Report misses the mark

Re “An incomplete ‘report card,’ ” Opinion, Oct. 2

Tomas R. Jimenez cites the one optimistic study about Mexican American achievement in education, but neglects at least a dozen others that show that Mexican American educational gains stall for children of immigrants.

A UCLA study by sociologist Vilma Ortiz and me shows that the fourth generation does as poorly as the third. Both do worse than the second generation. A 2002 University of Michigan study shows that third-generation Mexican Americans have the lowest college graduation rate of any major ethnic group, including African Americans. It would be easy to minimize the poor educational status of Mexican Americans, hoping that it will go away over several generations. It won’t. Neglecting the adverse consequences of racism for California’s children is akin to burying our heads in the sand.

Edward Telles

Professor of sociology

UCLA, Westwood