Volume 17, No. 2, May 2007

Missouri’s Migrant Students: The Invisible Population

Contributors:
Katie L. Piacentini, Ph.D. student, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
Elizabeth P. Valentine, Ph.D. student, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
Karen S. Cockrell, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis

What Does the Federal Government Provide?

The Migrant Education Program (MEP), authorized by Title I, Part C of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 and reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, provides formula grants to aid state education agencies in developing and improving educational opportunities for migrant students. The MEP aims to account for and ameliorate educational effects caused by migrant students' repeated moves and to assure that educational programs address factors such as cultural and language differences, health related issues, and social isolation that may restrain academic progress (Title I, Part C Draft Non-Regulatory Guidance, 2003). The MEP's goals are intended to assure that educational opportunities provided by state education agencies and enacted by local school districts lead to:

• locating and recruiting migrant children;
• ensuring migrant children’s school readiness;
• providing migrant students, particularly dropouts, with equal access and opportunity to educational opportunities;
• increasing parental involvement;
• supporting educator professional development;
• supporting technological implementation of migrant students’ school records to facilitate between-school transfers;
• increasing graduation rates of migrant students.

Eligibility for TI-C services

Title I-C, sections 1115(b)(1)(A) and 1309(2) and section 200.18(d) define eligibility for MEP as:

• a child under 22 years of age who has neither graduated from high school nor earned a high school equivalency certificate;
• is a migrant agricultural worker or fisher; or
• has a parent, spouse, or guardian who is a migrant agricultural worker whose principal means of livelihood include any activity directly related to the production or processing of crops, dairy products, poultry, or livestock for initial commercial sale, fishing or tree-farming;
• and has moved across school district boundaries one time within the previous 36 months in order to obtain temporary or seasonal employment in agricultural or fishing work.

What Does Missouri Provide?

In 2002, Missouri's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) reorganized and combined the TI-C funded Migrant Education Program (MEP) and the TIII funded English Language Learner (ELL) to create the Migrant and English Language Learning Program (MELL). MELL’s stated purpose is to “use existing resources to better serve all English Language Learning (ELL) and migrant students in the state of Missouri,” (2006 mellfactsheet) while working to prevent duplication of services.

MELL: Goals and Organizational Structure

To meet its purpose of building local school districts' capacity to meet the educational needs of ELL and migrant students as specified in TI-C and TIII of NCLB, MELL aims to assist local districts in:

• decision-making regarding the appropriate expenditure of TI-C and TIII funds;
• development of ELL/migrant students' English language skills and academic success;

and provide to these districts:

• information to help assure compliance with federal and state ELL and migrant education guidelines;
• information and assistance with ELL/migrant student identification, recruitment, and enrollment;
• opportunities to develop capacity for delivery of effective and research based education services to ELL and migrant students;
• opportunities to develop capacity in instructional programs and strategies that will invite and enable ELL and migrant parents' involvement in their students' educational lives.

As shown in Figure 1, TI-C and TIII funds, awarded to the State by the U.S. Department of Education and administered by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) federal programs unit, support the MELL central office, are sub-contracted to nine regional centers for delivery of services to districts, and allocated to districts for direct education services to ELL and migrant students. Responsibilities of the organizational units include:

• The MELL central office located in Jefferson City and staffed by the MELL Director and administrative assistant, coordinates regional centers and services provided by MELL staff, collects and processes data.
• Regional Professional Development Centers (RPDCs), strategically located throughout the state, sub-contract services provided by MELL staff (Instructional Specialists and Recruiters) to local school districts. Instructional Specialists provide professional development in English language instruction for English Language Learners to targeted instructional personnel and administrative staff. Recruiters provide assistance in the identification and enrollment of migrant students, outreach to and communication with parents, and the securing of Certificate of Enrollment forms needed for TI-C and TIII services.
• Staffing - five RPDCs are allocated both an Instructional Specialist and Recruiter staff position; of these centers, at present, four Recruiter positions and all five Instructional Specialist positions are filled. The four remaining RPDCs are allocated one position to fill both Instructional Specialist and Recruiter responsibilities; of these centers, at present, two positions are filled and two are vacant. (see Figure 1)

