MIAMI _ They come fleeing gang violence and repressive regimes. They come after hurricanes and earthquakes. They come in search of work and an education.
But in Miami-Dade County, a place built by the aspirations of newcomers, hundreds of immigrant teens will never graduate from high school.
Instead, they will end up in adult education programs _ some of which are taught in Spanish _ where they learn little English and where they finish, if they're lucky, with the high school equivalency diploma known as a GED (General Educational Development). The path to college and a well-paying job, already a struggle for an immigrant, will become even more difficult.
That's because for years Miami-Dade schools have steered, and sometimes pushed, immigrant teens into adult education programs, the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald have found. Although the school district insists that students choose whether to enroll in the programs, students and immigrant rights groups say that is often not the case.
Some immigrant teens try to enroll in high school when they first arrive in Miami and are told that they're too old or that they won't pass the tests needed to graduate. Others enroll, but are instructed to transfer to a GED program when they struggle in class.
This school year, roughly 1,000 of the 5,000 recently arrived immigrant teens entering the school district ended up in a Spanish-language GED program instead of a regular high school. That figure doesn't include students who, after getting turned away from their local school, enrolled in GED and English programs run by organizations outside the school district.
Miami-Dade school administrators consider the Spanish program a good option for 16- and 17-year-old immigrants who they think might not be able to make up the high school credits and pass the standardized tests required to graduate with a regular diploma.
"The goal is to provide an additional option that affords students an opportunity to earn a high school equivalent diploma in the face of onerous state graduation requirements," said district spokeswoman Daisy Gonzalez-Diego.
But schools also have an incentive to funnel immigrant teens into adult education. Graduation rates and standardized test scores are a major factor in determining the rating each school gets from the state. Immigrant teens sent directly to GED programs can't negatively affect a school's graduation rate. Since GED students don't have to take state standardized tests, they also can't hurt the school's overall test scores. Immigrant students' test results start factoring into the school grade two years after their arrival, administrators said.
One lawyer, who tried to intervene on behalf of an immigrant teen denied enrollment at a local high school, said she was told by school staff that they were concerned the student would negatively affect the graduation rate. The lawyer spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to protect the student's identity.
The practice raises legal questions. Other school systems, including districts in Florida, have been scrutinized and even sued for not allowing immigrant teens to enroll in high school.
"It's illegal and it's unethical and it changes the life outcomes of these students in many cases because we know that students who have a high school diploma do better than students who have a GED," Tatyana Kleyn, a professor at City College of New York who studies immigrant education, said in reference to the practice as a whole. "These programs don't substitute for a high school experience. They're a watered-down version of that. They're not education. They're test prep."
