http://www.civilrights.org/issues/educa ... m?id=31344

Immigrants Trigger Change, White Exodus in Iowa District
May 18, 2005


Alan Richard
Education Week

West Liberty's quaint, brick-paved downtown now features authentic Mexican cuisine and a mercado, or small local grocery store, along with the traditional bank and pharmacy. In the schools, announcements are in Spanish and English. Soccer is the new sport, and separate signs give the location of the school office and oficina.

Forty-eight percent of West Liberty's 1,200 schoolchildren are Hispanic, said Becky Rodocker, an Iowa native who taught Latino children to speak and read English in California before returning here as superintendent. In kindergarten through 8th grade, Hispanic students are the majority, at 54 percent.

The number of districts like West Liberty will continue to grow in the years and decades to come in Iowa and other states, demographers say. ("Newcomers Bring Change, Challenge to Region," May 4, 2005.)

Immigration has brought joys and challenges to the school system here.

Children of different backgrounds learn together and befriend each other. Yet educators are troubled that some Hispanic students see little need for a diploma or a future in professional work. And some Anglo families have withdrawn their children from the district's schools, prompting West Liberty to seek approval from the state education agency of a plan that restricts student transfers into other districts.

Click here for full story >> Sorry I couldnt get the registraiton to work to get the whole article