Student Diversity In Schools

Abstract
For many years, student diversity has caused many conflicts in the educational system, especially for immigrant children and children of color. As the student population in American schools becomes increasingly diverse, educators must respond with school reform efforts that meet the needs of these students. Because of this, U.S. immigration laws, has helped the student population to become increasingly more diverse in regards to race, ethnicity, and language. In order for this to take place, school officials must be able to develop culturally sensitive curriculums that accommodate multicultural viewpoints and histories. As of today, many people believes that student diversity has come along way from where it was coming from before,
but there are also some issues that still need to be taken in concern about student diversity. This paper goes a little more in debt about how student diversity has come along way, from languages to the question Are U.S. teachers prepared for diversity? The paper identifies each issue on student diversity in categories, locates the main problem, and how the United States are trying to cope with it. In today society, Educators are faced with an overwhelming challenge to prepare students of diverse cultural backgrounds to live in a society in which you have to change in order to be accepted in a world were some groups have grater societal benefits than others because of race, ethnicity, gender, class, language, religion, ability, or age.
In the next twenty-five years, the school system will become increasingly diverse. Researchers have reported that by 2020, students of color will represent nearly half of the elementary and secondary population. Throughout the 20th century, schools have stressed the importance of learning a non-English language, preferably Spanish. Due to the variety of immigrant languages, the teaching of English in the U.S. public schools is complicated. In 1990, U.S. Bureau of the Census showed us the language spoken at home (Table
4-7).

Table 4-7. Top 15 Languages Other Than English Spoken at Home, 1990 and 1980 (numbers in thousands)
Language 1990 1980 Percent Change, 1980-1990
Spanish 17,345 11,116 56%
French 1,930 1,609 20
German 1,548 1,587 -2
Chinese 1,319 631 109
Italian 1,309 1,618 -19
Tagalog (Filipino) 843 452 87
Polish 723 821 -12
Korean 626 266 135
Vietnamese 507 195 161
Portuguese 431 352 22
Japanese 428 336 27
Greek 388 401 -3
Arabic 355 217 63
Hindi (Urdu) 331 130 155
Russian 242 173 40
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, "We Asked …You Told Us Language Spoken at Home," http://www.census.gov/. Based on the evidence shown in Table 4-7, it is apparent that Spanish is nine times more frequently spoken in the home rather than French and other European languages. The table does not only shows that Spanish is the leading language spoken, but rather indicates the changing language patterns in the United States. As can be notice, most of the European languages are starting to diminish and languages such as Spanish and Asian are starting to escalate. Due to the language growth, it is making it difficult for teachers to teach. See, it is important for teachers to recognize that students who are new to a language may not always be able to make appropriate word selections or to comprehend the meaning of particular dialects or slang. See language is used to socialize children into their linguistic and cultural communities. It also helps them to understand culture itself. Each language provides them with means to perceive the world and how to interpret experiences. One major problem in the schools today, is finding teachers who are qualified to teach children who have limited English proficiency. Due to the low count of LEP teachers in the United States school system and the obligation to ensure the right of each child to learn in the language of the home until the child is able to function well enough in English, has brought to their attention a program known as (ESL) English as a second language and (ELL) a bilingual program. The program is used to understand cultural and linguistic differences and to recognize the value of these differences while working toward enhancing the students' linguistic skills in the dominant language. Even though there are programs to fit the needs of different cultures and their languages, there have been some problems in the school system due to discrimination of these foreign languages. Over the past 20th century, there have been many successful class action suits brought against school boards and school districts on behalf of children being discriminated because of their language or culture.
For instance, in 1984 MALDEF filed the Edgewood v. Kirby case to reformed the Texas school finance system by making the distribution of money for schools more equitable. The Edgewood case moved more money toward districts with poor tax base and high concentrations of Mexican American Youth. In addition to that case, in 1974, a class-action suit on behalf of 1,800 Chinese children was brought before the Supreme Court. They claimed that San Francisco Board of Education failed to provide programs designed to meet the linguistic needs of those non-speaking children. They claimed that they were being violated of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They also felt that if the children could not understand the language used for the instruction, they were deprived for an education equal to that of other children and were, in essence, doomed to failure. So the court stipulated that special language programs were necessary if schools were to provide an equal educational opportunity for such students. This case is known as the Lau v. Nichols and also knows as the decision, which gave considerable impetus to the development of bilingual education as well as ESL
programs. In conclusion, in order for teachers and society to realize that student diversity is growing rapidly, we must try to prepare ourselves to serve as effective teachers for all students. We should ask about our students' interests and experiences so we can know them as individuals rather than merely members of the group, we should not make assumptions about the students based on what we perceive as their minority experiences and needs, we should provide guidelines for group discussions so as to create an environment where students will feel safe voicing their opinions, and many other teaching tips. If we can do this then we will be able to understand and accept student diversity.