'Invisible' Children: Raised In The U.S.

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Struggling In Mexico
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November 13, 20166:01 AM ET

Claudio Sanchez
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Students engage in a class project at the Escuela 20 Noviembre school in Tijuana, Mexico. Sandy
Huffaker/NPR hide caption

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Sandy Huffaker/NPR

Students engage in a class project at the Escuela 20 Noviembre school in Tijuana, Mexico.

Sandy Huffaker/NPR

Part of our series exploring how the U.S will educate the nearly 5 million students who are
learning English.

Children and teenagers of Mexican descent make up one of the fastest-growing populations in the
nation's public schools.

That's a well-known statistic, but less known is that, in the last eight years, an nearly 500,000 of
these children have returned to Mexico with their families. Nine out of 10 are U.S. citizens because
they were born in the U.S. That's according to Mexican and U.S. government figures compiled by
researchers with the University of California system, and the Civil Rights Project at UCLA.

These families have returned to Mexico because of the economic downturn in the U.S. Many others
were deported and had no choice but to take their U.S.-born children with them.

Whatever the reason, Mexican schools have been caught off guard, totally unprepared to receive
them. Researchers with the U-C Mexico Initiative say these students will in all likelihood travel back
and forth between both countries so schools on both sides of the border need to work together to
make sure they get a quality education.

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In Mexican schools, the single-biggest problem these U.S.-born children and teenagers face is that
they can't read or write in Spanish. In the U.S. schools they previously attended, many lacked the
academic English they needed to do well. They're often labeled "English Language Learners" or
ELLs.

Patricia Gandara, co-chair of the Civil Rights Project, has been tracking these students in both
countries. She says both the U.S. and Mexico struggle with these transient students, and she says
Mexican schools can learn a lot from educators who work with these kids in this country.

Gandara and others call these children Los Invisibles: the Invisible Ones.

She organized a bi-national symposium in Mexico City recently to discuss the latest research about
these children and how best to educate them.

You say this has become an urgent issue for both the U.S. and Mexico. Why?
First of all, people on both sides of the border don't realize this many children have returned to
Mexico from the U.S. Massive deportations and the economic downturn from 2007 to 2009 were big
contributors to this. Jobs just dried up, so families went back with their kids. About 450,000 have
enrolled in schools in Mexico that we know of. We don't know how many are not enrolled because
not all have access to schools.

The fact that most of these students can't read or write in Spanish is just one hurdle.
Their parents don't know how to navigate Mexico's education system. Mexican schools
often don't accept transcripts from U.S. schools. They don't evaluate U.S.-born
children in English, their primary language. At least that's what you and your fellow
researchers have documented. But your research points to a bigger problem that
makes it hard for U.S. born Mexican students to receive the help they need.

Mexico, not unlike the U.S, also has very segregated schooling and segregated communities. Most
indigenous children, for example, grow up [in isolated communities] where the government is not
trying to integrate them into the mainstream. The humiliation they experience in school is part of the
humiliation indigenous people experience in other walks of life in Mexico. [Now,] there's
discrimination targeting Mexican kids who've returned from the U.S., because they don't speak
Spanish.

Enlarge this image

Anthony David Martinez raises his hand in class at the Escuela 20 Noviembre school in Tijuana,
Mexico. Sandy Huffaker/NPR hide caption
toggle caption
Sandy Huffaker/NPR

Anthony David Martinez raises his hand in class at the Escuela 20 Noviembre school in Tijuana,
Mexico.

Sandy Huffaker/NPR

At the bi-national conference you helped organize in Mexico City, researchers talked
about best practices and what both the U.S. and Mexico can learn from each other in
addressing the needs of these transient students. But aren't there big differences in
how each country approaches language minority students?

One big difference in terms of how schools in the U.S. and Mexico deal with language minorities
seems pretty glaring. In Mexican schools, the goal is to transition children as quickly as possible to
Spanish fluency because it's the only language that matters. We've tried to estimate the percentage
of classroom teachers in Mexico who speak English at a level that they can communicate with these
[U.S.-born] kids, and found that fewer than 5 percent in public schools across [Mexico] can
communicate with these children.

In the U.S., we don't accept the idea that children come to us as blank slates. [Immigrant] children
know a lot, but they know it in their primary language, not English. We want to build on their
primary language and not start from zero.

Also, in the U.S., the English-only, "sink or swim" approach has slowly given way to dual-language
programs and bilingual education. Parents today see the value of teaching children to speak, read
and write in Spanish and English. But only if it's done right. Poor quality programs can do more
damage than good.

Finally, you worry that schools in Mexico have been too slow in developing new
programs and policies to help these students. So what are you and your bi-national
group of researchers recommending that Mexican schools do?

Number One: Schools need to welcome parents and help them understand how the [Mexican]
system works and how they can support their children. Many of these families arrive with
tremendous needs that hinder parents' ability to support their children. Second, schools need to fully
assess what children know in their primary language. Too often, a child's knowledge is discarded
because its in another language. Educators in both Mexico and the U.S. have to understand that
young people who've been educated in both countries can be our future. Whether your primary
language is English or Spanish or you live in Mexico or the U.S., we can't afford to lose these
children. Its a social and economic loss.