Figure 1

MELL supports but does not provide direct services to local districts in meeting their responsibilities to design educational programs, provide instruction, and implement policy. As with any student, school districts are required to use district funds to meet migrant students' basic educational needs. TI-C and TIII funds allocated to districts supplement but do not supplant the basic educational program for meeting the educational needs of migrant and ELL learners. Title IC provides supplemental services, including recruitment of migrant children, additional instruction such as before and after school programs and summer school, and health needs (i.e. nutrition, dental, and eye exams) not addressed by Title III.

Eligibility for Services.

MELL uses NCLB guidelines in establishing eligibility for services.

Where Are Missouri’s Migrant Families?

Regardless of ethnic or linguistic background, many migrant agricultural workers continue a generational family tradition of work in the food production industry. Of those whose country of origin is Mexico, a significant percentage have ties to the Braceros Program, instituted in 1942 to meet farmworker labor shortages resulting from military personnel needs associated with WWII. This bilateral executive U.S. and Mexico agreement, which led to patterns of migration developed around seasonal crop work, was terminated in 1964 (Tiedeman, 1999). For many follow-the-crop migrant workers, these patterns of migration, as shown in Figure 2, persist today.

Figure 2

Missouri's Migrant Student Population

The migrant student population in the State of Missouri is similar to the migrant agricultural worker population throughout the United States. MELL data indicate that in Missouri:

• Approximately 90% of migrant students are Latino
• Most migrate to Missouri from the Texas Valley region
• Mexico is the country of origin of most migrant student families, and Spanish is their first language
• Approximately 40 schools serve migrant students
• Compared to 14% of the overall student population, 1 - 2% of the migrant student population is enrolled in special education services
• According to DESE, the number of migrant students enrolled in Missouri school districts has steadily declined from the 1999-2000 school year:
• 1999-00 approx 5000
• 2005-06 approx 2000
• 2006-07 approx 1209

Location of migrant families/students within Missouri

Migrant agricultural workers are employed in both the meat processing and the crop planting, cultivation, harvesting and preparation industries. The majority of migrant workers are located in the following counties and are associated with meat processing companies:

• Sullivan (Milan; Premium Standard Farms)
• Pettis (Sedalia; Tyson)
• McDonald (Noel; Tyson and Simmons)
• Barry (Monett; Tyson)
• Moniteau (California; Cargill)
• Buchanan (St. Joseph; Triumph Foods)

Those migrant workers doing traditional crop farm work are located in:

• Lafayette County (Lexington)
• Dunklin County (most of Missouri's Bootheel region)

Data Source: MELL

Figure 3

What Are Their Needs?

Approximately one-third of Missouri’s migrant children move to another location within 12 months with half staying in the state and half leaving the state (Interview).

Because of their frequent mobility and extreme poverty, migrant students face undue hardships that include meeting the basic needs of food and nutrition, housing, and safety (Green, 2003; Interview). This high rate of migrant student mobility leads to many academic and educational issues, including:

• low attendance rates;
• poor test scores (see Tables 1 and 2);
• lack of obtaining credits (Duron, 2004; Salinas & Reyes, 2004a; Salinas & Reyes, 2004b; Solis, 2004; Interview); and
• high drop-out rates (Solis, 2004; Interview).

One of the greatest challenges faced by the students is the acquisition of the English language;

• approximately 80% of migratory children face this challenge (Interview);
• 70% of elementary migrant students are classified as Limited English Proficient (LEP); 40% of high school migrant students are LEP.

