Cuban American education
A Cuban American is a United States citizen who traces his ancestry to Cuba. Many communities in the United States have many people from the Cuba American community. This cultural diversity has brought numerous debates on the nature of education to be offered on these citizens. Most of the Cuban immigrants settled in the St. Augustine, Florida. After the united states claimed Florida from Spain, most of the Cubans were mainstreamed into the American culture. The Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro necessitated the increase in the number of the immigrants to the US.
These immigrants were of different education backgrounds and different professions. Source:http://usinfo. state. gov/scv/history_geography_and_population/population_and_diversity/hipic_americans. html Cuban American students have for long been considered at risk in the American educational system. A better understanding of the diverse cultural experiences can help to counteract this risk. This understanding, this paper enhances development of the students towards being responsible members of the wider society. The analyses given are based on the students’ background and how it affects their performance in the nation education.
Student profiles based on various indicators of academic achievement and school orientation: low-achieving and weakly oriented, (2) low-achieving and strongly oriented, (3) high-achieving and moderately oriented, (4) high achieving and strongly oriented. This analyses show that most of the Cuban American low achievers and this greatly contributed poor quality of the private school which most of this children attend to. The local community cannot be able to collect tax in order to sustain the development of quality education because they are poor and they don’t have property where they can collect tax.
(Jeanne, 2004) Most of children coming from the diverse backgrounds in the United States mostly attend the public school, which are able to offer the young learners with the first language skills. The children who speak language other than English come from working class homes. The public schools as such consider the individual needs of the different races within the United States by providing education for the minority of the different cultural backgrounds. Most private school usually use English as the only medium of communication and as such they charge highly.
New York’s Lycee Francais uses French extensively; on the other hand Miami’s Loyola school uses Spanish extensively as the medium of communication. This shows that there is a big difference between the public schools and the private school in the United States in vary many divergent ways. This paper endeavors to present a vivid analysis of such trends of education their weaknesses, their strengths in relation the diverse culture. Dade country, Florida comprises the many cities such as Miami and Hialeah and other surrounding areas mostly contain large numbers of Hipic populations.
Most of these Hipic populations are coming from Cuba and few come from Spain and Mexico. These Hipic people use Spain as the language as the medium of communication. These schools within this context use Spanish language as the medium] of communication; they basically run by people of the Cuban origin. The schools, which offer such services in this Spanish language, are usually the public schools. The private schools are deemed to be expensive and they are for the elite people. The whole of this region there were two elite schools commonly attended by the Cuban American children whose parents enjoy the upper class status.
The public school have been referred as ethic schools meant for the low income earners and in this region most people are very poor and as such they take their children to this public school. Those members of this similar region who enjoy the high economic statuses take their children to the private school basically meant for elite members of the community. Bilingual education policy has been a unity force in the United States. The children of Cuban American origin receive instructions at school in Spanish, which considered as their first language.
The public schools prefer the use of the learners’ first language. This has created linguistic and curriculum disparity within the system of education. For instance the Cuban American children become more proficiency in Spanish than English. This denies Cuban American children a chance to communicate effectively later since the official language for communication in the United States is English. The current shift in terms of the education system is towards the bilingual education policy practice, which has been found to be the most effective way of considering the minority.
Here the learners are given an opportunity to study under the many languages. For instance those children from the Spanish origin are allowed to study using Spanish and English. The English in this context is taught as the second language. The United States federal government supports such program of bilingual education, which is aimed at promoting equity and unity among the citizens. However it is factual that the bilingual education system has also created structures that perpetuate social and political divisions.
In addition the bilingual education policy has been known as the major hindrance to the development of the English language. The first and second languages can be developed simultaneously in such public school setting. Despite the reforms, children and the teachers have not changed their behavior of cultural identity. The changes have not been implemented especially from the part of teachers and the communities. The inability to speak and understand English has denied most the native speakers national opportunities denying them a chance to participate actively in the education issues of national nature.
