University of California Institute for Mexico and the …ucmexus.ucr.edu/.../uc-mexus-news-pdfs/44_Spring2008.pdfimmigrant high school students after the passage of Proposition 187

NUMBER 44 lSPRING 2008

University of California Institute for Mexico and the United StatesUniversity of California Institute for Mexico and the United StatesBerkeley • Davis • Irvine • Los Angeles • Merced • Riverside • Santa Barbara • Santa Cruz • San Diego • San Francisco

UC MEXUS NEWS

California and Mexico face different challenges in their education systems. In

this issue of the UC MEXUS News, higher education experts working in California and

Mexico address the issues facing students and educators in the 21st century. In addition,

recipients of UC MEXUS funding talk about their work as it relates to education.

Photo courtesy of the UCLA Institute for Democracy, Education and Access & UC All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity

© Copyright Paul Botello

UC MEXUS NEWS l Spring 20082

ContentsDIRECTOR’S

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . 2

HIGHER EDUCATION IN

MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

HIGHER EDUCATION IN

THE U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

EDUCATION INITIATIVES

AT UC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

DE LA CRUZ FINDS

NEW SUCCESSES . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

ACADEMIC WRITING

& ESL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

UC MEXUS-CONACYTCOLLABORATIONS:- COLE & MIJANGOS . . . . . 17- ALONSO & ZENTELLA . . . 19

UNDOCUMENTED STUDENTS &HIGHER EDUCATION . . . . . . 21

FRONT COVER: The front coverillustration, from the 1995 muralShared Hope in the EsperanzaElementary School playground in LosAngeles, is reproduced by permissionof the artist Paul Botello. His workcan be seen at: www.lamurals.org/MuralistPages/BotelloP.html The orig-inal photograph appeared in theCalifornia Educational OpportunityReport 2006: Roadblocks to College,published by the UCLA Institute forDemocracy, Education and Access(UCLA /IDEA) & UC All CampusConsortium on Research for Diversity(UC/ACCORD).

Higher educationfaces new challengesin 21st century

The beginning of the 21st century hasmarked a renewed search for educa-tional models that improve students’

academic skills so that they can meet thedemands of a rapidly changing society inan era of globalization. This situation isespecially important in higher education,which can play a major role in defining bet-

ter strategies for economic growth and social wellbeing. Indeed, inter-national consensus increasingly underscores the need to rethink highereducation in light of the dramatic economic, social, political, culturaland environmental changes society has experienced in recent decades.

New approaches in the higher educational systems of Mexico andthe United States have often focused on their economic contributions tosociety by emphasizing the creation of a workforce that can respondmore effectively to labor market changes created by the dynamics in thedomestic and global economies. Higher education’s contribution to eco-nomic growth is one of its critical functions, but it would be remiss toneglect the social dimension of education, and its role in fosteringsocial cohesion. Thus, future students will become not only agents ofeconomic growth but also members of extended social networks defin-ing future societal development.

The University of California has been exploring these newapproaches to education. A recent report by the University of CaliforniaCommission on General Education in the 21st Century emphasizes theneed to rethink the way we prepare our students for their role in society.The report highlights the contributions of general education to discipli-nary education through the appreciation of social responsibility andcivic engagement, whether local or global. It also stresses the impor-tance of four areas in contemporary civic education that prepare stu-dents to respond better to increasingly diverse and changing domesticand international societies: access to information about civic society,

PHOTO BY ANDREA KAUS

BY

ROBERTO

SÁNCHEZ-RODRÍGUEZ

DIRECTOR

UC MEXUS

UC MEXUS NEWS l Spring 2008 3

sorting and evaluating that information, appreciation ofdemocratic values, and civic experience.1

UC MEXUS supports innovative research and bina-tional collaborations that contribute to these areas. Thisissue of our newsletter presents Mexican and UC per-spectives on higher education in the 21st century andincludes results from some of the education projectsthat our programs have supported.

Two invited contributions by Manuel Gil Antón fromUniversidad Autónoma Metropolitana and John AubreyDouglass from UC Berkeley highlight the challengeshigher education systems face in Mexico and the UnitedStates. Both pieces stress the importance of higher edu-cation for society and the challenges to improve accessto higher education in the two countries. In particular,Antón emphasizes the importance of seeking out newapproaches to education that focus on students’ lifelonglearning.

Charles Bazerman, from UC Santa Barbara, providesan insightful perspective with respect to language sup-port for academic writing and publication. His academicactivities and research are designed to support Mexicanstudents and scholars for whom English is a second lan-guage so that they can learn to write, argue and reason ina different academic culture.

The binational collaboration between Michael Colefrom UC San Diego and Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh fromthe Escuela Normal Rodolfo Menéndez de la Peña inYucatán was initially designed to examine primary edu-cation among Mayan-speaking children. The research hadan unexpected development as the project activities creat-ed an extended network of researchers and students withdynamic communication through video-conferences. Thisnetwork, in turn, generated new projects involvingresearchers from other universities in Mexico and theUnited States.

Guillermo Alonso Meneses from El Colegio de laFrontera Norte and Ana Celia Zentella from UC SanDiego focused their binational project on language iden-tity and ideology among Tijuana students going toschool in San Diego. The project stressed the impor-tance of identifying linguistic anomalies common tomany Spanish language bilinguals that are subsequentlymisinterpreted as grammatical errors by English-as-a-second-language teachers. The project will expand intoa study of a sociolinguistic ethnography in San Diegohigh schools.

Hinda Seif is a former UC MEXUS dissertation grantrecipient from UC Davis who examined the struggle forCalifornia’s in-state tuition law Assembly Bill 540 dur-ing her doctoral studies. Her dissertation fieldworkexplored the ways that California legislators, educatorsand communities asserted the state membership of theirimmigrant high school students after the passage ofProposition 187. In this piece, she looks at the advancesof undocumented immigrant high school students nation-wide in gaining access to higher education. Her researchand subsequent investigation provides a better under-standing of the barriers undocumented students still facein fulfilling their educational potential in California andthroughout the United States. Her article also examinesadvances in legislation to support undocumented stu-dents and afford them access to higher education as resi-dents rather than as foreign nationals. Seif now is anassistant professor of anthropology, and women/genderstudies at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

The University of California targets education as apriority mission. UC MEXUS intends to assist theUniversity in achieving the goals of this mission by fos-tering and expanding collaboration among UC facultyand Mexican researchers in the area of education,research and study. These collaborations are an idealvenue by which to explore new ways of generating sci-entific knowledge and innovative educational approach-es that will prepare students better for the challenges ofthe 21st century. 1 General Education in the 21st Century: A Report of the University of

California Commission on General Education, April 2007.http://cshe.berkeley.edu/publications/publications.php?id=254 (accessed May 4,2008)

BY MANUEL GILANTÓN

Higher educationin 21st centuryMexico

Educación superior en México

en el siglo XXILos desafíos del futuro ya presente

BY MANUEL GILANTÓN

Introducción

México sería imposible de entenderen nuestros días sin el enormeesfuerzo educativo, sobre todo

público, que a lo largo de las décadas pasadasfue llevado a cabo. Basta, quizá, un dato paracomprender su importancia: en 1960, lejanodesde la perspectiva de nuestra existencia individual, pero“cercano" en la transformación de las sociedades desde lalarga duración, asistían a una escuela de educación superi-or el 3% de los jóvenes en edad de estudiar en ese nivel.Hoy, la proporción ha crecido a cerca del 27% lo cualimplica una multiplicación por nueve, mucho mayor alcrecimiento poblacional en el periodo.

