The Emerging Diversity of Students

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Ethnic, language, and cultural diversity is increasing in our society and in our schools. The U.S. Census Bureau in 2003 estimated that 67.9 percent of the population was White (not Hispanic), 4.1 percent Asian, 13.7 percent Latino, 0.9 percent Native American, and 12.2 percent African American. Many people can claim more than one ethnic or racial identity, and the Census Bureau now counts these groups. In the 2000 census, less than 2.4 percent claimed multiple ethnic identities.

The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 created a major change in the number of new immigrants to the United States and in the countries from which they came. The amendments allowed massive new immigration from Latin America and Asia from the 1980s to the present. Wars in Asia and Central America and political upheavals in the former Soviet Union also produced new immigrants. Once these immigrants arrived, family unification provisions of the law allowed them to bring additional family members.

The challenges of teaching an ethnically and linguistically diverse population are being felt throughout the nation. The recent arrival of many students from Latin America, Asia, and the former Soviet Union has created a need for social services and for English as a Second Language and bilingual instruction in schools. Among the new immigrants, Spanish is the most common language (28 million), followed by Chinese (2 million), French (1.6 million), German (1.4 million), and Tagalog (1.2 million) (Shin & Bruno, 2003) Language Use and English-speaking ability: 2000. Census 2000 Brief C2kBR-29).

Since the 1970s, the number of students who struggle to learn English has increased steadily and sharply. The case of California illustrates the impact of immigration on schools. According to the 2006 language census for California public schools (California Department of Education, 2006), language-minority students comprised 24.9 percent of the total school population, up from 15 percent of the student population in 1988. The single largest group of limited-English-proficient students is Spanish speaking (85.4 percent), followed by those who speak Vietnamese (2.2 percent), Hmong (1.4 percent), Cantonese (1.4 percent), and Pilipino or Tagalog (1.3 percent), with the rest speaking 31 other languages, including Khmer, Russian, Punjabi, Farsi, and Mien. Texas has had a similar large increase in language-minority students, growing by 48 percent, to 711,000 students, between 1992 and 2002.

If you take a teaching position in California, New York, Illinois, or Texas or in almost any urban school district, you can expect that out of a class of 28 students, up to 7 will not speak English proficiently. Even if you begin your career in more rural states, such as Iowa, Utah, or Tennessee, you are likely to have a number of immigrant students in your classroom. How are you going to teach them your subject if they do not completely understand English?

Students from these minority language groups are concentrated in specific school districts and in both elementary and secondary grades. While a few of them benefit from high-quality bilingual education programs, the great majority of teachers assigned to these students are unprepared to help them. Most immigrant students receive inadequate English instruction and little academic support in their native language (Gándara, 2007).