This challenge is exacerbated by the shortage of licensed teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL). At the present:

• approximately 370 ESL teachers are licensed in Missouri; many districts located in rural areas containing the largest number of migrant students have difficulty recruiting and retaining ESL teachers;
• a significant percentage of the approximately 18,000 students throughout Missouri classified as LEP are migrant students;
• the ESL teacher-to-student ratio is 1:50; current state policy requires a district to have 20 LEP students before an ESL teacher can be hired.

The following data display demonstrates the effects of their life conditions upon migrant students' academic performance: Data Source: MELL

Table 1
Spring 2004 MAP Data - Disaggregated - Missouri Totals – Communication Arts

Table 2
Spring 2004 MAP Data - Disaggregated - Missouri Totals – Mathematics

Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

While MELL data indicate a steady decline of migrant students in Missouri's schools, the 2003 and 2005 Department of Elementary and Secondary LEP Student Census report a continued increase in the number of ELL students. Because these reports attribute this rise, in part, to the growth of the food processing industry in the State of Missouri where migrants are known to work, a possible conclusion is the number of migrant students is growing rather than declining. Adequate material and human resources should be provided to assure that migrant students are identified and Certificates of Eligibility obtained.

The number of MELL staff positions responsible for providing services to school districts is small relative to the needs of schools providing educational services to migrant students. Lack of sufficient personnel may contribute to the possible undercount of migrant students. Adequate material and human resources should be provided to assure that migrant students receive needed educational and social services.

The current ESL teacher/student ratio is not adequate to meet federal and state goals for developing English language fluency of migrant students who are limited English proficient. Adequate resources should be provided to districts to assure staffing ESL teaching positions at, minimally, a 1:25 teacher/student ration.

References

Ahn, C., Moore, M. & Parker, N. (2004) Migrant farmworkers: America's new plantation workers. Backgrounder, 10(2). http://www.foodfirst.org/node/45 retrieved 3/2/07

Duron, S. (2004). Identification and recruitment: Trends and issues. In C. Salinas & M. E. Franquiz (Eds.), Scholars in the field: The challenges of migrant education (pp. 31-44): (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED482321).

Facts on farmworkers in the United Sates (2001). http://www.farmworkers.cornell.edu/pdf/facts_on_farmworkers.pdf Retrieved 3/2/2007.

Green, P. E. (2003). The Undocumented: Educating the Children of Migrant Workers in America. Bilingual Research Journal, 27(1), 51-71.

McCauley, L. A., Lasarev, M. R., Higgins, G., Rothlein, J., Muniz, J., Ebbert, C., Phillips, J. (2001). Work Characteristics and Pesticide Exposures among Migrant Agricultural Families: A Community-Based Research Approach. Environmental Health Perspectives, 109(5), pp. 533-538.

Salinas, C., & Reyes, R. (2004a). Creating Successful Academic Programs for Chicana/o High School Migrant Students: The Role of Advocate Educators. High School Journal, 87(4), 54-66.

Salinas, C., & Reyes, R. (2004b). Graduation enhancement and post-secondary opportunities for migrant students: Issues and approaches. In C. Salinas & M. E. Franquiz (Eds.), Scholars in the field: The challenges of migrant education (pp. 119-134): (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED482321).

Solis, J. J. (2004). Scholastic demands on intrastate and interstate migrant secondary students. In C. Salinas & M. E. Franquiz (Eds.), Scholars in the field: The Challenges of migrant education (pp. 113-118): (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED482321).

Tiedeman, M.C. (1999). Los Braceros 1942- 1964: Mexican Labor Importation. TED Case Studies. http://www.american.edu/TED/bracero.htm#geographic%20clusters Retrieved 3/2/07.

Title I, Part C Education of migratory children, Draft non-regulatory guidance. (2003). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

U. S. Department of Education. http://www.ed.gov/programs/mep/legislation.html Retrieved 3/2/2007.

2005 Limited English proficient student census. dese.mo.gov/divimprove/fedprog/discretionarygrants/bilingual-esol/05-06LEPcensusstatewidefor04-05.pdf Retrieved 3/2/2007.