Research on new immigrant incorporation and schooling inequalities has almost entirely neglected the experiences of schooling for children of immigrants in new destinations. Additionally, while the ethnographic literature on children of immigrants focuses on high school students, recent studies show that patterns of minority achievement deficit become set in significant ways by middle school. Using participant observation, this study investigates the experiences of immigrant and second-generation Mexican American youth in a small-town Pacific Northwest junior high school in order to understand their low academic achievement when compared with the U.S.-born Anglo youth at the school. Building on the segmented assimilation model and stratification literature on minority youth in school, this study finds that the school community marginalizes Mexican American students. This study highlights how marginalization in school for Mexican American youth is not limited to the urban high school setting, and that school factors across different contexts persist in creating academic disadvantage for Mexican American youth and especially for boys. © The Author(s) 2014.

Education Mexican Americans Gender Immigrant incorporation Community

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