Revisiting the Coleman Report: Deficit Ideologies and Federal Compensatory Funding in Low-Income Latino School Communities

Abstract

The essay argues that the Coleman Report helped give credence to contemporary deficit ideologies in education by proclaiming that schools do not make much of a difference in the educational outcomes of students in poverty including Latino communities. Furthermore, the author explores how deficit ideologies influence compensatory funding, in particular Title I, and concludes with recommendations to improve compensatory allotments that reject deficit views for low-income Latino students.