What about the Teachers and the Classes? Puerto Rican Students in Chicago Share Their Experience.

This paper explores Puerto Rican high school students' experiences in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Data were collected via individual and group interviews with Puerto Rican students, focusing on the relationships, or lack thereof, among participants and their teachers and counselors and the relevance and/or interest, or lack thereof, of curriculum structure and content. The first section examines the literature on Puerto Rican students' experience in U.S. schools, the historical context of Puerto Ricans in Chicago, and demographics of the CPS. The second section describes the theory and methods used to frame and analyze the data. The third section explores students' voices and notes scholarly research that helps to frame their experiences within a critique of teacher preparation and curriculum that disadvantages students of color. Overall, students in general education high schools had more negative encounters with teachers and curriculum than did students in magnet and college prep schools. Curriculum content and structure were perceived as problematic for. students in general education and vocational schools. Students in all types of schools had concerns with the lack of counselors. Students recurrently resisted negative encounters with teachers and curriculum. Appended are: Interview Lengths; Interview Questions; List of Participants; and School Data. (Contains 25 references.) (SM) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY _ft,s_ti ca. la 1)4 i U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent 1 What about the Teachers and the Classes? official OERI position or policy. Puerto Rican Students in Chicago Share their Experience Erica R. Davila University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign American Education Research 22, _chAss2oc0i3ation Annual Conference oo (:) "They are always looking at what is wrong with us. I don't get it. They [teachers] would be like, are you having problems at home or are you pressured by the gang bangers. Come on now, what about the teachers and the classes, shouldn't they be questioned for once (Interview; Raphael , 2001). " This interview comment personifies the focus of this paper: The high school experiences of Puerto Ricans in Chicago regarding teachers and counselors as well their perception of the high school curricula they encountered. The purpose of this research is to explore Puerto Rican student experiences in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). Puerto Rican students were chosen for the interviews because as a junior scholar in Education, I have found a lack of research on Puerto Ricans in Chicago. Secondly, the social and political history between Puerto Rico and the United States (US) has fostered a complex milieu in the education of Puerto Ricans in the United States. A key aspect of the education of Puerto Ricans in the US is the perception of cultural deficits that has framed most of the education research of not only Puerto Ricans, but of students of color altogether. Kozol (1991) explains that education reports focus on low scores, high dropout rates and poor motivation and ignore issues of inequality and segregation. The interview comment above speaks to the awareness students have of the cultural deficit model and how this ideology continues to influence the school experiences of students of color. After interviewing ten former students and conducting a group interview, their experiences began to form my research questions. Although many issues were discussed during the interviews, two interrelated themes