Como es lógico, este crecimiento notable (aunque menoren una perspectiva comparada con otras naciones), ha impli-cado una cobertura universal en el primer tramo de la edu-cación básica (seis años) el incremento de los muchachosque ingresan a su segundo nivel, de tres años, y a la edu-cación posbásica. Problemas de abandono de los estudiosocurren en los dos siguientes periodos a la educación ele-mental, lo cual es un grave problema sin duda, pero lademanda por estudios superiores ha crecido de maneranotable, de tal manera que si se hace un esfuerzo a fondoen los niveles previos, en algunos años el país podría arrib-ar a cotas cercanas al 30% en educación superior que losexpertos ya califican como cobertura amplia (universal),más allá de la primera ola de masificación experimentadasobre todo a partir de los años setenta.

El proceso educativo aún con fallas en sus resultadoscognitivos, como muestran los estudios nacionales y losinternacionales en que México participa, no se agota en lamedición de aprendizajes, sino que lleva consigo, también

4 UC MEXUS NEWS l Spring 2008

PHOTO BY ANDREA KAUS

BY MANUEL

GILANTÓN

UNIVERSIDAD

AUTÓNOMA

METROPOLITANA

UNIDAD

AZCAPOTZALCO


aspectos de modernización en las relaciones sociales.A mi juicio, los avances democráticos de los últimos

años, derivados de la construcción de una ciudadaníamejor formada, tienen una relación importante con elavance en la educación en todos los niveles.

¿Diversificación o segmentación?Si centramos la mirada en la educación superior,

además de su crecimiento en cobertura, durante los últimosdecenios hemos sido testigos de un proceso de diversifi-cación institucional: no existen hoy sólo más espacios, sinodiferentes tipos de instituciones públicas (Universidades eInstituciones Federales, Estatales, Institutos Tecnológicos,Universidades Tecnológicas, Politécnicas e Interculturales).La participación del sector privado se ha tornado muy rele-vante: si en 1990 este conjunto de instituciones cubríaalrededor del 15% de la matrícula nacional, ahora atiende auno de cada tres estudiantes. A su vez, el conjunto de insti-tuciones privadas está integrado por establecimientos delarga data, con calidad reconocida y dirigidos a las eliteseconómicas y sociales; otros de calidad intermedia y, desdela última década del siglo XX, un creciente conjunto deinstituciones particulares de "absorción de demanda." Puesel sector público ha detenido su crecimiento en las institu-ciones más consolidadas, de tal manera que miles de estu-diantes que no encuentran espacio en ellas, y no tienenrecursos para pagar las altísimas cuotas de las universi-dades privadas de elite, han encontrado en pequeñosestablecimientos de educación superior privados un nichodonde poder continuar sus estudios. Se afirma, con razón,que muchos de ellos no tienen calidad suficiente, pero suexistencia numerosa contribuye a la cobertura conseguida.

La pregunta central ante esta multiplicación deopciones es si estamos frente a un adecuado y necesarioproceso de diversificación institucional, o bien ante elestablecimiento de un sistema de educación superior seg-mentado. Esto es, con circuitos de primera clase en térmi-nos de calidad educativa y de las relaciones sociales quese establecen en sus aulas–que sería el caso de las institu-ciones públicas y privadas consolidadas: por ejemplo laUniversidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) enun caso, y el Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superioresde Monterrey (ITESM) en el otro–y espacios formativos


de calidad menor. No es lo mismo diversificar opciones deestudio con misiones y destinos futuros variables (que enprincipio sería pertinente) que construir una especie de sis-tema de "castas educativas," sin posibilidad de tránsitoentre ellas y que conducen a destinos laborales, y de cali-dad de vida, incomparables. Creo que esto último es lo queha predominado.

La relación entre la educación superior y el desarrollo económico

Hace ya muchos años, el sociólogo francés J.C. Passeronexpresó de una manera muy clara la relación entre la escuelasuperior y la esfera económica: "La universidad, si trabajabien y cuenta con calidad, puede hacer que el hijo de unobrero o campesino tenga la capacidad de ser gerente de unaempresa, o un destacado ingeniero; lo que no puede hacer laescuela es el espacio laboral para que este estudiante sedesarrolle: eso es cuestión de la economía." Y tiene razón.

Consideremos algunos datos de la realidad económicaactual en México: desde hace al menos veinte años,México sufre las consecuencias de una crisis estructural,debido, entre otras cosas, al predominio de reformas neoliberales que, apostando a la reducción de las responsabili-dades estatales a favor del mercado, han producido, demanera aguda, dos fenómenos: el crecimiento del sectorinformal (entre 2000 y 2004, 1.3 millones de personas sehan incorporado a este medio de subsistencia, precario,que ya suma, según cifras oficiales, 11.2 millones comoparte de la población económicamente activa) y, por otrolado la migración: mientras en 1980 cerca de 40 mil mexi-canos cruzaban la frontera con Estados Unidos cada añopara buscar mejores condiciones de vida, en 2005 estacifra ha crecido a cerca de medio millón de conciudadanosanualmente: esto significa que en los últimos seis años,dos millones de personas han emigrado, y dentro de esteenorme grupo, es creciente la población que se desplazacon credenciales educativas más altas que antes.

En los últimos seis años, para dar cuenta de las cifrasmás recientes, nuestro país requirió de la producción de almenos cuatro millones de empleos o espacios en la partici-pación económica con el fin de dar cabida a los jóvenesque iniciarían su vida laboral. ¿Qué ha ocurrido en reali-dad? Que la producción de empleos en ese periodo fue detan sólo 475 mil, es decir, el 12 por ciento de lo necesario.


Si a esto añadimos que 40 millones de mexicanosviven en condiciones de pobreza, y de ellos la mitad enpobreza extrema, podemos concluir que por más que lasinstituciones educativas se esfuercen por mejorar su cali-dad, el destino laboral y de calidad de vida de sus egre-saros no depende, de manera central, de la eficacia en elaprendizaje, sino de un proceso distinto para los "inclui-dos" en el México moderno, minoritario, en alto contrastecon los "excluidos" por sus condiciones de origen social.No es exagerado afirmar que, de continuar la situación decrisis en el empleo, y debido a la ausencia de una políticade desarrollo económico inclusivo, que rebase la perspecti-va de un país maquilador con base en los bajos salarios, el"éxito" posterior a los estudios depende más del estratosocial de procedencia que de la experiencia educativa.

¿Sociedad del conocimiento? ¿Aprender a aprender durante toda la vida?

Se afirma, con buenos argumentos generales, que el pro-ceso de globalización implica una fuerte dosis de cono-cimiento avanzado aplicado al desarrollo económico. Paraello, el papel de la educación terciaria es fundamental.Aunque he tratado de mostrar las limitaciones estructuralesque enfrenta el país, es también necesario aceptar que enuna buena parte de las instituciones–¿la mayoría?–los pro-cesos educativos descansan en formas de enseñanza yaprendizaje obsoletas, propias, sin exagerar, de inicios delsiglo XX. Se sigue, en términos mayoritarios, poniendo elcentro de atención en los enseñantes, y no en los aprendices.En otras palabras, se ha apostado a la mejoría de las creden-ciales de los académicos–doctorados al vapor, indicadoressimples que "pretenden" similitud con las instituciones defama internacional–sin que esto tenga, necesariamente,relación con la capacidad de los maestros para generarespacios de aprendizaje adecuados a los estudiantes.

Me temo que en lugar de un movimiento fuerte hacia lasociedad del conocimiento, la nación tiende al desconoc-imiento de la relevancia del cambio de enfoque educativoque orienta sus actividades al aprendizaje continuo de susalumnos. El discurso de las autoridades es uno aprender aaprender pero la práctica no muestra resultados claros alrespecto. Predominan en las aulas las estrategias de "dicta-do" de contenidos, conferencias del profesor, exámenes queevalúan la retención de lo dicho en clase, sin entender que


ahora atendemos, por un lado, a generaciones que inauguransu condición de universitarios con precarias condiciones decapital cultural en la familia, y por el otro, a un conjunto dejóvenes que, en su vida diaria, están más en contacto consistemas audiovisuales e interactivos que con los viejosmodelos memorísticos.

