by

Leroy Ortiz and Shannon Reierson

The Situation

New Mexico is a richly diverse multicultural and multilingual state that ranks as one of the most economically disadvantaged states in the United States. New Mexico is a "minority-majority" state with 44.7% White, 42.1% Hispanic or Latino, 9.5% American Indian, 1.9% Black or African American, 1.1% Asian, and 1% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander.

In terms of linguistic diversity, 55.1% of the population in New Mexico (age 5 and older) speak a language other than English at home. This percentage of 55.1%, according to the census bureau data, makes New Mexico the most linguistically diverse state in the United States exceeding such states as California (45.9%), Texas (34.1%), Hawaii (33%) and Arizona (26%). Some schools, particularly in Albuquerque, the largest metropolitan center in New Mexico, have as many as fifteen language groups represented, while other schools may be nearly 100% Latino (consisting of both recent immigrants and old Latino families). Currently, the heavy in-migration of immigrants, particularly Spanish speaking families from Mexico and Central America, will continue to add to the diversity and will challenge schools to find ways of responding appropriately to issues of language and culture.

As is true across the country, there are many concerns in New Mexico that schools are failing and that children, especially non-white students, are not receiving a first class education. This view of failure has been strongly supported by the governor, key legislators, school boards, the business community and many in the general public. The concern for school reform has resulted in the creation and increase of home-schooling, private schools, new charter and magnet schools as well a call for a voucher system in the state legislature. Strong appeals to the Latino community have been made by advocates of the voucher system claiming that Latino students will be better served by alternatives to the public school system. In spite of strong support by the governor, political opposition from many rural schools and largely democratic legislators has kept vouchers from being legislated in the state.

Education

At the present time, the school population in New Mexico is 49.3% Hispanic, 35.7% White, 11.0% Indian, 2.3% Black, and 1.0% Asian. Although New Mexico is a racially diverse state, teachers do not reflect this diversity. In 2000-2001, Hispanic teachers comprised 5,629 of the total number of teachers, while 14,449 were White, 96 were Indian, 237 were Black, and 532 were Asian. Although 49.3% of the student population was Latino, only 27% of teachers were Hispanic.

In 2000-2001, approximately 80,070 Limited English Proficient (LEP) students were enrolled in public schools in New Mexico. Of the total school enrollment in New Mexico's schools, 24.9% of students are LEP. New Mexico institutions of higher education only produce 50% of the needed teachers for New Mexico schools, the other teachers come from out of state and very few of them are prepared to teach LEP students. Although many bilingual education teachers are in high demand and are being trained in institutions of higher education in New Mexico, they are leaving for other states such as Texas and California that have higher salaries for teachers.

In 2000-2001, 162,006 Hispanic students were enrolled in K-12 classes in New Mexico. Of the 18,303 graduates of public high schools, 7,083 were Hispanic. During the 2000-2001 school year, 12,636 Hispanic students dropped out of school for a total dropout rate of 7.8%. Reports also show that in audits done in Albuquerque Public Schools, that there are few Hispanic students in honors programs and many minority students in remedial classes. Also, many LEP students are misdiagnosed and put into special education classes.

In 2001, 675 schools in New Mexico were rated based on performance. Fifty-eight percent were rated exemplary, 104 exceeded standards, 404 met standards, and 109 were rated probationary. Probationary schools were reduced by 34% since the 2000 ratings. The State Department of Education predicts that in 2002-2003, the number of corrective action schools will be 36, and in 2003-2004 it will reach 58. Ratings of New Mexico schools are heavily dependent on high stakes testing, achievement of standards, parental involvement, school attendance, and dropout rates. Many of New Mexico's schools according to this system are only meeting standards and many others are probationary; almost all of those problem schools have heavy Hispanic enrollments, low socio-economic levels, and large numbers of second language learners.

In order to increase participation in higher education, the state lottery has been providing scholarships to students who graduate from New Mexico's high schools. Although the intention was to award these scholarships to low income students, actually the scholarships have gone mainly to middle class students. This has an effect on the representation of many students in higher education. As tables I-III show, the number of non-white students is far less than one would predict in higher education given the overall number of Latinos in the population at large.

Given the above picture, including statistical patterns, it is clear that Hispanic students in New Mexico, as a group, are not succeeding academically at all levels of education. Dropout rates are high, academic achievement is low, there are few Hispanic students in honors classes and many in remedial classes and special education classes. There is also a need for more Hispanic teachers who represent the students' linguistic and cultural backgrounds in addition to non-Hispanic teachers who have received special training to teach children who are learning English as a Second Language.

Table 1

K - 12 Student Population

Table 2

Community College Student Enrollments

Table 3

Fourth Year IHE Enrollment

Population Growth

The population of New Mexico in 2000 was 1,819,046. Between 1990-2000, there was 20.1% increase in the population. For people under the age of eighteen, the population has increased by 28.0%. Due supposedly to the increase in the general population and the change in demographics, there has been an increase in the number of LEP students represented to almost 50 percent in some classrooms.

