pupil funding follow students of virtual schools if there are no associated costs for heat, busing, building maintenance or capital improvements? Are virtual schools a way for home-schoolers to obtain a private education at public expense?

Other questions are about accountability: What kind of financial and academic transparency should Oregon demand of private vendors and other entities operating online charter schools? How can the state fully assess the rigor and quality of online schools?

Oregon isn't prepared to answer all those questions right now. What lawmakers can clearly see, though, is that many families are prepared to strongly defend existing online schools. One state survey of parents of online charter schools found that 96 percent gave their schools an "A" or "B" grade. The public school system would certainly love those kinds of grades.

The bill pushed by the Oregon Education Association would require that 50 percent of the students of any online charter school live within the boundaries of the sponsoring school district. That would kill the ORCA school -- only a small percentage of its students live in the tiny Scio district -- and crimp the entire online school movement in this state.

Oregon shouldn't do that. Virtual schools hold tremendous promise, and those who are pioneering online learning in this state should be encouraged, not driven away. It's clear that self-paced learning can effectively meet the needs of both gifted students and students who need more time. To put it bluntly, a state that sees a quarter or so of its students drop out from regular public schools shouldn't be blithely eliminating alternatives.

Yet if the Oregon Education Association is wrong to try to shut down existing virtual schools, it is not wrong to point out that this state has not answered hard questions about money, equity and accountability raised by the growth of online charter schools.

Lawmakers should keep the existing schools open and establish a work group to draft a well-reasoned policy on online education. The times and the technology keep moving forward. Oregon education policy needs to run and catch up.

Labels: teacher shortage, virtual schools

posted by Patricia Lopez at 10:14 AM 0 comments Links to this post