Edward Fergus

Responding to the Needs of the Whole Child: A Case Study of a High-Performing Elementary School for Immigrant Children

Changes in the demography of the nations public schools are occurring at a dramatic pace. In states such as California, Texas, and Florida, new immigrants comprise more than a third of the student population. In major cities such as New York, Miami, and Los Angeles, they comprise more than 40% of the student population. Similar changes are occurring in small towns and rural areas throughout the country. This article examines (a) how Washington Elementary, a suburban school, has responded to these dramatic demographic changes; and (b) why this particular school has produced dramatic academic success among immigrant students when so many other suburban schools have not. This article focuses on understanding the schools practices and their implications for literacy achievement. It focuses on whether the interaction between organizational and programmatic practices and the implementation of these reform practices produced a transformative effect upon the school and student learning.

Understanding Latino Student Racial and Ethnic Identification: Theories of Race and Ethnicity

The process of Latino self-identification, both racially and ethnically, is of limited conversation among educators. The research on Latinos focuses on either their ethnic construction or absence of including a racial identification. This article focuses on the span of research about ethnicity and race for Latino groups.

The Integration Project Among White Teachers and Racial/Ethnic Minority Youth: Understanding Bias in School Practice

In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled schools in the United States needed to desegregate and begin integration. The decision was a radical departure from the facilities argument initially presented; it added the issue that the segregation of Black students was having a deleterious effect on their self-concept. Many scholars argue the integration has not been sustained (Orfield and Frankenberg, 2014); in fact, a recent report highlights Black, Latino and Native American students are less integrated with White and Asian students than in 1954 (Orfield and Frankenberg, 2014). However the Brown decision set forth another integration project – the integration of White practitioners (i.e., teachers and principals) with Black, Latino and Native American student populations! This article brings together an array of social interaction research that articulates the complexity of this integration project. More specifically, the article focuses on demographic patterns of intimate interactions (i.e., friendship networks, interracial marriage), research studies that document race-based ideas of learning and achievement; the presence of “passive” lowered expectations occurring through interactions such as stereotype threat (Steele and Aronson, 1995) and racial/ethnic microaggressions (Wing Sue, 2010) and “active” lowered expectations through school structures such as curriculum (Anyon, 1983) and resource allocation (Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. NYS, 2003).