Segregation, Desegregation, and Integration of Chicano Students: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

This chapter examines the connections between segregation and Chicano school failure from both historical and contemporary vantage points. It provides a descriptive overview of the current prevalence of Chicano segregation, as well as an empirical look at the adverse relation between school segregation and diminished academic achievement. The chapter also provides an overview of the roots of Chicano school segregation. The isolation of Chicano students in ‘Mexican schools’ or in high-density ethnic minority schools is a longstanding fact of the Chicano schooling experience. In the 1970s, school segregation actually declined nationally for Black students. The Mexican school enrolled nearly 1,000 students in a schoolhouse with eight classrooms and contained two bathrooms and one administrative office. Suffice it to say that the inadequate educational conditions experienced by Chicano students in the past were detrimental to promoting an optimal learning environment.