Many are not literate in Spanish, working mostly at minimum wage jobs, living in overcrowded housing just to survive. Of 30 students in my fourth-grade class, only six parents came to Open House. Our high school is one of the most diverse in the country with students from 72 different homelands. In our large, urban high school, we seem to get the same 10 people. Many of our families are poor.
Many parents travel long distances commuting to their jobs.
But when I inquired about what they would do about this, I was told that they are following a trend to be more inclusive in the classroom.