Effect of border proximity on school performance in imperial County

abstract

Education in Imperial County, from the elementary to the high school level, always ranks among the lowest in the state. This constant underperformance might be due to the high level of minority enrollment throughout the county. This paper uses census and other government data along with school accountability report cards to show that border proximity negatively impacts the performance of a school. While economic and immigration factors are probably not the only reason for this, this paper uses state testing reports and population demographics to compare the schools side by side and account for the difference in school achievement.

1. Introduction

The economy of Imperial County ranks among the lowest in the state. This, in turn, reflects heavily on the level of academic achievement in the three main high schools. In addition to this, the county is also home to a large immigrant population, attributed to the proximity with Mexico and large farming sector. However, it is interesting to note the difference in school performance and how they relate with how far away they are from the international border. Taking a number of factors into account, we should observe a lower level of achievement in the school closest to the border.

This paper attempts to examine the relationship between school performance and immigration. Specifically, does the higher level of minority students affect academic performance as a whole? This paper will examine the distance from the border, median household income, percentage of minority population, and test scores, among other factors to find that Calexico High School is the lowest performing out of the three. Only high school data was used given that two of these cities have only one high school, El Centro with two. This means that any discrepancies encountered in the different elementary and middle schools will not be noticeable at the high school level. All of them have a single school district. This paper will also take into account the economic dependence of the area with the Mexican border city of Mexicali, which shares a border with Calexico.

The remainder of this paper is as follows. Section 2 will provide a brief history of the Imperial Valley and the main employment sectors. It will present and compare income levels in the area with those of California. This will lead to Section 3 that will examine the differences in academic achievement between Calexico, El Centro, and Brawley. Although other socio-cultural factors are sure to be part of the equation regarding constant underperformance, this paper will solely consider population demographics and school test scores to come to the conclusion that border proximity negatively affects academic performance. Finally, Section 4 will provide a conclusion and propose possible topics for further analysis of the area.

2. Imperial County

2.1 County Overview

Imperial Valley County is located on the southeastern border of California, with Mexico bordering to the south, Arizona to the east, Riverside County to the north, and San Diego County to the west. The population as of 2010 stands at 174,528, up 22.4% since the year 2000, with 80.4% Hispanic or Latino. The area experienced a population growth of 30% from 1990-2000.
The region is a desert, with summer temperatures reaching up to 115 degrees. The city of Mexicali is to the south, sharing an international border with Calexico with about 60,000 people crossing each day through its two entry points. While Mexicali is considered prosperous by Mexican standards, Imperial County has a large population living under the poverty rate. However, Mexicali is the state capital and has a number of resources an area like the Imperial Valley lacks. With a population of over one million, Mexicali provides museums, a zoo, nightclubs, restaurants and an international airport. It receives a significant number of American tourists due to the lower drinking age of 18, and it also provides a lot of medical and dental services due low prices in comparison with American services. Most doctors and dentists in Mexicali are concentrated within walking distance of the main port of entry.

Figure 1: Imperial County Map

2.2 Analyzing the three main cities: Calexico, El Centro, and Brawley

Calexico, El Centro, and Brawley are the three main cities in Imperial County. The area is largely made up of immigrants, with 45% of the population identifying as foreign born in Calexico, 35% in El Centro, and 24% in Brawley . Imperial County has a significantly higher poverty rate compared to the state. The area saw itself severely affected at the time of the housing crisis. Many workers switched from agriculture into higher paying construction jobs at the peak of the bubble; this likely attracted many new immigrants. However, a large number of homes are now in foreclosure and the unemployment rate increased significantly as well. The unemployment rate in Imperial County was 31.9 percent in October 2009, up from 27.6 percent in October 2008. This compares with an approximate unemployment rate of 12.5 percent for California and 10.1 percent for the nation during the same period. Due to the nature of the agriculture sector and considering it provides a large majority of the jobs in Imperial County, the area usually has a higher unemployment rate than the rest of the state. The main employment industries in the area are agriculture, construction, retail trade, and education services.

