To understand the problems that urban schools encounter educating Puerto Rican students, teachers must understand the history and culture of Puerto Rico, which has been a melting pot of many different cultures. North American culture became prevalent after the Spanish-American War (1898) and the passage of the Jones Act (1917), which gave U.S. citizenship to all Puerto Ricans. Citizenship led to Puerto Rican migration to the United States. Reaching its highest levels in the 1940's and 50's, three main reasons accounted for the Puerto Rican migration: (1) economics; (2) hope for upward mobility; and (3) encouragement from the Puerto Rican government. Puerto Ricans, however, did not find what they had expected and experienced problems with broken families, drugs, crime, and the differing values between home and school. Lack of knowledge of the history and culture of Puerto Rico, inadequate teaching and curricula, social and emotional disorientation, a sense of inferiority, and poor self-image have affected how second and third generation Puerto Ricans, the Neo-Ricans, currently view education. On the positive side more Puerto Rican students go to college and there is a renewed interest in the Spanish language even though English is the primary language of Puerto Rico. Still, recommendations for educating Puerto Ricans and promoting adjustment in communities must be found. To accelerate the learning and adjustment of first and second generation Puerto Ricans, recommendations have been made by the New York City Puerto Rican Study which include: (1) use of the experiential approach to understanding English; (2) the vocabulary and structural approach to speaking and writing English; and (3) a more direct approach to reading. Additionally, the schools need to assist parents of non-English speaking students in matters pertaining to the child's welfare. (APG)