Unaccompanied Minors: How Children of Latin American Immigrants Negotiate High School Choice

• In Event: 35.081 - Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: 35.081-21 - School Choice: Parental Information and Judgments

Abstract

Despite the growing population of children of immigrants in U.S. schools, limited research exists on the relationship between parental nativity and participation in school choice. This paper examines children of Latin American immigrants’ search for and decisions about high schools in the context of a New York City’s compulsory choice policy. Drawing on nearly two years of ethnographic data collected at one public middle school and interviews with 26 children of low-income immigrants from across Latin America, the paper illuminates some of challenges that Latino immigrant-origin students faced in understanding how to select appropriate, quality high schools and identifies weakness in the policy’s design and implementation that hinder its potential to serve as a lever for greater educational equity.

Author

• Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Seton Hall University