"Fracturing Opportunity" demonstrates a simple yet profound idea--that educational opportunity is learned. And if it is learned, then it can be taught and taught more equitably. This book brings sociocultural theories of learning and development to bear on the persistent problems of inequality in college access, and presents an innovative…

Dubbed the "decade of the Hispanic," the 1980s was instead a period of retrenchment for Chicanos and Chicanas as they continued to confront many issues of earlier years in a more conservative political environment. This book assesses the most significant developments in the conditions and experiences of Chicanas and Chicanos since the…

Nonparticipation in traditional adult basic education programs is an ongoing concern for educators and administrators. Most studies of such nonparticipation have focused on lack of motivation or other psychological deterrents, suggesting that individuals have a choice and that they or their culture are somehow deficient if they "choose"…

In many areas of education, Chicanos and Latinos have the lowest achievement and attainment of the major ethnic groups in the United States. In contrast to various deficit theories, this book argues that the Hispanic educational experience and outcomes can only be understood in relation to the development of U.S. and global capitalism and the…

Many immigrant Latino families are settling in U.S. communities that previously had little Latino presence. Through case studies of such communities in Georgia, North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, Illinois, and Indiana, this book describes relations between host communities and newcomers, with particular focus on educational policy formation and…

Critical race theory offers a way to understand how ostensibly race-neutral structures in education--knowledge, merit, objectivity, and "good education"--in fact help form and police the boundaries of white supremacy and racism. Critical race theory can be used to deconstruct the meaning of "educational achievement," to…

The year 1998 marked the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War, formalized the appropriation of half of Mexico's territory, and guaranteed Mexican-origin people in the appropriated territory the rights of U.S. citizens. The United States reneged on this promise almost immediately. Public…

Building on the theorem that a positive self-identity is fundamental to completion of an education, a study was conducted to learn how schools with differing backgrounds affected the ethnic identity of students. Two schools in Denver (Colorado) were selected for this case study. "Broderick High School" is a large public school whose…

Challenging conventional wisdom that Mexican Americans were passive victims of their educational fates, this book examines the Mexican American struggle for equal education during the 1960s and 1970s in a California community "Brownfield." It looks at responses of a predominantly White school system and community to the growing number of…

Historical studies have tended to take a simplistic view of minority groups as passive victims of an oppressive and racist public school system. This book looks at Mexican Americans as active agents in history and documents their quest for educational equality in Texas--a state notorious for its record of inferior and separate schooling for…

Latinos are among the nation's most educationally disadvantaged and economically disenfranchised groups. Addressing this reality within the context of a rapidly changing economy and society, this book links educational practice and the structural dimensions that shape institutional life. Sections focus on the political economy of schooling,…

This monograph includes a collection of papers that are an outgrowth of a colloquium on socio-political dimensions of language policy and language planning held at the 1997 American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference. Section 1, "Language Policy/Planning Frameworks," includes: (1) "Sociopolitical Perspectives on Language…