ABSTRACT
According to Fry (2006), the enrollment in U.S. public schools has increased due mainly to the growth of the Hispanic population. Between Fiscal Year 1993-94 and Fiscal Year 2002-03, Hispanics have accounted for 64% of the increase in public school enrollment. In general, Latinos have positive attitudes toward their local schools and report that they are involved in their children’s education (Th e Pew Hispanic Center & the Kaiser Family Foundation, 2004). Th e same report explains that Latino parents believe that their children do not do as well in school as other populations because of a disconnection between home and school, and the lack of a bridge between teachers and parents and community. In contrast to the White population, Latinos are in favor of improving the schools where they live, rather than moving their children to diff erent schools. In relation to attitudes toward English, data from the Pew Hispanic Center (2006) show that Hispanics (both immigrant and natives) endorse the relevance of the English language “regardless of income, party affi liation, fl uency in English or how long they have been living in the United States” (p. 1). As a result of immigration, the number of Spanish-speaking adult Latinos is greater than those who are bilingual or English dominant, but data show that second generation Latinos are more English than Spanish dominant (Pew Hispanic CenterSurvey Brief, 2004).
