Investigated academic achievement of Mexican-American students and conflict in values with Anglo-American culture. Mexican and Anglo-American students, their parents, and teachers reported their adherence to traditional school values and evaluated the importance of field independent behaviors to success in school. Attitudinal differences were…

Nineteen Mexican-American and 24 Anglo-American parents whose children attended a K-3 school in New Mexico had high rates of parent involvement regardless of ethnicity or income level. Both groups mentioned parent-teacher conferences as their most frequent involvement and interest in child's success as their most frequent motivation. (SV)

Increasing numbers of Mexican teenagers immigrate to the United States illegally to work, and few find their way to school. Instituto del Progreso Latino--an alternative high school in Chicago--serves these youth successfully. Youth agencies must provide services that allow these youth to attend school and discourage gang involvement. (SV)

Examines the myth that Mexican American children have poor academic achievement because their parents don't value education. Focuses on the myth's origins in "deficit thinking" and concepts of "cultural deprivation" and "at-risk." Examines evidence to the contrary: Mexican Americans' long struggle for equal…

The Xinachtli Project, implemented by Chicano activists in Phoenix (Arizona) and El Paso (Texas), addresses the loss of ancestral culture by public school students of Mexican ancestry. The project teaches indigenous Mexican culture to students and their teachers through a series of presentations and lectures on Aztec dance, mathematics, language,…

Of the more than 2 million Spanish-surnamed students enrolled in the public elementary and secondary schools, more than 70% are located in the five Southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, and of these more than 95% are Mexican Americans. However, in all five Southwestern states the proportion of Chicano…

Differences in cultures and economic status have historically divided the southwest, and the hostility and mistrust brought about by these differences still exist. It is the purpose of this book to present the problems of Spanish-speaking children, to point out basic relationships and trends, and to consider possible ways of meeting specific…

According to the author, discussions about Mexican Americans most frequently deal with culture conflict and social pathologies. Here and there, students working toward advanced degrees undertake delimited studies. Trade and governmental publications are infrequent. Views from the Mexican Americans themselves are not heard. It is the author's…

A review of the literature, this report concerns itself with the identification of the Mexican American with his ethnic group as an asset or a liability. Examining the relationship of cultural marginality to education, personality, and attitudes, the author points out a need for additional research in this area (i.e., longitudinal studies…

A significant measure of the gradual progress in relating social work education to the racial and ethnic communities in the United States is the development of ethnic content and materials to be incorporated into the curriculum of schools of social work. The process of incorporating ethnic curriculum content generates the process of further…

Reasons that Mexican American children have difficulty learning to read include: (1) Learning to read and learning a new language simultaneously is difficult; (2) Mexican American students experience alienation in the school culture; (3) Low self-esteem contributes to the inability to read; and (4) Certain minority groups do not expect as much of…

Parents of high-achieving and low-achieving Mexican American fourth and fifth graders had similar beliefs about the importance of education and similar expectations for their children's educational attainment. Parents of high achievers were more likely to be upset by mediocre grades, to feel that they could help their children succeed, and to…

As a student in the Chicana/o studies program at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Jesse S. Arrieta decided that her classroom instruction about the culture and history of people of Mexican origin wasn't enough. Arrieta, 27, who graduated from UTEP in 2002 before earning a master's in American history from the University of California,…

This essay outlines Mexican immigration to the United States, with particular reference to Mexican children and the implications for schooling. The ability of Mexican immigrants to obtain jobs and the nature of the work itself has changed drastically for the worse in recent years. Children of Mexican origin differ in numerous ways in part because…