Despite speculation that immigrant and racial minority status may doubly disadvantage Black immigrant children in U.S. schools, researchers have rarely studied the educational attainment of immigrant Black youth. In this article, Xue Lan Rong and Frank Brown analyze 1990 U.S. Census data to examine the combined effects of generation of U.S. residence (1st, 2nd, and 3rd) and of race and ethnicity (Caribbean Blacks, African Blacks, and European Whites) on youths' total years of schooling and schooling completion at three levels — grammar school, high school, and four-year college. The results from their study show that these youths' educational attainment varies with race and pan-nationality, as well as with generation of residence. Based on their findings, Rong and Brown argue that as racial and ethnic identity is becoming increasingly complicated, educational practitioners need to move away from the conventional notion that equates each racial group with one culture and one ethnic identity. Using classic assimilation and acculturation theories as the framework for their analysis, Rong and Brown conclude that educators have to learn more about the process of assimilation and its relationship with youths' schooling and reconsider the common notion that more rapid assimilation is always better for immigrant children's education. (pp. 536–565)

This article has synthesize the past two decades of research literature focusing on the life experience of Caribbean and African Black immigrants and their children and the process that they have been incorporated into American society and into its educational system. This article analyzes the social-cultural-economic causes of variation in Black immigrant children’s identity deconstruction and reconstruction, including Black immigrant youth’s attitudes towards racism and discrimination, their educational aspirations and educational performance, and the social and cultural resources present within ethnic communities. Three major issues relevant to Black immigrant children’s education were probed: “Triple disadvantages” vs. “model Blacks”; identities, differentiation and destination; and Black immigrants and American Blacks: diversity and solidarity. The authors have focused their recommendations on the transformation of educators’ perceptions and conceptions, on adjustment and innovation in educational policymaking, and on the change and reform in teachers’practice, schools’outreach efforts, and cultural environment.

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Research on immigration and attainment in U.S. schools typically does not separate out generation of U.S. residence, a critical factor in attainment. This article explores immigrant generation effects (native, child of immigrant, immigrant) on schooling attained for Asians, Hispanics, and non-Hispanic whites, using Current Population Survey data. Previously unpublished cross-sectional data are presented. Regressions predicting school years completed show variable generation-by-ethnicity effects. Asian attainment increases sharply between immigrant and child-of-immigrant generations, leveling off thereafter. Hispanic attainment improves with successive generations of U. S. residence. Non-Hispanic white attainment peaks in the child-of-immigrant generation and declines for later generations.