A pesar de las restricciones del modelo de desarrolloya indicadas, las escuelas superiores han de mejorar sus-tancialmente sus estrategias de aprendizaje. Algo se haavanzado, hay que ser justos, pero el cambio de fondo aúnespera a ser generalizado.

La segmentación en los circuitos educativos en cuantoa su calidad y modernización no aseguran, desde luego,que todos los estudiantes estén preparados para enfrentarlos retos que se presentan en el mundo laboral, y vital, delcambio de época que vive el mundo y del cual no está ais-lado México. La reforma de fondo en la educación superi-or mexicana está pendiente, debido, quizá, en buena medi-da a una apuesta por el cambio de indicadores formales, enlugar de concentrarse en el análisis y cambio paulatino,pero urgente, de las prácticas educativas.

A pesar de ello, los más de dos millones que actual-mente estudian en la educación superior, cuentan con condi-ciones, variables es cierto, pero reales, de adaptarse a lasnuevas circunstancias. Por cuestiones demográficas que hanllevado al país a que el grupo de edad que más crecerá enlos próximos años sea el correspondiente a los que deberíantener acceso a la educación media (posterior a la básicaobligatoria por mandato constitucional) y a la superior, másde 10 millones de jóvenes están excluidos de esta oportu-nidad. Si con estudios avanzados la situación no eshalagüeña, sin ellos la exclusión en los códigos de la mod-ernidad es casi segura.

La desigualdad social, añadida a la desigualdad educa-tiva se convierten en un problema sistémico para el país.Es un problema ético, no cabe la menor duda, pero tambiénpráctico: el futuro de la nación no puede ser comparable alde otras sociedades, como Corea o Irlanda, sin un plan dedesarrollo económico que requiera, como el agua en eldesierto, la contribución de conocimiento avanzado. Hoy esmucho más fácil obtener un empleo como abogado–profe-sión altamente demandada y con signos de saturación en elmercado–que como doctor en física o en biología molecular.


No son pocos los estudiantes mexicanos que cursan estudiosde posgrado en el extranjero que, ante la falta de oportu-nidades en el mercado académico nacional–saturado porausencia de planes de retiro digno o carencia de nuevospuestos–y la ausencia de posibilidades de aplicación de susaber en la industria, deciden quedarse fuera del país. ¿Fugade cerebros? Creo que algo peor: desperdicio de talento quecon alto costo inició su desarrollo en nuestras fronteras,pero no encuentra en ellas un destino productivo al culmi-nar sus fases formativas al más alto nivel, ya sea dentro delpaís o fuera de él.

Algunos retos para el porvenirSin pretender ser exhaustivo, anotaré ciertos retos que

me parecen cruciales para mejorar la educación superior ysu relación con la esfera económica:

Urge contar con un modelo de desarrollo que incluyauna política industrial impulsada por el Estado, pues porla pura "mano invisible" del mercado la inercia al bajocomponente de conocimiento avanzado persistirá.

Mejorar sustancialmente la calidad de los cicloseducativos previos, en conjunción con políticas inteligentespara reducir la enorme y vergonzosa desigualdad socialque los condiciona de manera aguda.

A través de procesos muy serios de acreditación,impulsados por las autoridades, pero llevados a cabo porinstancias independientes con fuerte participación social,conducir al cierre de las brechas en la actual segmentaciónde circuitos educativos.

Formar a los nuevos profesores bajo el paradigma de lacentralidad del aprendizaje continuo de los estudiantes, másallá del simple y formal proceso actual de acumulación dedoctores que han de "publicar o perecer" para obtener ingresosadicionales. Si la docencia sigue siendo una actividad menor,sin importancia frente a la investigación (de dudosa calidaden muchos casos) no se generarán las condiciones para larenovación de una planta académica consciente de la nuevaépoca educativa, y que tendrá en sus manos la formación delas nuevas generaciones de profesionales modernos, científi-cos y humanistas conscientes de su tiempo y circunstancia.

Premiar y apoyar, de manera decidida, la innovaciónen la formación de los estudiantes, abiertos a los avancesen el mundo pero sin la simple imitación de sus aspectossuperficiales.


Es urgente, entonces, el diseño de un proceso dereforma en el ámbito educativo superior. Si por ahora noencuentra eco en el programa de desarrollo del país, cuan-do éste exista, requerirá otro tipo de egresado: el que sepaponderar y criticar el conocimiento adquirido, que sepaaprender a lo largo de su vida y contribuya, de maneradecidida, a la consolidación de la democracia, el desarrolloambiental sustentable y la lucha constante, por reducir, oeliminar, las condiciones de desigualdad social que afectanno sólo a la educación, sino a la salud y, para decirlo demanera sintética, a la calidad de vida de los mexicanos.

No son ni pocos ni fáciles estos retos, sólo impre-scindibles.

Manuel Gil Antón has been a sociology professor at theUniversidad Autónoma Metropolitana, UnidadAzcapotzalco, for more than 25 years. His area of spe-cialization is the sociology of Mexican universities. He

has been a member of the President’s Office AdvisoryBoard for 15 years and presidential adviser on academiasince 2001. A prolific author and renowned academic, hecan be reached at [email protected].

Manuel Gil Antón

“The major source for the literature ontrends in Mexican scholarship.”-- Roderic Ai Camp,Tulane University

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DECLINING NUMBERS OF STUDENTS GO UNNOTICEDEXICO

U.S. higher education advantage erodes

Something troubling happened onthe way to the U.S. becomingthe sole superpower in the post-

Cold War era. While our military tech-nology and the size of our economygrew in their collective political influ-ence on the larger world, a number ofcracks appeared in the nation’s armorthat today, and in the long-term, presentreal drags on the international competi-tiveness of America’s economy.

America’s outstanding list of woes,which includes a marked increase in thedivide between rich and poor, an old-school capitalistic and extremely expen-sive health care system that is severelyhurting the nation’s economic competi-tiveness (and, by the way, the health of its population), intran-sigent urban blight and crime, overcrowded prisons, and con-fusion over the current or future role of immigration, haveeffectively buried signs of severe deterioration in the educa-tional system.

Instead, attention is focused on pressing financial woes,including persistent federal budget deficits, a Social SecurityProgram in need of reform, a lopsided trade imbalance, andthe consequences of a long period of too-easy credit that arecontributing to a downturn in the U.S. economy. There arestrong indicators that the United States and states likeCalifornia have already entered a recession. State govern-ments, the primary funding source for education in all itspublic forms, are bracing for large cuts in government serv-ices, making any effort to resolve large socioeconomic prob-lems even more difficult in the near term.

During this presidential election year, voters have zeroedin on these long- and short-term issues. But a major devel-opment in a domestic area historically seen as a greatstrength is not on the radar in the United States, nor gener-ally understood by international competitors: the relativedecline in the number of students gaining access to highereducation and getting a degree. This relative decline takesinto account the fact that other economically developednations have surpassed or are on a trajectory to surpass the

United States on both accounts.Here is a story that may place high on the list

of reasons for the rise and fall of postmodernempires. On many fronts, the United States hasmoved from the status of innovator and investorto that of a complacent society in no mood tosolve deep problems. Higher education is one ofthose fronts. Although its elite institutions stillperform well, few people actually attend them.

Being number oneHow do economists and historians explain the

long-term economic growth of nations and theircomparable competitive positions? A consensushas emerged: one major factor is not just overallrates of educational attainment, but the vibrancyand maturity of their public and private highereducation institutions.

In 1960, Oxford’s renowned sociologist A. H. Halseywrote, “In the technological society, the system of highereducation no longer plays a passive role; it becomes a deter-minant of economic development and hence stratificationand other aspects of social structure.” At that time, it waswidely recognized that America had taken the lead amongthe world’s nations in creating mass higher education, and inmaking universities and colleges a necessary component foreconomic prosperity and social equality. The diversity ofinstitutional types (public and private, two- and four-year,vocational and liberal arts), their ubiquity, and their generalaffordability existed in no other part of the world.