Figure 2: Comparing Median Household Incomes Source: US Census 2010
Above 23% percent of residents live below the poverty level. Figure 2 shows the median household incomes for the three main cities along with the county’s and that of the state of California. Regardless of being the city with the lowest household income, Calexico experienced the highest population growth in the Valley in the last 10 years of about 40%. Although this number is high compared to that of the country (9.7%), it is comparable with the Hispanic growth the nation experienced in this time frame of about 43%. Figure 3 shows the population growth for the period from 2000-2010.

Figure 3: Population Growth Comparison Source: US Census 2010

The higher growth in Calexico is probably due to the close proximity with the Mexican city of Mexicali. Their economies are closely linked through international corporations, retail, and a high number of exports. Whenever there has been an economic downturn in the United States, production slows in Mexicali, heavily impacting retail sales in Calexico. Similarly, if the peso loses strength against the dollar, it makes it more expensive for Mexicali residents to shop across the border, impacting the county’s economy and Calexico’s more heavily.

The next section of this paper focuses on finding a correlation between population data and education. As we will see, the three main high schools in the area are far below the average in the state; with this trend increasing the closer the school is to the border.

3. Education

3.1 Demographics

This paper is trying to analyze the minority population and the effect it has in school academics. The demographics for each individual school closely resemble that of their respective location. Calexico has the highest percentage of minority students, followed by El Centro, and Brawley with the least. This is easy to recognize as these numbers reflect their relative distance to Mexico. From here on, I will present other forms of data highlighting the close linkage between minority populations and underperforming schools.

Figure 4: Percentage Minority Enrollment in Calexico, El Centro, and Brawley. Source: School Accountability Report Cards
3.2 Test Scores

The CST’s are used to determine students’ achievement of the California Academic Content Standards. These standards describe the knowledge and skills that students are expected to learn at each grade level and subject. State test scores emphasized the seriousness of the situation in the area. One year, as many as 95% of students in a given city underperformed in at least one subject of the state examinations. These students are not meeting the state standard of achieving at least basic in English and Math. Although these two subjects are the only ones included in this paper, other subjects fared much worse. Overall, the schools have shown a diminishing trend, but the numbers are still not convincing.

In the school accountability report cards from the respective schools, these numbers were given as “Percentage of students meeting state standards”, meaning that the rest of the students tested did not. I changed the presentation of the information and instead chose give numbers for those that are not meeting state standards. The situation is really shocking in all three cases, as it shows that the students at these schools are either not being taught the adequate material or have serious cultural disadvantages that prevents them from scoring higher. Low scores in English are somewhat expected given the schools’ demographics, however, with more than half of the population identifying as native, I would have expected somewhat higher results.

*2010 Data not available for Calexico. Source: School Accountability Report Cards

Calexico really seems to stand out in these graphs, with the school’s measure about 10 percentage points higher than the other two schools. El Centro and Brawley score pretty similarly, but these number still are far behind the state average of about 50%.

The following table shows the percentage of students who completed high school graduation requirements in each school. These requirements include a passing grade in the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), and completion of the required courses. Again, Calexico is at the bottom of the list with the lowest percentage. The students who do not finish their graduation requirements by the time of their expected senior graduation date are sent to remedial schools if under the age of 18, or to an adult school. Completion of High School Graduation Requirements | Calexico | 84.8% | El Centro | 94% | Brawley | 93% |

It is expected that which these low test scores and a large number of students not even completing the required high school graduation requirements, the number of students going to college will be on the lower side. Few students complete the necessary requirements for application to a 4-year university; a large majority tends to stay in the local community college.

Percent of Graduates who completed courses required for UC/CSU admission | Calexico | 15.5 % | El Centro | 17 % | Brawley | 27.5 % |

The table above presents the percent of graduates who completed courses required for UC/CSU admission. Notice that the percentage of the whole school completing them is lower as the number of graduates does not equal the number of students in each school. These numbers only mention the number of students who successfully completed the classes required for application, however, they say nothing about the number of students who applied or got accepted. No reliable data was found for a concise number of college attendees, but with these numbers one can assume it to be about 10% in Calexico and El Centro and about 20% in Brawley. I’m leaning more towards it being lower. Also, no data was found specifying the average GPA of students.

The data presented in this section demonstrates the low performance of the local high schools. The number of students who underperform strongly surpasses the number of students who perform at the expected level or exceed expectations.

