The American Education System

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This report shall focus on the American education system and how students of Mexican origin experience educational social divisions and inequalities within it. There has been an increase in the American population, largely due to the immigration of individuals from different nations, looking to start a new life in America. With this, there has also been a sharp rise in children from immigrant families entering the American education system (McDonnell and Hill 1993).

Sociology of education is primarily separated into two levels of analysis: Macro-level and Micro-level. A Macro-level analysis focusing on how social forces, such as economics and politics, can have on an education system and what effects other social institutions. Micro-level sociologists have the opposite approach. They are concerned with looking at how set school practices and the way that they operate, and how these can lead to differences in individual student outcomes. When schools have different teaching methods or practices they can affect how individual’s students learn or the academic outcome they experience. For the purpose of this report a micro level analysis of the American education system shall be used and, how the systems and procedure within it can force some of its students to experience inequality and discrimination. Using this approach helps to give worth to the theories and methods to generate sociological questions, to better understand the relationship between educational systems and society both at the micro and macro levels (Saha 2008 : pp 300).

The American education system.

Unlike many other education systems, particular those ‘westernised systems’ such as the UK, the American education system is the responsibility of each individual state and the state run local government (U.S. Institutions Survey 2013) Such singular responsibility leads to little standardization in the curriculum, with each local government education body setting their own curriculum. As a result, individual states are therefore responsible for what subjects and modules are taught to their students and they targets and achievements they must reach for academic success.

Individual state control also means each state government decides how educational funding is disrupted amongst subjects; who can lead to a huge variation in course, subjects and other activities that students can take part in and learn from. Still, there are some common points, as the division of the education system is into distinct three levels that are based on a student’s age: these are categorised as elementary/primary education, secondary education, and higher education such as college and university (U.S. Institutions Survey 2013).

As a majority, children begin their educations prior to entering a formal state regulated education system. Parents have the option to send their children to pre-schools (nursery schools) from around 2-4 years of age and what is known as kindergarten for children age around 5-6 years of age. Parents have to finance these institutions as they are largely privately own and regulated. Children learn basics for education such as the alphabet or different shapes and colours, and this basic knowledge can be seen as the first port of call for secondary socialisation and other elementary basics needed to get ‘a head start’ and to prepare them for entering formal schooling (U.S. Institutions Survey 2013).

Children of American typically enter the education system at the age of 6 years old, starting the first formal education stage known as Elementary. These elementary students continue their education in one classroom and have contact with one particular teaching staff member throughout this year. Once completed Elementary education, students proceed onto middle school, where they experience a multi environment by changing classrooms for subjects and interacting with new and increased numbers of teachers along with a new diverse mix of students. Students can select from a wide range of academic classes and elective classes. The final stage of compulsory formal education in America is known as high school. Here students complete their freshman year, second year as a sophomore, third year as a junior and finally are known as a senior in their final compulsory school year. Students must earn a certain number of credits, which they get for successfully completed subjects in order to graduate and be awarded with a High School Diploma – there is no final examination like in many other countries and education systems (U.S. Institutions Survey 2013).

Mexican students within the American education system.

The experiences felt by Mexican origin students in the American education student can be seen by many as negative from the very start. Many students are seen to start formalized education without the same social and/or economic resources that their fellow white American students receive. Initial disadvantages continue throughout a Mexican American student’s education experience and can be seen to lead to Hispanics in American having the lowest rate of higher education achievement and therefore less chance of achieving stable employment and as a result a stable and supportive socioeconomic status (Schhneider, Martinez, and Ownes: 2006)

This report shall attempt to examine three issues that may lead to inequality faced by Mexican origin students in the American education system.

The gap in education attainment between Mexican origin students and their fellow American students can be due to differences in family backgrounds. American parents and their children believe that a college degree is necessary for obtaining stable and meaningful work (Schneider and Stevenson, 1999), and high education aspirations can also be found in ethnic minority households, such as Mexican Americans, but the achievement rate is not reflected in higher education statistic. A reason for this may be, if Mexican students had a similar rate of parental education, parental occupation and income, household structure and other family based cultural characteristics, and then is it possible that the achievement gap would be significantly smaller or even eliminated.

A second issue facing Mexican origin students can be accounted to a difference or barrier to language. If Mexican-origin adolescents were as fluent or capable in English language and grammar as their fellow students, then any gap in educational achievement may not exist. The idea of immigration and migration can also have an impact on the inequalities experienced by Mexican origin students. Students who migrate in their adolescence may face challenges due a combination of the above points and the fact that they will have previous experience in the Mexican education system. Such previous experience may not have equipped such students with the tools and foundation knowledge held by their white American counterparts.

