Middle School Choices for Bilingual Latino/A Youth: When the Magnet School Represents “Status” and the Neighborhood School Represents “Solidarity”

Abstract

Drawing on data collected during the second year of a longitudinal qualitative study that followed over 10 Latino/a bilingual students, this article foregrounds the experiences of participants during their sixth-grade year. The principle data sources included structured and unstructured interviews with teachers and students, school observations, and weekly small-group conversations in a courtyard outside of their classrooms. We focus on the experiences of Leila, Maricela, and Esperanza who were three of the sixth-grade girls actively recruited by their teachers to attend the district's magnet school program for their upcoming seventh grade-year instead of their neighborhood middle school. We found that much of the reasoning behind their decision-making process centered around issues of status (e.g., how the magnet school offered better academic, economic, and professional opportunities for their future) and solidarity (e.g., attending the neighborhood school with their friends and siblings). In conclusion, we problematize the very nature of these so-called educational 'choices' for bilingual Latino/a youth.

The Realities of School Choice for the Latinx Community in Mecklenburg County

“…The illusion of choice as opportunity for all detracts attention from the comparative lack of economic and political opportunity afforded to those less affluent and less privileged. In a nation in which economic disparities are rapidly increasing (Duncan & Murnane, 2014;Reardon, 2016;Reeves, 2017), the government's deflection of responsibility to provide equitable access to high-quality education places a disproportionate burden on already disadvantaged groups (Condliffe et al, 2015;Cucchiara & Horvat, 2014;Cuero et al, 2009;Darby and Saatcioglu, 2015;Mavrogordato & Stein, 2016;Pattillo, 2015;Sattin-Bajaj, 2015).…”

When Information Is Not Enough: School Choice, Segregation, and the Elusive Notion of Fit

“…Indeed, some researchers and advocates argue that under the right conditions, schools of choice designed to meet the needs of particular low-income and historically oppressed racial/ethnic student populations can strengthen cultural identities and improve learning outcomes (Chingos & Monarrez, 2020; Fox & Buchanan, 2014; Horsford, 2019; Malkus & Hatfield, 2017; Murrell, 1999; Wilson, 2016). On the other hand, some scholars argue that instead of identifying an ideal fit for their children, parents from historically oppressed and marginalized groups are forced to make trade-offs, weighing the promise of academic quality against the risks of racialized harm and/or cultural alienation (Cooper, 2005; Cuero et al, 2009; Ellison & Aloe, 2019; Posey-Maddox et al, 2021). From this perspective, it is an absence of good choices, not unequal access to information or differing educational priorities, that explains the segregating effects of school choice.…”

Latin@ advocacy in the hyphen: faculty identity and commitment in a Hispanic‐serving institution

“…One of her longitudinal qualitative studies (Cuero, Worthy, and Rodríguez-Galindo 2009) problematizes the academic options for bilingual Latina students in an urban school district where the magnet program represented 'status' while the neighborhood feeder school represented 'solidarity'. Another study (Cuero 2009) examines identity negotiations of bilingual Latino fifth-graders.…”