Changing Demographics

Our nation is changing, and nowhere is that change more evident than in the classrooms of our public schools. There is a rapid growth in the number of diverse students filling America's classrooms. More and more of our students have been born in other nations. They are a mix of different races. They speak different languages and have different cultural traditions. Schools that have been predominately white are quickly becoming ethnically mixed. It is commonplace for school districts to count languages spoken by their students by the dozen. This portrait of America's students stands in sharp contrast to the majority of our current teaching staff which is mostly white, middle class and english speaking.
Although trends in immigration and birth rates predict no single racial or ethnic group will make a majority of the population in the very near future. The Hispanic population is growing faster than all the other racial and ethnic groups combined. More than half the children in seven states are minorities. In an additional nineteen (19) states minorities represent one-fourth the student population. Currently (2014) approximately 40 percent of the people under the age of 18 are African, Asian or Hispanic.
Minority populations, especially Hispanics, are growing quicker than the population as a whole. Since the year 2000, the Hispanic population has grown in every state in the Union. More than half of the foreign born children in the United States are Hispanic and speak Spanish as their native language. They represent the youngest population with more than one-third of all Hispanics younger than eighteen.
Elementary and secondary students today are more diverse than ever before in the history of American public education. It is the public schools and their teachers that bear the main responsibility for addressing the needs of this changing student population. As educators we need to develop new competencies to successfully teach changing populations from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Addressing the changing cultural face of today's students requires a new approach to teaching. We can begin by examining the following questions:
- Do you hold a positive view of diversity?
- Are you very familiar with the cultures of the students in your classroom?
- Can you understand and speak their native language?
- Are you part of a team formed to explore methods to better meet the social and educational needs of a diverse student population?
- Have you ameneded your curriculum to represent culturally diverse contributions?
- Is there a focus on English development?
- Is classroom seating racially and ethnically balanced?
- Do you apply the principals of "Constructivist Learning Theory" in your instruction?
- Is the teaching staff supported with job related professional development?

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