In the great immigrations of 1880–1920, the Italians composed the largest single group, with some 4 million of them reaching the United States. A great many, close to half, returned to Italy after a time. Despite the huge numbers who went back, however, the Italian immigration was so large that those who remained in the United States still outnumbered the arrivals in every other group.1 In Providence, the Italian immigrant community was of negligible size in 1880; by 1900, however, its children constituted 7% of the sample, with 16% in 1915 and 29% in 1925. By 1915, Italian children were more numerous than those of any other immigrant group in the city; by 1925, they probably even outnumbered all those of Irish ancestry (both children and grandchildren of Irish immigrants).

Like the nineteenth-century Irish before them, the Italians were far less likely than others to receive an extended education. In 1915, for example, slightly less than one-tenth of the children of Italians, as compared with two-fifths of the rest of the city's children, enrolled in high school. The evidence also indicates that, on average, Italians received lower grades from their teachers than others did. Such patterns persisted throughout the years 1900–25. This chapter concerns the family background of the Italian children, their schooling, and their later jobs.

Many observers have suggested that the cultural heritage of the Italian immigrants predisposed them to underrate the importance of education. One of the earliest discussions of Italian schooling has remained especially influential.