Richard R. Valencia

Latino Population Growth, Demographic Characteristics, and Educational Stagnation: An Examination of Recent Trends

This article is an introduction to the special issue of the Hispanic Journal of the Behavioral Sciences on Latino demographic trends and educational concerns. It provides a broad overview of Latino population trends in light of 1990 Census and other recent data. One focus in this article will be on the phenomenal increase of Latinos. Population countsfrom the 1990 Census indicate that the Latino population grew many times faster in the 1980s than did the total population. An analysis of socioeconomic characteristics such as educational attainment, income, and language status with respect to educational trends is also presented here. The high rate of immigration in the 1980s has resulted in a rapid increase in the non-English language background (NELB) and limited-English proficient (LEP) populations. We discuss three issues that have marked impacts on Latino access to college: school segregation, growth of youth population, and low socioeconomic status. A major conclusion is that Latino education will continue to stagnate inface of the dramatic growth of the Latino population, if the status quo goes unchallenged.

Inequalities and the schooling of minority students in Texas: Historical and contemporary conditions.

In the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills case, the State argued that the differences in current schooling conditions and outcomes experienced by Whites and African American/Mexican American students are not due to historical discrimination, and such history is irrelevant to the litigation in GI Forum et al. vs. Texas Education Agency et al.By contrast, this article asserts that the contemporary widespread school failure of many African American and Mexican American students in Texas public schools is strongly connected to long-standing systemic public school inequalities and the subsequent limited opportunities to learn. This article lays down a framework for understanding the link between historical and contemporary discrimination. As an example of this past-present association, the issue of school segregation is discussed. Furthermore, data on the issue of substandard teachers and how this inequality shortchanges minority students is presented. The article’s major conclusion is that the State’s ahistorical position is both faulty and indefensible.

K-ABC content bias: comparisons between Mexican American and white children

Content (item) bias on the Mental Processing Scales and the Achievement Scale of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC) was investigated with 100 Mexican American and 100 White fifth- and sixth-grade boys and girls. All children were English-speaking and from similar socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. An item-group (partial correlation) method that controlled for age, sex, and ability was used to examine bias. On the Mental Processing Scales, 17 (14%) of 120 items were found to be biased—the strong majority against the Mexican American children. On the Achievement Scale, it was observed that 58 (63%) of 92 K-ABC items were biased—all against the Mexican American sample. This latter finding is discussed in the context of possible differences in learning opportunities (language based, SES based, and school segregation) experienced by the two ethnic groups.

An Overview of Conflicting Opinions in the TAAS Case.

This article provides an introduction to a number of issues and resultant conflicting opinions, held by plaintiffs and defendants, that characterized the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) case. The authors discuss eight different issues and the conflicting opinions that accompany them. These issues are concerned with the (a) explanation of why some minority students fail TAAS, (b) history of racial/ethnic minority discrimination in Texas schools, (c) opportunity to learn TAAS content, (d) alignment between teaching and TAAS, (e) adverse impact of the TAAS test on minority students, (f) psychometric integrity of TAAS, (g) decision model for awarding the high school diploma, and (h) accountability model.

WISC-R factor structures among white, Mexican American, and African American children : A research note

The factor structure for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) was investigated for White (n = 183), Mexican American (n = 129), and African American (n = 139) nonreferred school-age children (6.8 to 14.6 years) of low-to middle-class socioeconomic background. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. The WISC-R factor structure model tested was Kaufmans (1975) three-factor solution that consisted of Verbal Comprehension (VC, Factor 1), Perceptual Organization (PO, Factor 2), and Freedom from Distractibility (FD, Factor 3). The results of the exploratory analyses showed Kaufmans three-factor solution for the three ethnic groups, but the order of Factor 2 and Factor 3 was reversed for the Mexican American and African American samples—thus raising questions about the comparability of the WISC-R factor structure across groups. The confirmatory analyses, which used the orthogonal nested factors approach by Gustafsson and Balke (1993), resulted in a model (for each of the ethnic groups) in which a G factor explained most of the variance (followed by the nested first-order factors—VC, PO, and FD). The results of the confirmatory analyses provide some support for David Wechslers (1974) original intentions that the WISC-R structure is best described as having a general, or global, factor.

A Tribute to Thomas P. Carter (1927-2001): Activist Scholar and Pioneer in Mexican American Education.

This article presents a testimony to the late Dr. Thomas P. Carter. Well known for his classic (1970) book, Mexican Americans in School: A History of Educational Neglect, Carter was an activist scholar and pioneer in Mexican American education. His considerable interactions with South Americans, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans served as a foundation that forged a lifelong commitment working toward equal educational opportunities for Mexican American students. It is clear from his biographical information that Dr. George I. Sanchez, whom Carter studied under while pursuing his doctorate in education at The University of Texas at Austin, helped to shape Carters antideficit thinking perspective and structural analysis approach in doing research on Mexican American students. In this tribute to Carter, author Richard Valencia focuses on four of Carters major accomplishments: (a) his 1970 classic book, Mexican Americans in School; (b) his influence on the education chapter in the Grebler, Moore, and Guzman (1970) book, The Mexican-American People: The Nations Second Largest Minority; (c) his influence on the landmark U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Mexican American Education Study of 1971–1974; and (d) his role as an expert witness in Mexican American-initiated litigation, particularly the highly significant Cisneros v. Corpus Christi Independent School District (1970) school desegregation case. Based on these accomplishments, in particular, Dr. Thomas P. Carter emerged as one of the foremost contributors of his time in advancing the field of Mexican American education. As well, he needs to be acknowledged for assisting the Mexican American people in their quest for educational equality.

The TAAS Case: A Recapitulation and Beyond.

The authors organize this article around five areas of discussion: First is a recapitulation of the major issues germane to the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills case. Next, the authors discuss the second wave of standards-based school reform in Texas, embodied in Senate Bill 4, pending legislation that would eliminate social promotion and institutionalize retention at several promotional gates for students who fail the state-mandated achievement test. The third section discusses a development at the federal level that could have profound effect on limiting the use of high-stakes tests in standards-based school reform movement in the United States. The fourth part, addressed to psychometricians and policy makers, reviews some of the lessons learned about state-mandated testing from the TAAS case. The final section speculates on what the real agenda for the TAAS may be in terms of maintaining the general social and economic value of the high school diploma at the expense of nondominant racial/ethnic students.

Activist Scholarship in Action: The Prevention of a Latino School Closure

Primarily because of underutilized schools (caused by declining enrollments) and the need to address budgetary deficits brought on by dramatic reductions in average daily attendance, many public school districts, in decades past and the present, have been forced to close numerous schools across the nation. The school boards of these economically troubled districts have resorted to consolidation to help alleviate their financial woes. In highly segregated biethnic or triethnic districts, school boards continue to struggle in deciding which schools to close. The closures of schools with high enrollments of Mexican American or other Latino students who are of low socioeconomic status and who are English language learners are particularly problematic, given their vulnerability for school failure. This article involves a case study of 1 such school proposed for closure, Park Oaks Elementary School in the Conejo Valley Unified School District (Southern California). Via activist scholarship, I relate how my efforts in documenting a goodness of fit at Park Oaks Elementary School proved successful in preventing the school from being closed. A major implication stemming from this study is that educational equality for Latino students and their parents can be achieved without having to resort to litigation. Unfortunately, months after this article was accepted for publication I received some very bad news that the school board reneged on its decision not to close Park Oaks. I explain these events in the Epilogue.