As a result, and in concert with societal norms that tend-ed to ignore class distinctions and reward those with strongwork ethics, America gained the most productive labor forceand enjoyed an unparalleled level of socioeconomic mobili-ty among its population.

Broad access, high levels of productivity, the ability ofstudents to bank credits and matriculate between institu-tions, the diversity of institutional types, and the generalunderstanding of the social contract of universities (theirgreater purpose in society) are among the great strengthsof America’s pioneering higher education system.

UC BERKELEY PHOTONNMMMNNN

BY JOHN AUBREYDOUGLASS

SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW

UC BERKELEY CENTER

FOR STUDIES IN HIGHER

EDUCATION


FallingAs noted, after a century of leading the world in higher

education participation rates, there are strong indicationsthat America’s advantage is waning. For now, the academ-ic research enterprise remains relatively vibrant, althoughthere are important global shifts even here that are erodingthe U.S. advantage.

Although the United States still retains a lead in thenumber of people with higher education experience anddegrees, at the younger age cohort a different storyemerges. On average, the post-secondary participation ratefor 18- to 24-year-olds is approximately 33%, according toa 2005 study by the Education Commission of the States,down from around 38% in 2000.

In contrast, within a comparative group of 29 countriesin the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Develop-ment (OECD),1 many nations are approaching (and a fewhave exceeded) a 50% participation rate in post-secondaryeducation in this younger age group. Most are enrolled inprograms that lead to a bachelor’s, in contrast to the UnitedStates where nearly 50% are in two-year community colleges.According to the 2007 OECD report, in a twelve-year period,the United States has slipped from first to founteenth place innational higher education participation rates.

In looking at the United States, there is always a need todisaggregate. There is substantial variation among the 50states. In 2002, Rhode Island had the highest rate of post-secondary educational participation at 48%; Alaska had thelowest at 19%. California, Florida and Texas–states withlarge and the fastest growing populations–had approximate-ly 36%, 31% and 27% respectively of their younger studentsattending some form of post-secondary education. In themajority of states, these participation rates have flattened ormarginally declined over the last decade.

But in some states, such as California, access to highereducation for the traditional age cohort has declined signif-icantly over the past two decades. In 1970, some 55% ofall public high school graduates in California moveddirectly to tertiary education, among the highest rate in thenation; in 2000, the rate was a mere 48%, with the vastmajority going into community colleges, most as part-timestudents, and most destined never to attain a two-year, letalone a bachelor’s degree.

The rapid paceof change thathas typified

the dawn of the 21stcentury is forcing theUniversity ofCalifornia to take ahard look at its roleas a key instrumentof social change inthe state, accordingto UC Provost andExecutive VicePresident Wyatt R.Hume. As the needto improve deterio-rating Californiaschools and theentire education sys-tem takes on greater

urgency, the University of California is increasinglyturning back to its original mission as a land-grantuniversity–an institution that fosters research in areasof great need for the country and the state.

Hume believes that the University has a strong obli-gation to help address the challenge of buildingstrength in education at all levels for the sake of thestate’s future. To that end, he is taking its land-grantmission as a blueprint for educating California youthwith the skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century.

Hume perceives an acute awareness of the urgencyof addressing the needs of all of the people ofCalifornia among schools of education systemwide. Inorder to support them in this endeavor, Hume appoint-ed UC Davis Dean of the School of Education HaroldLevine as associate vice provost to monitor education-al research at UC and to help plan for the University’sfuture contributions. He expects Levine to act as anoverseer helping the provost to consult more widely,drawing on his own experience and advising on theUniversity’s assets and partnerships.

–Frances Fernandes

Provost targets educationas UC research priority

1 Established in 1961, the 30-member organization brings together the govern-ments of countries committed to democracy and a market economy. One of itskey missions is the collection and publication of data. www.oecd.org

UCOP PHOTON

WYATT R. HUME

UC PROVOST

& EXECUTIVE

VICE PRESIDENT

13UC MEXUS NEWS l Spring 2008

Since 2000, the college-going rate of high school grad-uates in California has declined further to an estimated43%, according to one recent study, influenced in part bythe large number of high school dropouts and a new highschool exit exam. This has occurred in an economic envi-ronment in which demand for a labor pool with a post-secondary training and education is expanding. By theyear 2022, one in three new California jobs generated willrequire an associate degree, bachelor’s or higher. Jobsrequiring higher education are already growing faster thanoverall employment in the state.

Access versus graduationA major reason for the U.S. lag is that the country

ranks only twentieth in secondary education graduaterates among OECD nations. The U.S. Department ofEducation reports that the graduation rate among second-ary school students is close to 75%. However, there is evi-dence that this is optimistic. Some researchers say that thenumber is closer to 65%, which would rank the U.S. adismal 24th within the OECD.

Despite the significantly low secondary graduationrates, the United States is still relatively competitive inaccess to higher education. This is because, as noted, alarge number of students enroll in two-year communitycolleges where costs are low, but where attrition rates areextremely high.

More students are part-time in the United States todaythan in the past and more are in two-year colleges. Thewealthiest are in the four-year institutions, and studentsfrom lower and even middle income families are nowmore likely to attend a two-year college, less likely toearn a bachelor’s degree, and take much longer to attain adegree than in the past.

All these factors influence graduation rates. Comparedwith other industrialized nations, the United States ranksonly 14th in the percentage of the population that enterspost-secondary education and then completes a bachelor’sdegree or higher–another category where the UnitedStates once was number one.

It appears that this dismal picture is not a short-termtrend. Many Americans, and a growing number of minor-ity and immigrant groups, are not getting their degrees.As a result, the United States. is one of the few OECDnations in which the older generation has achieved highertertiary education rates than the younger population.

A larger maladyWhy the decline in the relative position of the U.S. in

higher education participation and, most importantly, indegree completion rates?

Increasing college and universities fees, increased stu-dent debt burdens, and an overly complicated and inade-quate financial aid model are part of the problem–but notsolely, as some like to argue. There are the larger socialand political difficulties posed by significant demographicchanges that include a large influx of immigrants with lowsocio-economic status, a growing divide between the richand the poor, and the lack of attention and investment inpublic education by lawmakers or significant concern byvarious stakeholders, including businesses that rely on ahighly skilled and professional workforce.

California is a harbinger of the influence of globaliza-tion, including radical shifts in the demographic mix ofdeveloped economies. In California, more than 50% of thecurrent population is either foreign born or has at least oneparent that is an immigrant. Many come to the UnitedStates with education or professional skills, but even morecome from extreme poverty and with little formal education.

To make up for the deficit in college completion rates(a good national benchmark for assessing the native poolof talent vital for key economic sectors), the U.S. economyhas become increasingly reliant on importing talent tomake up for deficiencies in the production of scientists andengineers. For example, California, the state with the high-est concentration of high technology businesses in thecountry, ranks among the bottom ten states in college com-pletion rates among younger students. Yet it still ranks inthe top ten in the number of people with college degrees.

This U.S. model of importing talent may be unsustain-able in its present form as global labor markets for highlyskilled people shift to other parts of the world. Prudentpublic policy would be to make new investments in theeducation of those already in the country, while continuingto attract talent from abroad–not mutually exclusive goals.

The Centrality of Public Higher EducationIt is no exaggeration to say that the socioeconomic health

and vitality of the United States relies to a large extent onthe future of the nation’s public universities and colleges,where some 75% of all students are enrolled. America’spopulation continues to grow, reaching 300 million in 2006,with substantial growth projected over the next two decades.


An Education Commission of the States study estimatesthat some 2.2 million additional students will enter accred-ited public and private colleges and universities between2000 and 2015, if national participation rates hold steady.

