GARDEN CITY, Kan. (AP) University of Kansas researchers have received a $40,000 grant to study how a southwest Kansas community’s 30-year population shift has changed local schools and what the results can teach educators across the country.
The Wichita Eagle reports associate professor Jennifer Ng and professor Don Stull will conduct the study in Garden City, which has seen continuous immigration from around the world since the early 1980s.
The professors say their work will have broad significance as communities across the Midwest, southeast U.S. and Canada are experiencing many of the same challenges and opportunities.
The duo will interview teachers, administrators, parents and students to learn how the community’s demographics affect daily operations of a school district whose students include speakers of 21 languages other than English.
