ABSTRACT
The U.S.–Mexico Border region is typified by enhanced immigration enforcement and legal violence, which are known to reduce the educational achievement of Latinx children and youth. Using data from the Stanford Education Data Archive, I compare math and reading test score disparities between White and Latinx students in public school districts in the four states along the U.S.–Mexico Border—California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas—with districts outside of the Border region. I find that reading and math test score disparities widen with proximity to the Border. Results indicate that educational and family-income differences between White and Latinx adults explain the disparity in math test scores. However, the reading test score disparity on the Border remains net of school and community factors, suggesting legal violence and immigration enforcement may be impacting Latinx youth and, therefore, increasing the size of the test score disparity. Finally, I find the test score disparities between the Border region and interior districts do not vary significantly in size across the four Border states.
ABSTRACT
This paper compares the educational achievement and growth of Latinx third through eighth-grade students attending school along the U.S.-Mexico Border and in the interior of the four Border states. The theories of structural and legal violence predict that powerful Anglos have created systems of social reproduction, concentrated disadvantage, and immigration law that reduce Latinx education close to the U.S.-Mexico Border. We test these theories with data from the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), which contains information on Latinx achievement and growth in all public school districts in the four Border states. We find that Latinx achievement and growth are similar along the Border and in the interior except in Texas, where concentrated disadvantage dramatically lowers Latinx achievement and growth. We also find that social reproduction is more beneficial for Latinx youth along the Border because, surprisingly, Latinx adults tend to be more educated near the border than in the interior. We find no evidence that immigration laws reduce education more near the Border than in the interior. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and policy.