Quality of Secondary Education for Immigrants in the United States

I am an 18-year-old student currently residing in Indiana. I’ve been living here with my family for the past eleven or so years, ever since we moved in 2004 from California, my birthplace. My parents both originate from Central America. My mother is from El Salvador and my father is from Mexico, so I’m a mix of Salvadorian, Mexican, and American. I was homeschooled by my parents for most of my adolescent life, mainly by my mother during my infant years. As I grew up my father took charge of my education from kindergarten to middle school. When it came time for highschool, I decided to attend a public school. My first endeavour in the public education system was with an online school known as INCA(Indiana Connection Academy). I eventually found

Undocumented students are becoming a growing outrage in the United States. It has been a constant battle amongst the students, the schools, and the Government. According to collegeboard.com, statistics shows that 65,000 undocumented students graduate from U.S. high schools each year (collegeboard.com).After graduating high school they face legal and financial barriers to higher education. This paper will address the importance of this growing outrage and discuss the following that corresponds to it.

Growing up, my parents sacrificed endlessly to ensure I would thrive in America; they were Mexican immigrants, weren’t fluent in English, and struggled to assimilate into American culture. Their barriers wouldn’t stop them from presenting me with an opportunistic life. I didn’t have the luxury of parents that had proper schooling; all they taught me was to work hard and to not allow anything to bring me down. I was raised in a low-income neighborhood, and as my peers were entangling themselves in drugs and gangs, I focused on my schooling. I knew the importance of education and all the fruits of labor that would eventually come with it. I didn't’ fall into peer pressure, I surpassed the expectations of my family, and most importantly, did not fall into the negative statistics that correlate with Latinos.

The U.S. is a nation that has seen an influx of immigrants enter the country and obtain careers that seem to stereotype certain ethnic groups: Asian-Americans are advanced in electronics; Indian-Americans in the medical field; Jewish-American’s in the legal field; Mexican-Americans in the agricultural field, etc. From the stand point of education, we often wonder why certain ethnic groups do well in certain careers paths and ask, What is so different about the education system outside the U.S. that prepare immigrants entering the U.S. to succeed? After reviewing the article, The Education of Immigrant Youth: Some Lessons from the U.S. and Spain by Margaret A. Gibson and Silvia Carrasco, the article highlights some of the strengths and differences identified in the education system between the U.S. and Spain. The focus of the study pitted California and Catalonia Spain in regards to the immigration overview of both territories, the comparison to the educational systems, and the strength and challenges they face in education. California has a K-12 population that speaks a language other than English at 44% which is double the national rate of 20% (Gibson and Carrasco pg. 250). Spain has become the second largest country behind the U.S. with the number of immigrants they encounter annually based upon their location to Europe’s southern border that has become a gateway for legal and undocumented immigrants from Africa and the

For many years, the Mexican-Americans faced discrimination by education. Only the Americans had the right to quality education while the Chicanos were considered as less important. In particular, the Chicano women could not attend school. Educating a Chicano woman was considered as a waste of time and resources (Zugel 2012). It would bring no value to the society by taking a Chicano woman to school.

Since our country’s founding, the topic of immigration has been deliberated amongst many scholars. The question of who has the right to come to the United States and what they are entitled to after their arrival has been an ongoing discussion amongst various academic disciplines. More so recently, since the vast majority of the immigrant population has become concerned with their rights to higher education. For this reason, the discussion on immigration has become a hot topic amongst the American population and therefore, the field of inquiry of many academic disciplines like: Education and Psychology. For example, Research Associate and Director of Education Programs at Hunter College, Luis O. Reyes addresses the concerns that the

The issue of providing an education for undocumented children in public schools in the United States is one that has been debated over several decades. The roots of this debate can be found in Texas and can be traced to the Tyler Independent School District. In 1977 the landmark case, Plyer v. Doe, was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. This case was a result of the Texas Legislature’s 1975 revision of education law which allowed school districts to deny enrollment to undocumented children (Noll, 2013). Although this issue dates back to 1975, it is still a contentious topic today due to the lack of action taken by the United States Congress to address this complex issue. It is estimated that there are millions of undocumented individuals in the United States today (Noll, 2013). In fact, it is estimated that over 200,000 undocumented immigrants enter the United States annually (Espenshade, 1993). The issue of how to deal with undocumented immigrants has been one that politicians are still debating today. There are arguments ranging from deportation to amnesty for these undocumented immigrants. However, this is such a complex issue that can’t be solved with a vote in Congress. The issue of illegal immigration into the United States is not a

