Background/Context: Historically, the literature on access to quality education for Mexican Americans has been wrought with injustices committed on them because of the racist and deficit thinking of the time. This includes, but is not limited to, access to literacy in English and Spanish. This article focuses on las escuelitas, or little schools,…

This essay provides an overview of the huelga schools established in Houston, Texas, in 1970. For 2 years, from 1970 to 1972, the Mexican American community opposed the Houston Independent School District's plan to integrate the schools by pairing so-called White Mexican Americans with African American students. While they protested this decision,…

This case study outlines the struggle for desegregation and the adoption of culturally responsive curricula in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) as it attempted to balance state politics and federal court oversight. The case offers a detailed illustration of the political and legal events that led up to the adoption, elimination, and…

This biographical study of Dr. George I. Sanchez, a leading Mexican American educator, intellectual, and activist from the 1930s through the 1960s, opens up the idea of compensatory education--the prevalent notion of the 1960s that schools use specialized instructional programs to combat the alleged cultural deprivation of some children,…

This article presents a testimony to the late Dr. Thomas P. Carter. Well known for his classic (1970) book, Mexican Americans in School: A History of Educational Neglect, Carter was an activist scholar and pioneer in Mexican American education. His considerable interactions with South Americans, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans served as a…

New research on Chicano education from the perspective of Chicanos illuminates the struggle for equality and access. The establishment of community schools (escuelitas) by Mexican Americans in Texas was intended to preserve Mexican heritage and language as well as prepare children for bicultural existence. (SK)

This article identifies the Edcouch-Elsa High School Walkout of 1968 as a pivotal event in the educational history of Mexican American students in south Texas. It presents elements of the Civil Rights Movement, including the Brown decision, the rise of Mexican American political organizations, and the actions of community youth. The authors use…

This digest provides a history of American bilingual education in Spanish from the late 1950's onward, to help educators serve Mexican American students. From 1958 to 1968 curriculum reforms influenced by the launch of Sputnik combined with an influx of Spanish-speaking immigrants from Cuba to effect development of bilingual programs in south…

Highlights the year (1928-29) Lyndon Johnson served as teacher/principal of Welhausen School (Cotulla, Texas) and notes how this experience in a small, poor, Mexican American community influenced his later programs that had a profound effect on American education. (BRR)

A brief account of student experiences at the Spanish-American Normal School (Northern New Mexico Normal School) in El Rito, New Mexico, during the 1950s. Founded as a teacher training center in 1909, the boarding school later served elementary and secondary Hispanic students seeking an education not available in poor rural New Mexico communities.…

This paper examines the comparable educational histories of the "Hispanos" of a mountainous area of New Mexico and the peoples of southern Appalachia. Presbyterian missionaries entered both regions following the Civil War and soon placed mountain people in the category of "exceptional populations," along with freed slaves,…

For over a century, Texas public schools have attempted to acculturate Mexican-American children by denigrating Mexican-American culture, language, and history. These efforts have largely failed, as Mexican-Americans in Texas have not lost their cultural heritage and assimilated into the larger society. However, this ethnic group has been shorn of…

These newsletters examine issues in education along the United States and Mexico border. Topics in Part 1 include the ramifications of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for education, the impact of immigration on schools, and the structure and history of the Mexican educational system and its reforms in theory and practice. Educators…

This paper examines the status and history of Chicano studies as an academic field of study. The paper describes the development of Chicano studies in terms of philosophical foundations, identifying the Chicano community, curriculum development, and institutional support. The genesis, shaping, and direction of Chicano studies were largely in the…

Reviews a book that analyzes the 1970s political takeover of the Crystal City (Texas) school board, city council, and county offices by radical Chicano activists; district-wide establishment of maintenance bilingual education; internal and community divisions that followed; and eventual abandonment of the innovative programs. Points out the links…