The story of education for Mexican immigrants in the United States is one of stagnation. Only 55% of young Latinos graduate high school, and the dropout rate for Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans was 40% as of 2007((Paul Spickard, Almost All Aliens)), and the low educational standards in Mexico are an important factor in this apparent lack of scholastic success. In New York City alone, the dropout rate for Mexican American students is 47% ((http://newbrooklynnetwork.typepad.com/brooklyn_journalist/2010/03/kateryna_stupnevich.html))

Children of Mexican migrant workers can become invisible in large public schools. ((http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2008/07/expansion_annou.php))

This graph shows that the number of children living with mothers who did not graduate any high school has dropped, but the numbers still remain high for Latino children. ((Burgess and Lowenthal, ed. The California-Mexico Connection))

Mexican American children also display disproportionately low reading scores as well. This graph shows the comparative reading levels of children of different ethnicities. Literacy is closely linked to language acquisition, thus if the reading scores for Mexicans in particular are low, they indicate that Mexican immigrants are not learning English quickly.

Alicia and her mother are recent refugees living in the U.S., having fled drug violence in El Porvenir, Mexico

A significant number of students from Mexico come from difficult circumstances and may also have trouble finding school important or useful. According to the New York Times, a Mexican boy who had fled drug violence in El Porvenir “is so deeply affected by what he has seen that he is being tutored apart from other students.” ((http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/18/us/18border.html))

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