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U.S. Public School Demographics

Over the last two decades, the socioeconomic-demographic composition of the U.S. public school population, in tandem with the society in general has changed dramatically. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2000), the students from minority backgrounds constituted nearly 40 percent of the total student population in the public schools, with the proportion reaching 80 percent in metropolitan areas in 2000. The U.S. Department of Education estimated that this population of students will constitute the majority in 18 states such as California, Texas, Florida and New Mexico by 2020.

Yet, in spite of these changes in the socio-demographic composition of the public school population, language arts teachers have not incorporated multicultural literature into their reading programs for various reasons. First, teachers who have invested time and effort in developing a reading program are unwilling to or lack the time to modify their program (McGlinn, Calvert, & Johnson, 2003). Second, they do not possess an adequate knowledge of children and adolescent literature (Ouzts, Taylor, Taylor, 2003). Third, many researchers have highlighted the dearth of authentic multicultural literature of high literary quality (Barrera, Liguori, & Salas, 1992; Hill, 1998; MacCann, 1992; Nieto, 1992; Pescosolido, Grauerholz, & Milkie, 1997; Sims Bishop, 1992). For example, in their review of African American children's literature, Pescosolido et al. (1997) found that even though the number of books depicting at least one African American character has increased, the number of books that address African American life is still very low. Even more disturbingly, in spite of the low number of books on African American life, they still exceed those on other minority cultures (Hill, 1998). In fact, Nieto (1992) asserted that the number of books portraying Puerto Ricans actually declined significantly over the last decades.

In ord...

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U.S. Public School Demographics. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 15:33, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1686948.html