Diversity

Segregation, Desegregation and Integration of Chicano Students

The article, "Segregation, Desegregation, and Integration of Chicano Students: Old and New Realities" by Richard R. Valencia et al., covers the desegregation and integration of Chicano students in America's schools from the first known practices in the 1840's through the present times. Chicano children actually had more educational opportunities than blacks, and they enjoyed segregated schools well before the turn of the 20th century. What is more interesting, is that Chicanos have tended to remain segregated in schools around the nation, while blacks have managed to achieve a high percentage of desegregation. In most cases, there are fewer Chicano students in white schools today than there were in the 1960s. As the author's note, "The more dramatic and largely ignored [segregation] trends are those affecting Latinos'" (Valencia et al. 74). Unfortunately, these trends affect the schools, the education available to Chicano students, and their ultimate success in a world geared increasingly towards educated business and political leaders.

This article shows that Chicanos have actually made strides backwards in desegregation and integration with white students, and it is affecting a wide area of their opportunities later in life. Comprehensive studies in California have shown that Chicanos and Latinos who attend highly segregated schools achieve lower test scores and failure of many of the basic tests that measure academic achievement and skills. However, test scores and a lower academic achievement rate are not the only problems these segregated students face. Segregated students face a lower graduation rate, which correlates to fewer segregated students attending college. This means they face many hardships as adults that more educated students do not face. For the most part, they will not be able to get higher paying jobs because of their lack of education, and they will not be able to climb out of the cycle of poverty that affects so many segregated neighborhoods. Thus, their lack of educational opportunities keeps them in a vicious cycle of poverty and low-paying jobs. For Chicanos to better themselves, the first step is an equal education with whites.

References

Valencia, Richard R., et al. "Segregation, Desegregation, and Integration of Chicano Students: Old and New Realities."