Initial disadvantages are often seen as stemming from parents immigration status, socioeconomic status, educational history and their lack of knowledge about the American education system. Not having access to essential resources, both in education and at home and a weak relationship with their teachers and educational staff can negatively impact a Hispanic student as they progress throughout the American education system and can begin to undermine their chances at academic success. Such disadvantages are seen to mount up, and as a result have an effect on Hispanic individuals having one of the lowest rates of high school and college degrees, which can have a negative impact on their chances on future employment opportunities. Despite high educational expectations, Hispanics are among the least educated group in the United States: 11% of those over age 25 have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher compared with 17% of African American, 30% of whites, and 49% of Asian Americans in the same age group (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003). Mexican Americans, who are the largest and fastest growing Hispanic subgroup in the United States, have the lowest rates of educational attainment compared with other groups (U.S. Census Bureau 2003). The situation of Hispanic educational attainment in the American education system is cause for sociological concern and will be examined throughout this report, which will focus on Mexican origin students and their school experience throughout the American education system.

This report shall attempt to undercover the reasons that Mexican origin student experience such adversity and inequality in the American education system. To do this, the report shall examine how the American education system is organised and what barriers and disadvantages this may bring to Mexican students continuing and entering the school system.

Reasons for inequalities in the education system

As mentioned in the introduction to this report, many children participate in some form of pre-school where they are taught basic knowledge and provide a foundation for entering formal schooling. Pre-school education can be shown to education children not just to read and write, but also the importance of maintaining good grades and to be persistent in aiming for high achievements within education, especially within low-income children (Barnett and Camilli, 2002). The proven academic advantages to some form of pre-schooling have been favoured by academics as it can improve and initiate social development needed for children to become successful within the education system.

Mexican American families experience disproportionately high rates of poverty in comparison with other racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. population (Pew Hispanic Centre, 2011). Moreover, as compared with adults from other racial-ethnic groups, proportionately fewer Mexican American adults have high school diplomas, college degrees, or participate in postgraduate education (U.S. Census, 2009).

Young Hispanic children would also find preschool education helpful in bridging the social gap between their families or local communities and wider society. Entering English speaking pre-school would find children exposed to the linguistics and grammar for the first time in a more relaxed setting, and then they would be socialised into the academic and cultural norms expected of them. Despite this, Hispanic children are the least likely ethnic group in America to be entered into or attended a pre-school programme (Schneider, Martinez, and Ownes: 2006). Reasons for such a low attendance rate shall be explored throughout this paper, and will also attempt to discover reasons the Mexican origin children face inequality within the American education system.

Family background

Public education is a key element for aiding children of varied and diverse ethnic backgrounds to participate and develop into participants in American life. Immigration into the United States increased within the late 19th and early 20th century and the education system was developed from its original state to help to integrate the children of such immigrants into the American mainstream social systems. The earliest Mexican Americans did not in fact migrate to American, but in fact America came to them by conquering Mexico in 1848 and acquisitioning parts of Mexico into American land such as the southwest and California as we know it today. War between the United States and Mexico occurred between 1846 and 1848 with America ultimately acquiring more than 5000,000 of Mexican territory (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2008).

Many Mexican American students are part of an immigrant parent household. Their parents can be seen to have migrated to the US for work, often ending up providing a source of cheap and low skilled labour ‘Mexican newcomers make up a working poor, with limited access to jobs beyond the low-wage sector.’(Waldinger, Lim and Cort 2007 pg 2). As a result of this, inequality can be seen to be built into the American system for children of Mexican immigrant families, with education reproducing such ideas of inequality and establishing a foundation for Mexican American children to enter into this workforce. Social and economic factors can heavily influence the educational attainments of children and adolescents in the American education system and Mexican American students are less likely than their white American classmates to come from an advantaged background. From this we can conclude that it is no shock that Mexican student’s fall behind white students in education.

In contrast to many other immigrants into other countries, such as Europeans or African Americans, ties to ‘home’ countries are often immediately broken or are lessened in time; Mexican Americans keep a close relation to Mexico itself for both cultural and geographical reasons. Maintaining this tie can impact on student’s behaviour within the American education system, as their family background and home-life may not support their education experience within American, due to the lifestyle their families are maintaining are similar that they have had in Mexico.

