Report Faults Immigrant Instruction in 3 States

School districts in three Southern states with fast-growing Latino populations have not done a good job overall in teaching immigrant children, according to a study by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute in Los Angeles.

“The lack of resources devoted to educating Latinos in emerging immigrant communities is generating negative educational outcomes and de facto educational segregation in the South,” Andrew Wainer, a research associate at the policy institute, writes in the report released last month.

As proof, “The New Latino South and the Challenge to Public Education” cites data indicating lackluster Latino academic achievement in Arkansas, Georgia, and North Carolina. For example, during the 2002-03 school year, almost two out of three Hispanic 8th graders in Arkansas had “below basic” scores in mathematics. The report also quotes educators who say districts haven’t known what to do with...