Yet current rates of participation within the traditionalage cohort (18- to 24-year-olds) and older students (25and older) are arguably too low. If participation ratesnationally were to reflect the best-performing states at44% (lower than the targets of many OECD nations), theresult would be 10.3 million additional students in accred-ited post-secondary institutions by 2015. This large pro-jected difference demonstrates how poorly many states aredoing in their participation rates.

Can the United States fully recognize and meet thischallenge of aggressively expanding higher educationaccess and graduation rates? While state governments havehad the greatest influence historically on the fate of theirpublic higher education institutions, when it comes to meet-ing national needs, there is a role for the federal govern-

ment. On their own, states generally lack a broader under-standing or concern regarding the issue of national competi-tiveness and the larger problems of growing social and eco-nomic stratification.

Yet there are few signs that the country’s higher educa-tion leaders, let alone regional and national politicians,grasp the gravity of the situation. Discussion on the prob-lems of local schools, and stagnant or declining highereducation access and graduation rates, are balkanizedamong the states, caught in a type of trench warfare overresources and turf without a sense of seeing the forest forthe trees. The prognosis is not good unless the next presi-dential administration seeks a more expanded higher edu-cation agenda beyond marginal increases in student loansand a fixation on costs, and not overall access and degreeproduction rates. If the United States continues to restupon its laurels, it hands a major and relatively new advan-tage to the EU and other economic competitors.

© Copyright John Aubrey Douglass

John Aubry Douglass is a senior research fellow atthe UC Berkeley Center for Studies in HigherEducation, where he served as deputy director from1999 to 2002. He is the author of The California Idea& American Higher Education, Stanford UniversityPress, 2000. This article is adapted from his recent

book, The Conditions for Admission: Access, Equityand the Social Contract of Public Universities,Stanford University Press, 2007. He can be reached [email protected].

Additional information is available athttp://cshe.berkeley.edu/people/jdouglass.htm

John Aubry Douglass

When former International AcademicPrograms Director Marlene de la CruzMolina left UC MEXUS for UC Irvine in

2004, she shifted her focus from binational programs toCalifornia students. Since then, the Minority SciencePrograms, where she is associate director, has thrived.

In 2005, the White House recognized the accom-plishments of the Programs with its Award forExcellence in Science, Mathematics and EngineeringMentoring. In 2007, the UC Office of the Presidentinvited de la Cruz to go to Washington to meet withmembers of Congress to explain the value of programsaddressing the needs of underrepresented students.

The program partners with UC Irvine and theNational Institutes of Health in several initiatives to

engage underrepresented youth in the sciences beforethey are turned off to schooling. De la Cruz works withstudents who often lack role models for attending col-lege, and whose teachers and counselors have fewresources to help them. The programs provide hands-onresearch in labs at UC Irvine and abroad where de LaCruz’s contacts with Universidad Nacional Autónomade Mexico (UNAM) have born fruit.

De la Cruz’s involvement with the program beganwhen she was a professor at UNAM, mentored visitingstudents. Now she pairs students with UNAMresearchers, several of whom are recipients of UCMEXUS-CONACYT Fellowships and CollaborativeGrants. Many of those partnerships have proven particu-larly fruitful, and the resulting student research projectsthat have garnered state and national awards.

De la Cruz’s work with underrepresented students thrives


Developing support for studentslearning to write academic papersin English–the lingua franca of

most of the academic world–has becomeessential in almost every nation. Thus, myspecialty in academic writing in Englishhas enabled me to work with colleaguesfrom several countries in their quest toprovide students and researchers with thelinguistic skills for participating in theglobal knowledge economy.

I am currently working to establishsuch a support program with the school oflanguages faculty at BeneméritaUniversidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP).The goal is to enable both undergraduateand graduate students to produce qualityacademic work and to be credentialed asEnglish instructors in upper secondaryand higher education. My colleagues are hoping that ourUC MEXUS-supported project1 would provide a goodstart for instilling effective English skills not only withinBUAP, but also on other Mexican campuses.

The challenges such programs must address extendbeyond the more traditional concerns of language instruc-tion: grammar, syntax and vocabulary. This is not to down-play the basic language problem. It takes years to becomesufficiently proficient in a foreign language. It takes time tobecome habituated with the basic skills required to pullfamiliar words out of sound streams, parse at sight complexconstructions so you know who is hitting whom, on whosebehalf, and why; spontaneously recognize verb tenses andforms, make sense of idioms, and recognize distinctionsamong related words. Combined with the ability to repro-duce all these constructions and meanings, is the confi-dence to interact fluently without being frozen by embar-rassment and anxiety.

Nonetheless, communicating within academia intro-

duces an additional subset of skills–not somuch the bigger words or more complexsentences, but the understanding and lan-guage use that is tied to particular mean-ings, cultures, institutions and situations.

When I interact with scholars fromdifferent countries, I often face just suchissues: To fully understand my col-leagues’ perspectives, I must familiarizemyself with their scholarly domain, uni-versity and government policies, and pro-gram documents. I also must interactwith administrators, not all of whomspeak English.

These challenges may be mitigatedsomewhat in some sciences, where thereis an international lexicon and much ofthe reasoning is expressed through math-ematics. On the other hand, more

advanced material in many scientific and technical fields isprimarily in English, so students must master difficult dis-ciplinary concepts while they are working with a languagethat is not their own and in which they are unaccustomedto thinking.

The humanities and social sciences, however, offer adifferent challenge since nuances of phrasing are of theutmost importance. One needs a heightened understandingof both culture and language because knowledge lies incultural matters that may vary tremendously even in basicconcepts. In our native language, we formulate conceptsusing the network of distinctions and meanings that ourlanguage offers and that match our entire cognitive devel-opment. When I studied sociology as an undergraduate,we talked about the organization of towns. But our con-cept of a town was a small U.S. town, not a pueblo. Wecompared them to rural family farms, not to latifundia or

UC Santa Barbara photo m

BY CHARLES

BAZERMAN

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION

UC SANTA BARBARA

UC MEXUS FACULTY GRANT&

Students need language supportto write for academic publications

1 Charles Bazerman, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, UC Santa Barbara.Scientific publication in English for Spanish-speaking graduate students.


haciendas. This demonstrates how closely tied sets ofmeaning and reasoning in any field are to the language wefirst learned them in.

Specific assumptions also accompany the organization-al patterns of particular educational systems. The fact thatI took an undergraduate sociology course–and tasted anumber of majors in the sciences, social sciences andhumanities before entering English studies–is a peculiarityof the American higher education system. U.S. studentsoften have two years of general education and can switchmajors even up to the point of graduation. This means thatthere is often more tolerance of interdisciplinary reason-ing in undergraduate papers and less expectation of disci-plinary intensity than in systems where students enter theuniversity with a predetermined specialization. Suchdiverse university cultures not only determine the kind,number and nature of written assignments but also howstudents learn to think and how they learn to write aca-demically. Often the methods by which students are eval-uated also differ. All these factors affect how researchersapproach written material and the kind of scholarly workappearing within their nation’s journals.

Disciplinary cultures also vary–both in how the uni-verse of knowledge is divided into disciplines and in howeach discipline proceeds in carrying out its business. InU.S. higher education, my own area, the teaching of writ-ing, has historically been associated with literary studies.In other societies, however, first language writing tends

not to be taught in higher education, and second languagewriting becomes the domain of applied linguistics.

Further, although literary culture is shared and discussedinternationally, the approach to each country’s literary cul-ture, linguistics and scholarly practice differs greatly. Eventhe expectations for articles and their organization may vary,so that essays may appear to be of a distinctly differentgenre. An essay that meaningfully and persuasively speaksto pressing disciplinary questions in one country will notnecessarily do so in another, nor will its arguments and evi-dence necessarily be persuasive. UC MEXUS and similarinternational academic cooperation programs provide won-derful opportunities to expand our visions and gain from ourdiffering perspectives and knowledge. The support neededby students and scholars for whom English is a second lan-guage is crucial not only to provide for writing academicEnglish, but also to learn how to argue and reason withindistinctly different academic cultures so that all may bringtheir voices to the international marketplace of ideas.

