Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Conger, D. (2005). Within-School Segregation in an Urban School District. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 27 (3) 225-244. Retrieved March, 12 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3699570

Article looks into segregation in elementary school classrooms in New York City. It is one of the first pieces to actively look into the effect of segregation between native-born and foreign-born students, as well as between ethnic groups. The author looks at data that covers a five year period between 1996 and 2001 to compare interschool segregation and within-school segregation. Finds that within-school segregation is high for foreign-born students, mainly due to their special educational needs, and proposes further studies into the effect that this exclusion may have on the students’ development.



Haskins, R., Greenberg, M. & Fremstad, S. (2004). Federal Policy for Immigrant Children: Room for Common Ground? The Future of Children. 14 (2) A publication of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and The Brookings Institution. Retrieved March, 12 2009, from http://www.brookings.edu/articles/2004/summer_demographics_haskins.aspx

Policy brief looks into several ways that the well-being of immigrant children in the United States can be improved, specifically in the areas of public benefits, education, and economic mobility. Looks into a variety of federal and state programs and analyzes their strengths and weaknesses in terms of improving the education opportunities for immigrant children. Authors argue that both underperforming and better-performing schools need improved funding for English-language education and better quality preschool programs.



Perreira, K. M., Harris, K. M., & Lee, D. (2006). Making It in America: High School Completion by Immigrant and Native Youth. Demography, 43 (3) 511-536. Retrieved March, 12 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4137246

Article compares the drop-out rate between three groups of students – recent immigrants, children of immigrants, and native-born Americans (in this case defined as third- and higher- generation Americans) by ethnicity. Authors analyze several theories to explain the lack of success of recent immigrants and later generations when compared to the results of U.S.-born children with foreign-born parents. Uses extensive research to posit their own theories for these results. Argues for better support systems for foreign-born students and greater effort to “reconnect” later generations with academic achievement.


van Hook, J. (2002). Immigration and African American Educational Opportunity: The Transformation of Minority Schools. Sociology of Education, 75 (2) 169-189. Retrieved March, 12 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3090290

Article investigates whether the presence of non-English speaking immigrant students affects the education of African-Americans in the same schools. Acknowledges the limited amount of existing data on the subject, and concludes that there are few parts of the country where African-American and foreign-born students are educated together. In areas where this is the case, the possibility remains that there could be a negative effect due to a redistribution of resources to comply with government regulations for the education of non-English proficient students.



Schwartz, A. E. & Stiefel, L. (2004). Immigrants and the Distribution of Resources within an Urban School District. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 26 (4) 303-327. Retrieved March, 12 2009, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3699510

Investigation into whether schools that have more immigrant students get fewer resources than those that cater to mainly native-born students because of the costs of immigrants’ special educational needs or discrimination against immigrants. The article includes a thorough analysis of the numbers of foreign-born students in New York City elementary schools and the resources that are spent on them. It also differentiates between in-classroom and non-classroom spending in order to analyze the effect that immigrant needs have on each.

This piece is quick to make note of discrepancies in resource allocation caused by larger schools and by the variation in the amount of non-English proficient students in each school but argue that their hypotheses remain unchanged by these. Similarly, the authors note that there are differences between the results for foreign-born students based on their country of origin. This brings up stark differences between the needs of different groups of immigrants – some are more likely to require ESL education than others in one case, while test score results also seem to be based on country of origin.

Concludes that there is a slight negative discrepancy in schools that cater to foreign-born, but it is often made up for by the presence of more experienced teachers. These differences are predominantly found in non-classroom spending – ESL education and other requirements take up money that would normally go to counseling services, among others – while there is little difference in classroom spending.

The article is interesting in that it touches on differences between immigrant groups in terms of needs, resources and test scores. However, there is little discussion on the impact of these varying resources on native-born students. Similarly, more details on the differences between differing countries of origin of foreign-born students would have been enlightening, but that could be a whole article in and of itself.