Language

As mentioned before many Mexican families living in the US face living in lower socioeconomic areas and conditions than compared to their fellow white or westernised American citizens, the lower socioeconomic status of students in a school can be linked to the low number of students who can maintain English-language ability. In underprivileged American schools only 30% of students were seen to maintain a high level of English in past statistics, compared to over 80% in school considered to be higher on the socioeconomic scale (Mexican American Education study ‘72). Further examination of findings have found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of Mexicans ages 5 and older are seen to be able to communicate and speak English language to a good standard, even if their home environment still uses Spanish as their first language.

Some American education studies have shown that parental interaction with children and participation in activities such as reading with a child has shown an advantage to the development of language skills and as a result has a positive influence on later educational achievements (Loeb, Fuller, Kagan, and Carrol, 2004). Families with a lower economic status can be seen to be less likely to participate in such educational activities, as mentioned previously many Mexican American students come from a low economic household with one or both parents speaking Spanish as there first language, and are therefore unable to participate in such activities with their children. Although Spanish speaking Hispanic households may be unable to participate in activities such as reading English based texts to their children, it is seen that by still reading with their children in Spanish is essential to their educational development. Students who are able to successfully read in their native language, in this case Spanish, can be seen to be able to adapt to reading English language text, by applying the strategies they learn to help them read in English (Jiminez, Garcia and Pearson: 1996).

The rise in higher language ability still does not account for the lack of educational achievement within the American education system. The ability to communicate is essential to be able to gain an education and to progress successfully throughout any kind of system, no matter what society or educational system a student belongs to. There have been many studies into aspects that can have a negative influence on the social and personal identity of Mexican origin students, and language has been a major concern in many. Studies have notified that there is a link between negative education consequences due to the cultural differences held my Mexican-origin student and the school that they attend. Trueba (1991) wrote extensively about the damage an education system can have by effectively ‘rejecting’ a student’s language. By this Trueba (1991) notes that a student’s education can be disrupted, not only by not understanding the language used in classrooms or texts, but the American education system can in fact reject the cultural and important social identity of their Mexican American students by ‘ignoring’ the language they speak or recognising what could be their first language (Spanish) at home, in favour of the standardised American first language (English). Implied or overt rejection of such language and use of linguistics can lower student’s educational aspirations and limit their chances for educational success.

Immigration status

Linking to how language can be seen as a disadvantage to Mexican students, leads to examining how immigration can affect a Mexican student educational achievements in the American school system. Mexico is the largest source of US immigration (Pew Hispanic centre 2009), with the Spanish speaking families mentioned above are often seen as recent immigrants to the United States who live in disadvantaged communities and are unfamiliar with American culture or the education system and such attributes are seen to affect their children once they become students of the American education system. The American education system is expected to provide education and many other services to immigrant children with a view to integrating them fully and rapidly into U.S. society (Montero-Sieburth & LaCelle-Peterson, 1991). Throughout this essay we have seen how many different factors can obstruct such expected integration.

The age an individual migrates to American can also have an important influence on their success and acceptance into the education system. About 17% of all Hispanics and 22% of all Hispanic youth’s ages 16 to 25 are unauthorized recent immigrants (Pew Hispanic centre report 2008). Those that enter the United States at a young age have more opportunity and greater flexibility when entering school, to adapt to a change in language and internalizing the norms and values of an American education system, and statistics have shown that students who immigrate to America at a later age (16-25) leave or decide not to continue with higher education due to financial pressure to find work to provide for and support their families (Pew Hispanic centre report 2008).

Conclusion

This essay has examined how Mexican heritage students face inequality with the American education system. Looking into barriers such as socioeconomic factors, language or cultural and family background has help to gain an understanding as to why Mexican American students under achieve.

Although many factors have been highlighted it is important to understand that students who come from low-income households, regardless of immigration status, can be seen to have lower achievement success than those in more economically stable households. A continual educational achievement difference remains between Mexican origin students and their fellow American born classmates , and despite overall lower enrolment and achievement rates, Mexican origin students are just as likely as other youths to say that education is important to them and for future success in their life (Pew Hispanic report 2008).

The high financial constraints that come with higher education or the lack of education achievement amongst their primary caregivers can be seen to affect all nationalities negatively amongst the American education system. Removing barriers to education and helping those without an education to achieve stable employment can help encourage students to succeed and create a base for future generations to realise their full potential in the American education system. The introduction of policies to recognise the culture and personal identity of Mexican origin students, no matter their socioeconomic or immigration status, can help to improve the overall educational experience and achievement the obtain.