Today, in order for an immigrant to become a US citizen, they have to take a civics and language test, have a green card and be a permanent resident, and also appear in federal court. Becoming a US citizen is a complicated process is and often expensive, which is often a deterrent. Immigration is often a voided topic in school curriculum because media headlines often shape the way students and their families think about immigration. Especially in 2017, there are some scary messages from the government being sent out to the American people and immigrants not only don’t feel accepted, but they feel that they are in danger. Also, for teachers thinking about discussing the topic of immigration, it is a daunting task because there is such a

What impact has immigration had on our school system? What laws have been enacted and overturned to protect the children of immigrants in the United States? What impact has it had on schools and the families? What impact does it have on me as a future teacher and on classrooms? These are just a few questions that I am hoping to discuss in this presentation. We are going to look at just how the children of immigrants have affected everyone in the fight for equal education.

How did the increase in immigration affect school structure, curriculum, and instructional practices? The increase in immigration led schools to change their structure, reform their curriculum, and vastly alter their instructional practices. Immigrant population that originally was granted education consisted primarily of white protestants. As immigration increased and different cultures came to America, whites and protestants practices were challenged in public education systems. Schools were eventually integrated with people of all races, not just whites, changing the structure of schools. Curriculum was reformed to include people of other cultures. An example of this was in Crystal City Texas. Mexican Americans demanded bilingual teachers, human treatment from white teachers, and curriculum reform to include Mexican history and culture. After Mexican Americans made their voice heard through the school board, these reforms were made possible. Instructional practices were also altered. One way was when Catholic immigrants wanted their religion to be respected as equally as protestants. This led to a change in instructional practices. Principals marked out offensive lines in textbooks, and teachers now did not teach through the protestant religion. Through these many changes we can see how increased immigration effected public

Teranishi, Robert T., Carola Suárez-Orozco, and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco. “Immigrants in Community Colleges.” Future of Children 21.1 (2011): 153–169. Web.

Throughout the course of America’s history, we have seen many immigrants from many countries. Today, many students come from a household where their parents’ have less education than they do. My story is not something new; my parents come from a country where education was not valued, and thus migrated to the United States for a better life. But just because they have less formal education than I do, does not mean I am wiser than they are.

Latin American migrants, for instance, have not demonstrated a similar accomplishment advantage as different groups and will probably drop out of school (Xu, & Chi, 2013). Additionally, the Scholastic execution has a tendency to decay the more the immigrants continues to dwell in the U.S. (Motti-Stefanidi, & Masten, 2017).), as poor minority students correctly may absorb to an urban underclass of associates contradictory to the instructive Social support, stress, and adjustment four foundation (Mood, Jonsson, & Låftman 2016).Some of the challenges experienced by them include family and companion values, dialect problems, financial status, family and school pressure. Other problems are racial and ethnic partiality, the youngster 's age and personality, and loss of social connections, states of relocation, ethnic ID, cultural assimilation, biculturalism and challenges to adopt with new cultural values.

It is common knowledge that children’s school performance, including scores on standardized tests of academic achievement, is associated with their family background, particularly race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Most Americans believe that schools are places where social inequalities should be equalized, where the advantages or disadvantages that children experience in their homes and families should not determine what happens to them in school. It is believed that school should be a place where children should have equal chances to make the most of their potential. While it is said that education begins in the home; children in upper-middle class housings have more opportunity to learn before the onset of school, while working-class parents have fewer resources to provide their children with a jump start on education.

This inability to attend the better schools contributes in large part to the achievement gap between migrant and native students.This lower educational achievement leads on to migrant students pathways being limited.This is demonstrated by the fact that students that attend schools with a socio-economically disadvantaged intake do not perform as well as their counterparts in better