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An Invisible Minority: An Examination Of Migrant Education, Margaret A. Laughlin

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

If one had the task of identifying the most educationally disadvantaged group of youngsters in the United States, the ones who under-perform all other groups enrolled in school, who have the highest school dropout rate, who have the lowest academic achievement level and highest number of school failures, no doubt the group readily identified would be the children of migrant agricultural families. These children face a unique set of problems. The migrant family, moving from state to state, alone or in groups, has created a unique life style reflecting the unpredictable agricultural conditions. Available statistics concerning the educational plight of …