The curriculum design has such is not uniform at all since the media of instructions use different divergent languages. In terms of curriculum there are different texts, teachers for students who use a different language than English. It was argued that there is no equality at all by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers and curriculum for students who do not understand English since they are bound to find their classroom lessons quite incomprehensible. This is considered imposition of rules that cannot assist an individual.
The English basic skills are important in these public skills so as to equip the learner with necessary skills that can enhance national participation. But because the children cannot learn in a language they do not understand the first language should the initial medium of instruction and then English should be used as a second language. Education has the net effect of creating a better global economy, those who have done in the 21st century well. From this fundamental fact, 21st century is dependent on science and technology that is why education is taking a new shift in the United States of America.
The following are some of the indicators of the disparities experienced in the Cuban American education system. Inequity in School Financing School financing comes from three sources: Federal, state, and local funds (with most funds coming from states). Education has the largest expenditure in the state budget. Whether it is more expensive to educate Cuban Americans is not an issue for debate the issue is that the areas where Cuban American children reside are usually low-wealth areas that generate less funding from property taxes.
In most cases, districts have to pass bond referendums to rebuild schools, which are often not supported by the general voting public. Therefore, school districts with concentrations of Cuban American students remain under funded and must seek other means of support. School Segregation and Poverty. Today, Cuban American students are experiencing higher rates of segregation in school systems than are any other group of students. A recent report of the Harvard Project on School Desegregation to the National School Boards Association describes the changing patterns of segregation and poverty.
The study found that segregation by race is strongly correlated with segregation by poverty; and the study provides national data demonstrating that Cuban American students are much more likely than white students to be in schools that are segregated and poorly funded. Under representation of Cuban American among School Personnel Most of the administrators and educational policy makers are white who determine the nature of education system to be offered. A study conducted by Meier and Stuart, for instance, showed that Cuban American representation on school boards and in the teaching profession is of a very low number.
On a general perspective there are too few Cuban American teachers, counselors, and administrators in the education system. Multicultural Training for School Personnel Teacher insensitivity to cultural and linguistic diversity often influences a student to become alienated from the school system teachers. Bilingual education is the use of two languages, one of which is English, as a means of instruction. This implies that an educator must be Spanish-speaking in order to be a good and effective instructor of Cuban American students. The problem can only be solved if enough teachers who have bilingual skills are recruited into the mainstream.
Testing and Assessment. Many Latino students never reach their full potential due to inappropriate and inaccurate uses of testing and assessment. Conclusion It is recognized those generations of Cuban American students in U. S. public education are at risk due to serious inadequacies in the educational system. Thus far, the system has been unable to meet the needs of those students. Among other inequities, there continues to exist a disparity in school funding, a lack of effective Bilingual and ESL education programs, a lack of trained teachers, and a misuse of testing and assessment.
The quality of education is always decreasing as time goes by in the Cuban Americans. These multiple factors have greatly contributed to decreasing rates of college attendance by the Cuban American students. This is because the educational structures favor the white and the rich people. Reforming of the public school is one very important way of promoting education of the Cuban American education. Testing and having a uniform curriculum will eventually decrease all these disparities caused by poverty and racial discrimination.
Proper methods of funding the federal government should be considered to be the most suitable way of achieving common educational objectives. To address these issues and policy areas, effective educational models must incorporate high-quality standards, equitable financial support, and diverse language and cultural knowledge. Parent and school collaboration must be specified in all plans of action. Long-term, strategic plans must be developed through collaborative approaches with the public and private sectors at the local, state, and national level to monitor and to ensure a high standard of educational attainment among Cuban Americans.
References Baker C. (2006). Policy and Practice in Bilingual Education: A Reader Extending the Foundations. Multilingual Publishers. Krashen, S. (1996). Under attack: The case against bilingual education. Culver City CA: Language Education Associates. Jeanne S. (2004). The Academic Achievement Challenge Guiford press. State Profiles Bilingual Education States’ Bilingual Education status www. proenglish. org/issues/education/beindex. html [Education] Elite Cuban-American school admits black students www. uscsca. org/caaef. htm http://usinfo. state. gov/scv/history_geography_and_population/population_and_diversity/hipic_americans. html
