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Mariella Espinoza-Herold Allyn and Bacon, New York, 2003164 pp. PaperbackISBN 0-2053-5131-X
In Issues in Latino Education , Mariella Espinoza-Herold writes about student and teacher experiences in two urban high schools in Arizona. She conducted in-depth interviews with two "at-risk" students: Manny, a middle class, monolingual, third-generation Mexican-American high school junior, and Carla, a working class, bilingual, immigrant high school senior. In addition, Espinoza-Herold conducted a survey with a total of 31 educators and two administrators from both Manny's and Carla's schools.
This study has various aims; First, Espinoza-Herold seeks to elaborate "the similarities and...differences [that] exist among Latino students according to the groups with which they identify in the context of their schooling in a dominant cultural institution" (34). A related aim was to take issue with John Ogbu's contention that success hinges on the voluntary (represented here by Carla) versus involuntary (Manny) status of immigrant groups, arguing instead for an "expansion of Ogbu's fixed typology that designates very distinct ideologies between voluntary and involuntary groups or individuals" (130). As an example of this contestation of Ogbu's framework, the author cites Carla's consciousness of racism and discriminatory practices as atypical of a voluntary immigrant's pattern that would, according to Ogbu, tend not to include an ideology of resistance. Finally, Espinoza-Herold compares teacher and student definitions of academic and personal success in an effort to determine the possible effects of a gap between these perceptions.
The message of Issues in Latino Education is one that cannot be ignored. Very real and deep lives lie behind the statistics of failure that are so ubiquitous in US media. Distinct voices are not heard or heeded when educational policy is made and remade. These voices reveal a fundamental disconnection between the official goals of schools and the goals of the students who are ostensibly "educated." Most importantly, it may be this very disconnect that contributes to high Latino dropout rates and other indicators that Latinos are failing in schools at a disproportionate rate. Mariella Espinoza-Herold highlights this point using the voices of two students. Moreover, by dedicating a whole chapter to student concerns and recommendations for educational reform, Espinoza-Herold also does what so many researchers neglect to do: she considers the ideas and recommendations of students to be...