The Changing Face of Education

A new report released by the Urban Institute finds that North Carolina saw the number school-aged children (grades Pre-K to 5) born to immigrants rose by 153 percent between 1990 and 2000 -- the second fastest rate of growth in the nation.

North Carolina was not the only southern state to post a triple-digit growth rate in its population of school-aged children of immigrants. Georgia (148 percent) and Arkansas (109 percent) also ranked among the five fastest growing states in the country.

Moreover, school-aged children of immigrants account for a growing share of the school population in many states. In Texas, for instance, 27 percent of all students in grades Pre-K to 5 were the children of immigrants in 2000. The comparable figure in Virginia was 13 percent.

Irrespective of the immigration status of their parents, children born in the United States are citizens. These children also will contribute a large portion of the workforce in the future and will be vital contributors to state and national prosperity. However, many of these children grow up in linguistically isolated families and enter school with limited English skills.

This fact poses special challenges for public school districts working to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The NCLB requires schools to assess and improve the English and abilities of children with limited fluency. Meeting this task will require school districts to rethink the ways in which they help students learn English, but also may require changes in existing funding formulas for schools with high concentrations of immigrant children or additional public investments to meet the NCLB's performance goals.

Southern states like Texas and Florida have dealt with the special education needs of the children of immigrants for years, to differing degrees of success. Yet this is a new issue for states like North Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas and likely will require them to alter commonly held assumptions about classroom demographics, public funding and educational priorities.