3. School Performance Analysis (Conclusion)

Analysis of all known factors known to play a role in school performance is beyond the scope of this paper, but it provides a good introduction in showing that large minority communities tend to perform at unacceptable levels. While Calexico is shown to perform at the lowest level while also having the largest minority population, this also brings a number of questions that could be helpful for further analysis, such as the following:

With such a high unemployment wage and a highly underperforming school, why is population increasing at the fastest rate in Calexico? Clearly this cannot be explained solely by economic factors; there must be something else that is making Calexico appear appealing to immigrants. Which leads to, what is the driving force that attracts immigrants to Imperial County? Residents have struggled with finding a job for the past few years, yet the area is experiencing population growth expected for an economically healthy area.

These migrations bring to Imperial County individuals in search of economic success in a country that provides better opportunities than their own. However, American low-skilled workers are unable to compete with those in developing countries while commanding the necessary wage for a comfortable standard of living. This is one of the disadvantages the Imperial Valley has in having a large number of low skilled workers and being right next to Mexico – a great potential for competition in industries requiring low-skilled labor. This has ruined income and employment prospects for a significant number of low-skilled workers in Imperial County. It is because of this that efforts to increase academic achievement are so important for the successful development in the area, as with the majority of workers lacking the skill necessary to enter high-skilled industries, it will forever doom the county as a welfare region. It might prove helpful to analyze yearly immigration patters and it’s effect in the labor markets to figure out the substitutability of workers in the area. In the Census 2010 report about Hispanic growth there’s a section titled: “How does this information benefit me or my family?” It is mentioned here that detailed population reports are necessary in order to address the specific needs in every area. Yet not enough attention is given to these critical areas that have clearly proven themselves in need.

Imperial County provides peculiar area for studying the effect of minority populations, as it is close to the border and is harbors a large number of immigrants from the largest minority group in the nation. However, there are other areas in California that have similar geographies and have a large number of Hispanic immigrants. They are not as close to the border but have agriculture as one of the main employment sectors. Comparing with such counties could provide better insight into this relationship.

References:

Belcher, Catherine L, 2006. Bordering on success: A portrait of the Calexico Unified
School District since bilingual education, 1963-2000 University of Pennsylvania

Collins, Kimberly., Subhrahit Guathakurta, Daniel Pijawka, Edward Sadalla, Judith Ley
Garcia, Arturo Renfla, 2006. The Border Observatory: Assessment of Perceptual and Objective Quality of Life Indicators in the U.S.-Mexican Border Southwest Center for Environmental Research and Policy

Hoefer, Michael. Rytina, Nancy. Baker, Bryan C. 2010 Estimates of the Unauthorized
Immigrant Population Residing in the United States: January 2009

Lockwood, Anne Turnbaugh; Secada, Walter G., 1990. Transforming Education for
Hispanic Youth: Exemplary Practices, Programs, and Schools. NCBE Resource Collection Series No. 12.

Medina, Jennifer, 2011. Economic Downturn Hold Fierce Grip on Border Town The
New York Times

Neumann, Richard A, 1996 Reducing Hispanic Dropout: A Case of Success. Educational
Policy

Passel, Jeffrey S., D’Vera Cohn. A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States Pew Hispanic Center

Rivera, Lorna, 2002. Latinos in Massachussetts: EDUCATION

Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo, 2009. Globalization, Immigration, and Education: The
Research Agenda Harvard Educational Review

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[ 1 ]. Source: HDR|HLB DECISION ECONOMICS INC: Imperial Valley-Mexicali Economic Delay Study
[ 2 ]. US Census Bureau: QuickFacts
[ 3 ]. US Department of Labor
[ 4 ]. Employment Development Department
[ 5 ]. Source: US Census 2010: American FactFinder
[ 6 ]. Calexico: http://www.axiomadvisors.net/livesarc/presentation/sarcindex.aspx?DistrictID=1363099
[ 7 ]. El Centro: http://www.spartansnet.net/CMS/Media/SARC-09-10-complete-10-11.pdf
[ 8 ]. Brawley: http://teachersites.schoolworld.com/webpages/DWebsite/files/10%20sarc_brawley%20uhsd_brawley%20hs.pdf
[ 9 ]. School Accountability Report Cards: See footnote pg. 5
[ 10 ]. School Accountability Report Cards, See footnote pg. 5