This work requires a high degree of individual consul-tation and mentoring by people who are knowledgeableabout the academic cultures for which students are writingas well as the cultures they are writing in. We hope thatour first steps in designing such programs will lead tomodels that fit within the context of Mexican universitiesand education, while producing students who are academi-cally bicultural.

Manuel Charles Bazerman, a professor of educationat the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, UC SantaBarbara, was the recipient of a 2006 UC MEXUSFaculty Grant, Scientific publication in English forSpanish-speaking graduate students.

He specializes in the teaching of writing, writing inthe disciplines, the rhetoric of science and technology,the history of literacy, genre theory, activity theory anddistance learning.

In July, Bazerman published The Handbook ofResearch on Writing: History, Society, School,Individual, Text (Routledge, 2007). This book bringstogether the broad-ranging, interdisciplinary, multidi-

mensional strands of writing research, reflecting a widescope of international research activity.

Chapter authors come from such disciplines asanthropology, archeology, typography, communicationstudies, linguistics, journalism, sociology, rhetoric, com-position, law, medicine, education, history and literacystudies. The thirty-seven chapters are organized into fivesections: history of writing, writing in society, writing inschooling, writing and the individual, and writing as text.

Information on the book is available at:http://www.taylorandfrancis.com. Bazerman can bereached at [email protected].

M. Charles Bazerman


UC MEXUS-CONACYT COLLABORATIVE GRANT

Maya study fosters binational tiesBY FRANCES FERNANDES

In 2005, a Mexican educator and a UCSan Diego communications psychologistlaunched a binational collaboration to

study primary education among Mayan-speaking children.

The UC MEXUS-CONACYT Collabora-tive Grant project, Elementary education,culture and cognitive processes of theMayan children of Yucatan, Mexico, wasdesigned to investigate culture-sensitiveeducational conditions in Yucatán and todevelop specific pedagogical interventions.Mexican partner Juan Carlos Mijangos Noh,a researcher from Escuela Normal RodolfoMenéndez de la Peña, Mérida, Yucatán, wasalready studying the education of the indige-nous population. For this project, MijangosNoh and his graduate student team were towork closely with a research team led byMichael Cole, a UCSD professor of commu-nications and psychology, in designing andimplementing the study, and creating cultur-ally sensitive educational material to help improve schoolperformance in the target community of Chacsinkin.1

But early in the project, it became apparent that Mayafamilies in that community no longer were using theindigenous language and culture that Cole and MijangosNoh sought to evaluate. Instead, parents and teacherswere focusing on mainstream Spanish. When Cole’s grad-uate student Robert Lecusay went to Chacsinkin toobserve classes, he found teachers unwilling to cooperatewith him. The teachers “parachuted in” from more afflu-ent communities, Cole said. Their discomfort with thelocal community and lack of respect for its culture wascommunicated to the children in a variety of subtle ways.They saw local people as culturally inferior and the chil-dren were made to feel culturally inferior also. The

researchers saw this as evidence that teachers were dis-connected and disinterested in the town.

The Chacsinkin project had seemingly run aground.However, the project was conceived with additional goals,enabling the researchers to continue their work in unantici-pated directions. The investigators invited experiencedresearchers John Lucy, Suzanne Gaskins and Luis Moll totake part as “advisors.”2 Both principal investigators alsosought to ensure that the work would continue beyond thescope of the initial project by using it to prepare youngscholars in “the study of development, learning and thepedagogical science.”

From the outset, the researchers planned to use newaudio-visual technology to enhance the collaborativeexperience on both sides of the border. A sophisticatedversion of a webcam, a Polycom, was to be used for plan-

Photo by Robert Lecusay

A research collaboration between Escuela Normal RodolfoMenéndez de la Peña and UC San Diego focused on Maya chil-dren in Chacsinkin. A house in the village is pictured above.

1 Chacsinkín is a village 104 kilometers southwest of Mérida.


ning and discussions between the widely dispersedresearch groups. In addition to Lucy and Gaskins, whowere working in a community close to Chacsinkin, gradu-ate students working with Moll and other UniversidadAutónoma de Yucatán (UADY) researchers were broughtinto the discussions.

This expanded network required the coordination ofseveral institutions, facilities, technical personnel,researchers and students across three time zones, twonations and two languages. Cole research associate VirginiaGordon saw multiple opportunities for discoordination,some potentially catastrophic. UADY needed special per-mission from the Mexican government to bypass a firewall3

to connect with the U.S. universities through an Internet-mediated videoconference. Added to these stumblingblocks were power failures, audio problems, poor acoustics,a scarcity of bilingual technicians and the timidity of gradu-ate students. Yet Cole saw these apparent limitations asbenefits in disguise. “It’s a little bit awkward . . . the wholeturn-taking mechanism is slowed down. But that’s greatbecause everyone thinks before they speak, and they haveto work a little harder at understanding one another.”

The videoconferencing allowed participants to build anew body of knowledge that spawned additional collabo-rations and established new ties among researchers andstudents with overlapping interests. The project took on alife of its own as researchers found ways in which theycould broaden its scope. Gordon saw that group under-standing of the issue was greatly enhanced by comparingthe situation of Mayan speakers in Mexico with that ofSpanish speakers in the U.S. International/interculturaldialogs of this kind could contribute to “higher orderlearning.”4 Cross-national comparisons also helped

researchers better understand the complexities of minorityethnic group life within a dominant majority culture.

The situation in the Maya village had a direct parallelin San Diego County. In part, the project had beendesigned to compare to Cole’s extensive work with SanDiego elementary school children, which demonstratedhow cultural contexts condition cognitive processes.Gordon had experienced dynamics similar to those occur-ring in Chacsinkin in her own work in San Diego. Gordonand then-fellow graduate student Honorine Naconobserved Latino parents at one San Diego school voting toeliminate a bilingual Spanish program because they want-ed their children to learn only English and be more inte-grated with the English-speaking community. There also,Gordon observed that most of the teachers commuted frommore affluent areas and seemed eager to leave as soon astheir classroom duties were completed. In Arizona, whereMoll observed similar dynamics, he addressed the issue ofculturally disconnected middle-class teachers by showingthem how to incorporate “local funds of knowledge” intothe education experience. Teachers were exposed to thelocal community where they spent time learning about thespecific skills and experience that local people could con-tribute to education.

Eventually, the audio-visual meetings enabledresearchers and students who were operating in the sameintellectual arena to become acquainted and set up face-to-face meetings, and some of the discussions evolved intonew projects. In the town where the Chicago researchersLucy and Gaskins were working, parents strongly advocatedthe practice of Mayan language and culture–unlike inChacsinkin. The researchers set up a meeting with MijangosNoh and his students, and remained in contact even afterthe Cole-Mijangos Noh collaboration came to a close.

In addition, Moll’s graduate students and juniorresearchers became energized by the discussion, and onestudent decided to devote her doctoral dissertation to com-paring home literacy in Arizona and Yucatán.

Mijangos Noh and Universidad de Yucatán studentFabiola Romero Gamboa wrote a book, Mundos encontra-dos, análisis de la educación primaria indígena en lascomunidades en el Sur de Yucatán, about the experience(Edicciones Pomares. 2006). An English-language versionis in the works.

