The School Racial/Ethnic and Socioeconomic Composition of Mexican Origin Youth: Spatial Assimilation or Place Stratification?

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Segregation

Abstract

Mexican origin youth are one of the most educationally disadvantaged student subgroups in the United States. Some researchers argue that Mexican origin youth underachieve relative to their peers because they disproportionately attend schools with high concentrations of minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Yet, most previous studies do not assess how background factors such as nativity, duration of residence, and household socioeconomic status influence the school compositional characteristics of Mexican origin youth. In this analysis, I use the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) to examine the racial/ethnic and socioeconomic composition of schools attended by a nationally representative sample of Mexican origin 10th graders. Utilizing frameworks of neighborhood attainment, I evaluate whether Mexican origin youth show evidence of spatial assimilation or place stratification in the types of schools that they attend. Consonant with previous research, I find that Mexican origin youth attend schools with higher proportions of racial/ethnic minorities and students in poverty than their peers. Mexican origin youth show some evidence of spatial assimilation by immigrant generational status and household socioeconomic background. However, all Mexican origin generational subgroups attend schools with higher concentrations of minority and poor students than their non-Latino white peers, even when background characteristics such as socioeconomic status are taken into account. Overall, my results suggest that Mexican origin youth experience “weak” place stratification in schools.

Author

• Elizabeth Ackert, University of Washington