PUERTO RICAN STUDENTS IN ROCKVILLE CENTRE AND BROOKLYN DIOCESES: AN INVESTIGATION OF SOCIOECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS
Abstract
This study examines reading scores and occupational scores drawn from a sample of Rockville Centre and Brooklyn dioceses Puerto Rican and non-Puerto Rican students and their fathers. Previous research that focused on Puerto Ricans was mainly concerned with the Taeuber and Duncan formulations that describe invasion--succession characteristics of selected groups. Other studies investigated the social and psychological dimensions of the Puerto Rican migration. Collectively, this literature concludes the Puerto Ricans are unlike any other group that has come before. These findings warranted a reexamination of other theoretical formulations and their applicability to Puerto Ricans. In particular, this study examines the Burgess theorem of residential settlement zones and an implied economic gradient, and combines this with education theory that suggests the socioeconomic factors are powerful predictors of academic achievement. Findings derived from the occupational data support the Burgess theory. Results derived from the reading score data, however, were mixed. It is suggested that the unique character of the educational findings are not so much due to the sample being Puerto Rican, but rather are a result of factors involving the parochial school system itself from which the sample was drawn. This conclusion is based on the fact that there was little difference between the Puerto Rican and non-Puerto Rican students' reading scores within each diocese. The following summary points are offered in conclusion: (1) The most significant conclusion drawn from this study is that Rockville Centre Puerto Rican and non-Puerto Rican fathers obtained significantly higher mean occupation scores than did the Brooklyn diocese groups with few exceptions. To move out is to move up. (2) The results derived from the reading score data suggest few differences among the four groups in relation to this variable. In effect, it has been demonstrated that when significant differences occurred, the mean reading scores never varied more than three months either within diocese or between the dioceses. Thus a similarity among reading scores is occurring among groups with significantly different occupational scores. (3) Given the above results, it follows that occupation scores and reading scores among the groups studied were not predictive of each other.
Subject Area
Educational sociology
Recommended Citation
MERLO, JOAN MARGARET REIDY, "PUERTO RICAN STUDENTS IN ROCKVILLE CENTRE AND BROOKLYN DIOCESES: AN INVESTIGATION OF SOCIOECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS" (1982). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8213249.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8213249