Social Attitude

In 1990, a single legislator introduced in the New Mexico State legislature an English-Only bill only to be quickly and overwhelmingly rejected by a large number of Hispanic and non-Hispanic state legislators. At this same time, the state legislature passed an English Plus resolution, the first of its kind in the country, which was designed to show support for the value of mulitlingualism in keeping with New Mexico's long bilingual tradition including constitutional support for the Spanish language. Since the Territorial Period (1846-1912) and since New Mexico became a state in 1912, Spanish speaking people have always had strong legislative and political participation and influence in the state.

Since this resolution was passed, there have been other failed attempts to promote English Only in New Mexico. Linda Chavez, a proponent of English-Only, attempted to eliminate bilingual education in the Albuquerque Public Schools and subsequently failed through a court decision. The rejection of the proposition for English-Only was affected by the large numbers of bilingual residents.

However, in spite of these past rejections of English-Only efforts and in spite of the fact that more than half of the state of New Mexico speaks a language other than English at home, there still exists, particularly among educational leaders, a fear that English Only legislation might some day be passed.

Litigation

The need for bilingual education teachers who can teach students academic subjects in the native language and who can assist school-aged students in the learning of English is growing at an astounding rate throughout the New Mexico, the Southwest and the country. In public schools across the country and at every level, the fastest growing population is made up of students who do not speak English as a first language. In New Mexico, this is also the case. English learners are both immigrant and native-born students. State and federal laws mandate that these students be provided with a theoretically sound, consistent English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education program that will assist them in the acquisition of English, while at the same time serving to strengthen and maintain the child's native language. Many educators stress that bilingual Education programs are desperately needed to help offset the tremendous language loss that has occurred in the Chicano and American Indian communities in the past fifty years.

In the past10-15 years, the Office of Civil Rights went to eight different school districts in New Mexico and found that many were not in compliance with the law of providing equal educational opportunity to Spanish speaking children. It was found that these school districts were not providing programs to enhance oral language and literacy in English and were also not providing bilingual programs in which Spanish and English literacy skills were being learned.

After the OCR visits, the school districts were mandated by the federal government to provide teachers with opportunities for professional development to obtain endorsements in Bilingual Education or TESOL. University and teacher education institutions in New Mexico have been inundated (and sometimes stretched beyond their capacity) by school district requests to provide courses or in-service workshops to meet this critical professional development need. Given the demographic changes and given the growing number of 2nd language learners in the schools, this pressure on universities to continue responding to the needs of school districts is not likely to subside in the near future.

Legislation

Some recent legislation that have affected non-white students in New Mexico are Bill 56 which was passed to provide funding matches for National Science Foundation programs to increase participation of underrepresented students in undergraduate and graduate education programs.

The legislative priorities for 2002 are:

• To provide equitable access and opportunity for all students.
• Funding for schools with increased enrollments
• Teacher quality
• Academic achievement through a comprehensive assessment system, rating systems, advocate for assistance for probationary schools, provide funding to ensure accountability and restore confidence with probationary schools facing corrective action, intervention for literacy.
• Constructive engagement with Indian student educators.

Recommendations

Some of the following recommendations will strengthen partnerships to improve teacher preparation; upgrade teachers' knowledge of content areas and pedagogy; prepare and continue professional development of teachers with LEP students; and to encourage parent and community participation in education.

Funding:

• Increase funds for bilingual and ESL education and school facilities.
• Provide special funding to schools with probationary ratings to increase materials, sources, and special after-school programs to provide equitable opportunities for all students.
• Provide state funds for scholarships available to Latino and other underrepresented populations to attend institutions of higher education
• Provide forgivable loans to students being trained in multicultural, bilingual, and ESL education, who are preparing to teach in New Mexico's schools.
• Provide incentive pay to ESL and bilingual teachers who are trained in New Mexico's institutions of higher education to teach in New Mexico.
• Continue to work with the government to provide Title VII funds for teacher training programs as well as school district programs.

Programs:

• Mandate in teacher education programs that teachers have courses on Latino culture and language
• ESL classes offered to parents.
• Audits on schools to see that students who are placed in honors or remedial classes are appropriately placed.
• Special after school programs to increase the retention and education of students who have a higher drop out rate.
• A series of mandatory training sessions for school administrators, who would be monitored and assessed, on the issues of educating LEP students.
• Mandate schools to create programs that ensure parents and language minority communities participate in classrooms, schools, and decision-making processes in the school districts.

Partnerships

• Outreach for motivating Latino students to consider various professions
• Formal recruitment of Latino students to higher education.
• Formal recruitment of diverse students to become teachers for New Mexican children.
• Formal agreements between high schools, communities, and four-year institutions to increase minority students in the constituency of higher education institutions.

References

State of New Mexico: Department of Education. Retrieved Friday, November 30, 2001 from www.sde.state.nm.us.

State of New Mexico: Commission on Higher Education. Retrieved Friday, November 30, 2001 from www.nmche.org.

U.S. Census Bureau. United States Department of Commerce. Retrieved Friday, November 21, 2001 from www.census.gov/.