2 John Lucy, University of Chicago William Benton Professor, Department ofComparative Human Development and Psychology, http://home.uchicago.edu/~johnlucy and Susanne Gaskins of Northeastern University are expertson Mayan language education and development. Professor of Education LuisMoll, Department of Language, Reading and Culture, University of Arizona,and associate dean for academic affairs for the College of Education, is anexpert in language, reading and culture.3 Gordon, Virginia, Robert Lecusay, Michael Cole, Laboratory ofComparative Human Cognition University of California, San Diego“Multisite Videoconferencing between Developed and Developing Countriesto Build and Sustain Educational Research Collaborations,” a paper presentedat the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association,Chicago, IL, April, 2007.

4 Ibid.


UC MEXUS-CONACYT COLLABORATIVE GRANT

‘Spanglish’obscures students’ skillBY FRANCES FERNANDES

Students whose home and school livesstraddle the U.S.-Mexico border provide areal-world lesson for California teachers,

according to researchers from Mexico andUCSD.

In a 2004 study, supported by a UC MEXUS-CONACYT Collaborative Grant, GuillermoAlonso Meneses, a professor of population studiesat Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF), andAna Celia Zentella, a linguist and professor ofethnic studies at UC San Diego, interviewed 40Tijuana students who attend school in San Diego.Aiding in the work were Ana Maria RelañoPastor, a Spanish postdoctoral fellow, and studentsfrom UCSD and COLEF. The researchers discov-ered that, although the students were completelybilingual, their English and Spanish constructionsblended in ways that obscured their impressivelinguistic skills.

The project, Trans-fronterizos remapping theborder: language, identity and ideology amongTijuana students in San Diego, took a multidisci-plinary approach to studying the experience andeducation of cross-border students. The researchersinterviewed equal numbers of male and femalestudents who had crossed the border to attendschool for at least three years. Some studied inpublic schools and others in private schools. Mostwere U.S. citizens whose families subsequently movedback to Mexico.

The bilingual cross-border students provided a per-fect opportunity for Alonso and Zentella to test the thesisof noted linguist Uriel Weinreich, who claimed that“ideal bilinguals” keep their languages completely sepa-rate. In fact, the researchers’ linguistic analysis of 40bilingual interviews showed that, contrary to Weinreich’sassertion, students do mix elements of Spanish into theirEnglish and vice versa. The researchers concluded that

most of the intermingling was unconscious because, eventhough the students used so-called “Spanglish” to varyingdegrees, they were at the same time hypercritical of itsuse.

The students learned that what linguists call code-switching is looked down upon in both Mexico and theUnited States, where the lay person calls it “Spanglish.”Alonso and Zentella observed that, despite usingSpanglish phraseology when they spoke English, theMexican students consciously struggled to keep the lan-guages separate, believing that such usage was charac-

Photo by Guillermo Alonso Meneses

Cross-border students wait for the bus ride back toTijuana after spending the day at a school in San Diego.For many students, their day begins in the predawn hoursand ends in the evening, when they complete the long jour-ney home.


teristic of Mexican-American speech. But Alonso andZentella noticed that sometimes they switched phrases orentire sentences for emphasis or other discourse strate-gies, and tell-tale pieces of vocabulary and syntax pep-pered their speech in both languages. Some confusion intheir English included the transfer of Spanish construc-tions, e.g., “in the floor” (en el suelo), “in the border”(en la frontera), “there is things” (hay cosas), “peopleis.” (la gente es).

A more serious consequence was that, when theseand other such characteristics crept into their writing,they created problems at school, especially in Englishclasses. Observing what the teachers thought of as poorgrammar skills, school officials tended to underestimatethe language-skill level of the students. Many studentslost a grade, were placed in less challenging classes ortheir linguistic achievements were misevaluated.Zentella believes that part of the problem lies with thetraining of most English-as-a-Second-Language teach-ers, who are not taught the reasons for typical linguisticanomalies common to many Spanish-language bilingualsor the grammatical knowledge involved in code switch-ing.

Politics also has entered into the equation. Zentellapointed out that legislation limiting bilingual educationmeans that these students are placed into English lan-guage development classes that are neither sufficientlyadvanced nor rigorous enough for them. They spendyears in those classes deprived of the practice they needin reading and writing in either language. This situationhinders their progress and prevents them from gettingadvanced placement credits needed for college.

Cognizant of these pitfalls, the students work hard atperfecting their English. Zentella said that they under-stand that English fluency is tremendously marketableand they are proud of their bilingual skills. At the sametime, students tended to be critical of the Spanish ofMexican Americans and were shocked when teachers andadministrators put them in the same category of linguisticcompetence.

The two researchers now plan to take the study a stepfurther, looking in particular at whether the extra effortthat the cross-border students make to improve their edu-cation is, in fact, paying off. After all, the students make

an extraordinary effort to continue their education in theU.S., getting up at 4 a.m. for a two- to three-hour cross-border trip to school. The San Ysidro border crossingalone presents a daily challenge. The students must con-tend with what the Immigration and CustomsEnforcement Agency calls the busiest international landborder crossing in the world, which means that studentsoften spend long periods of time waiting to get across theborder.

Now that this study has solidified a cross-border aca-demic collaboration between UC San Diego and COLEF,and has provided a foundation for new research, Alonsoand Zentella will expand the study into a sociolinguisticethnography of San Diego high schools. In this newstudy, the researchers will compare students’ linguisticbehaviors and attitudes with their academic achievement.The two researchers hope their work will open newavenues of dialogue between Mexican and U.S. scholarsthat will enrich the current state of the art in border stud-ies, particularly as regards national/binational alliances,transnational educational challenges, and binationalcitizenship.

Photo by Guillermo Alonso Meneses

Students from Tijuana who attend school in SanDiego often spend hours each day negotiating the SanIsidro border crossing.


"These kids are our future. . . . If we are going torehumanize the issue of immigration, this is thelegislation."–Steve Zimmer, teacher & coun-selor, John Marshall High School, Los Angeles.

Years before the immigration marchesof 2006, the federal immigrationreform process was caught in a mael-

strom of politicized debate and division. Yet aray of hope for immigrant communities hasbeen the successful passage of 10 state laws insupport of higher education for undocumentedstudents. These laws restore students' ability topay the equivalent of in-state tuition to attendpublic institutions of higher education in thestates where they have lived and been educat-ed for years while being legally defined as "non-residents."

In 2000-2002, I conducted research during the nowhistoric struggle for California's in-state tuition law,Assembly Bill 540. I was a participant observer working inthe Sacramento and Cudahy offices of late AssemblymanMarco Antonio Firebaugh, the principal author of the bill.

The results of my research, supported by dissertationgrants from UC MEXUS and the UC Pacific RimResearch Program, appear in a 2004 article, "Wise Up!Undocumented (Im)migrant Youth, Latino Legislators, andthe Struggle for Higher Education Access." Latino Studies2, 210-230 (July 2004). My doctoral fieldwork exploredthe ways that California legislators, educators and neigh-bors asserted the state membership of their immigrant highschool students after the passage of Proposition 187.

During my research, I looked forward to driving stu-dents from Huntington Park in Southeast Los Angeles tothe Pico Union district downtown, where a weekly youthgroup organized for educational equity for undocumentedstudents. The students who piled into my old Toyota eachweek were U.S. citizens, legal residents and the undocu-mented–united so that their schoolmates could come a stepcloser to achieving their academic and leadership potential.

During our often extended car rides through infamousL.A. traffic, the students discussed the American literaryclassics that they were reading in school. They lived in alargely working class, Mexican immigrant enclave, and they

grilled me, their unofficial University ofCalifornia ambassador, about campus life.My car was also the site of numerouspolitical strategy sessions: some of the 16-and 17-year-old students were alreadyplaying critical roles as liaisons betweentheir immigrant parents and neighbors,and the government bureaucracies andcorporate interests in their community.Although the conversations often took aserious turn, they also chatted about suchtypical teenage preoccupations as moviesand Saturday night plans. Wherever theconversation roamed, it was clear thatthese schoolmates refused to allow immi-gration law to divide them.

