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Authors :
Zehr, Mary Ann
Source :
Education Week. Mar 2006 23(26):30-34.
Publication Year :
2006

Abstract

In 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka," the South Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side was home primarily to Polish and Czech immigrants. In the decades since, South Lawndale has undergone dramatic change. Eastern Europeans moved out, and people of Mexican descent settled in the area now known as "La Villita." Today, Chicago is home to the nation's second-largest community of people of Mexican origin, second only to Los Angeles, and the La Villita neighborhood reflects the dramatic change and demographic shifts brought about by the historic court decision that struck down racially segregated schooling. Nationwide, Hispanic students have outnumbered African-American children in public schools since 1998, a trend that has heightened the complexity of American education's demographic profile, after decades in which integration-in most people's eyes-was literally an issue of black and white. In La Villita, Latinos attend schools enrolling mostly minority students from poor families, reflecting a national pattern. Hispanic students are, "by most measures, the most segregated by both race and poverty," according to a recent report by Gary Orfield, a researcher at Harvard University. Residents of La Villita believe that Latinos have gotten short shrift when it comes to educational opportunities in Chicago, and have even resorted to hunger strikes in an effort to get a new neighborhood high school to relieve overcrowding and provide strong academics. In 2004, construction began on this new high school, which cost $61 million (more than any other public school in Chicago's history) and included a swimming pool, two gymnasiums, a health clinic, and a rooftop auditorium. La Villita residents are concentrating on how to make their new high school more successful than the comprehensive high schools now serving large numbers of Hispanic students. Their hopes are riding on a plan to design four separate small schools within the building. Each will have its own principal and academic theme: social justice; world languages; fine and performing arts; and mathematics, science, and technology.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0277-4232
Volume :
23
Issue :
26
Database :
ERIC
Journal :
Education Week
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
EJ755602
Document Type :
Journal Articles<br />Reports - Descriptive