In 2001, with the aid of their testimony, lobbying andactivism, California AB 540 became law. Since then, sim-ilar laws have been enacted in nine states ranging fromhistoric ports of entry for immigrants (Texas, New Yorkand Illinois) to newer destinations for Latin Americanmigration such as Nebraska, the one state to pass an in-state tuition bill in 2006.

Similar legislation was introduced in 27 states during2006, according to Ann Morse, immigrant policy programdirector of the National Conference of State Legislatures.Although immigrant students have mostly been on the win-ning side, legal scholar Michael Olivas says that lawsuitshave been filed to overturn Kansas and California's in-statetuition laws, and state bills have been introduced aiming torestrict higher education access based on immigration status.

Like AB 540, the nine new laws allow students to paythe equivalent of in-state tuition if they have attended aschool in the state for a certain number of years, graduatedfrom high school in the state and, if they are immigrants,signed an affidavit stating that they have or will apply tolegalize their immigration status as soon as they are eligi-ble to do so. Beyond the legal impact, this legislation sym-bolizes the concerns of educators, community membersand elected officials nationwide for the future of studentsin their states who came to the United States at a youngage, learned English, have excelled at school despite enor-

States open up college to undocumented students

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PHOTOOO

BY HINDA SEIF

ASST. PROFESSOR,

ANTHROPOLOGY &

WOMEN/GENDER

STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF

ILLINOIS, SPRINGFIELD


mous barriers and, like the young activists in Los Angeles,often serve as community translators and leaders.

Efforts to educate immigrant youth can transcend parti-san politics because their individual stories touch the heartsof elected officials and citizens, and offer hope for futurecontributions to innovation, leadership and prosperity. As acultural anthropologist, I also have been impressed by theregional significance of these bills and the way the com-mon struggle has been translated to fit each state.

The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education havea Spanish language website that welcomes Spanish-speakersand incorporates essential information that may mystifythose with limited formal education or exposure to U.S. andstate college culture. The Oklahoma website contains anexplanation of the categories of institutions of higher edu-cation along with a link http://www.okhighered.org/student-center/espanol/indocumentados (Oportunidades paraEstudiantes Indocumentados) that explains the in-statetuition law, provides links to state financial aid and a phonenumber for a Spanish-speaking contact to answer questions.

In Texas, the state that passed an in-state tuition lawbefore California, immigrant students may apply for statefinancial aid. Out-of-state tuition waivers are even availableto Mexican citizens to pursue higher education. In 2004-2005, 2,613 students received waivers to attend institutionsin border counties, according to the University of TexasSystem website. And an additional 274 students receivedwaivers to attend other public universities in the state.

Although New Jersey has the sixth largest immigrantpopulation in the nation, a series of bills introduced tomake higher education more affordable for the undocu-mented has thus far failed. Based on my informal "partici-pant observation" as a visiting faculty member at RutgersUniversity since 2005, it appears that New Jersey's immi-grant population–highly diverse in language, country of ori-gin and race–has made the unity necessary to support thebill difficult to achieve. This challenge has been compound-ed by voter unrest with high property taxes, comparativelyhigh and rising tuition rates and a state budget crisis.

Unlike California, there are few Chicano citizens tochampion the cause of undocumented Mexican migrantcommunities such as the one that surrounds my campus inNew Brunswick. Instead, they must look to the leadershipof long-term Puerto Rican, Cuban American and other citi-zen communities. In New Jersey, however, I have also beenmoved by the speeches of such elected officials as MayorRobert Patten of the Borough of Hightstown, who reminded

his fellow New Jerseyans of the Ku Klux Klan cross-burn-ings on the lawns of new Italian American families inHightstown during the early 1900s. Both the opponent andthe primary sponsor (Sen. Ronald Rice, D-Newark) of NewJersey's in-state tuition bill are African American, whichcomplicates assumptions about the racial politics of thisissue.

Yet New York State, whose historic identity is embed-ded in immigrant opportunity, passed an in-state tuition billdespite the increasing diversity of its immigrant populationand the common, albeit inaccurate, association of undocu-mented immigration with terrorism. Students and facultywaged a hunger strike in support of the bill at City Univer-sity of New York, which has a large immigrant student bodyfrom 172 countries that speaks more than 131 languages.

Undocumented students in California and throughoutthe United States still face enormous barriers to the fulfill-ment of their educational and life potential. Through2005-2006, follow-up research on AB 540 as a UC AllCampus Consortium On Research for Diversity (UCACCORD) postdoctoral fellow, I learned that neither theCalifornia State University nor California CommunityCollege systems collect information on AB 540 beneficiaries.This complicates assessment of state success in complyingwith the legislature's mandate that they educate the next gen-eration of immigrant leaders regardless of current legal status.

According to the UC Office of the President's AnnualReport on AB 540 Tuition Exemptions, during the 2005-2006 academic year, most recipients of the tuition waiverswere documented. The number of potentially undocument-ed students who are obtaining tuition waivers in the UCsystem has been growing each year since the bill's passagebut began to level off between 2004-2005 and 2005-2006,when 390 students were assisted. Of potentially undocu-mented undergraduates receiving these waivers, 45-52%were Latin American and 40-44% were Asian immigrants.

The college informational and outreach sessions thatCalifornia's three university systems conduct may assumestill that students are citizens or legal residents. This alien-ates and feeds the fears of vulnerable immigrant students.

Last year, the USC Center for Higher Education PolicyAnalysis published an excellent guide to admissions andfinancial aid for undocumented students: The College andFinancial Aid Guide for AB 540 Undocumented Students,1

1 http://www.usc.edu/dept/chepa/pdf/AB_540_final.pdf (accessed May 4, 2008)


(Olivérez et al, eds.). Yet information about AB 540 and itsprocedures may not be readily accessible on college anduniversity websites. Recent bills following the lead ofTexas and Oklahoma by providing state financial assistanceto needy in-state tuition bill beneficiaries have passed theCalifornia legislature, only to be vetoed by the governor.

At the national level, although the federalDevelopment, Relief and Education for Alien Minors(DREAM) Act had been gaining congressional supportacross the aisle in recent years, immigration reform con-troversies and the consolidation of youth and adult legal-ization proposals have bogged down more popular effortsto offer adolescent students a pathway to U.S. citizenship.Thus, the student activists whom I so admire continue tostruggle to attend school part-time, must use pseudonymswhen they speak out, and face a transition from theirproud self-definition as "AB 540 students" who havereceived official recognition as valued members ofCalifornia (personal conversation, Leisy Abrego) to pre-carious lives as undocumented and underemployed adults.

Following the lead of the late Marco Firebaugh, a tire-less fighter for California's immigrant students, we can con-tinue to pursue justice for these students by keeping trackof the numbers and characteristics of AB 540 beneficiariesin a manner that will not jeopardize their confidentiality,

and by making information about AB 540 more accessibleto students and parents through personal and website out-reach. We can extend state student aid programs to AB 540students to turn the law's great potential into reality.

Members of California's academic community shouldsupport passage of the DREAM Act. Immigrant studentsshould not be held hostage to controversial debates andcomplex negotiations over broader immigration reform.

Hinda Seif, a 2000 UC MEXUS dissertationfellow from UC Davis, is assistant professor ofanthropology and women's/gender studies at theUniversity of Illinois at Springfield. She conductsresearch on Illinois immigrant incorporation policywith the Center for State Policy and Leadership,and teaches about gender, migration and globaliza-tion. Seif is working on a book based on her expe-rience with those advocating for access to highereducation for the undocumented. She can bereached at [email protected].

Thanks to Michael Olivas, University ofHouston Law Center, for updated information onlegal issues related to undocumented students.

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Documents

University of California Institute for Mexico and the …ucmexus.ucr.edu/.../uc-mexus-news-pdfs/44_Spring2008.pdfimmigrant high school students after the passage of Proposition 187