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You
are here: The Hispanic Dilemma:
What Are We Doing About It?
There is a movement towards excellence in all public schools. This movement is intended to increase student achievement and decrease the number of dropout students. Goal 2 of the National Goals for Education addresses school completion (OERI, 1993). It states that by the year 2000, the high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90 percent. This goal spotlights a problem which has persisted for over two decades-- the dropout student.
Americans are attending colleges in numerous record but discrepancies still exist especially with low-income students from all ethnic and social backgrounds. This is more so with the Hispanic/Latino population. Dropping out is a complex, social problem that has no simple answers. This problem affects everyone-the student, the school, the school district, the families, the community, and our future generations.
The literature also indicates that 70.0 percent of all dropouts are either Hispanic or African Americans (TEA, 1999). Dropout rates for both of these two cultures remain higher than the state average of 1.6 percent. The number of Hispanics who drop out of high school or never attended high school has risen past the 50 percent mark in the 90s.
In 2000, approximately 1.56 million U.S. residents ages 16 to 19 had not graduated nor were enrolled in school. Of the total, nearly 34 percent were Hispanic. According to the United States Census Bureau, the Hispanic/Latino population in 1990 rivaled the African American group in becoming the nations largest minority group by 35.3 million.
By 2020, about one in three Americans will come from a minority background (Ingram, 2002). We need to target this population with affective strategies that will keep the Hispanic student in school, to be able to graduate, to attend post-secondary universities, and to attain an educational career. What can we do? Where are the answers? Who can assist? How are we to achieve this?
The literature research indicates that many measures for continuous improvement in handling this dropout dilemma exists. There are many Hispanics who have been successful and who continue to go into higher education programs. However, colleges, educational institutions, and educators can only do so much.
Efforts need to focus on the Hispanic population, the students, and their families. Perceptions, values, and aspirations are all vital factors that are attached to the human element. The student must possess a desire for education. Family structure, family stability is associated with many things that do directly measure a child's well being (Sandefur, 2000). Antonio Perez, Ed.D., President of the Borough of Manhattan Community College states, "there must be a sweeping cultural shift in expectations, a clear recognition that earning a college degree is much more valuable in the long run than today's salary-and can exponentially increase lifetime income" (Perez, 2002). The possession of a high school diploma does not ensure easy access to higher education or well-paying jobs but it is the key to the door of opportunities for higher learning, better jobs, higher wages and future success. Research dates those students who do not graduate make up a large proportion of students who are usually unemployed, earn lower wages, receive public assistance, and/or are in prison.
As educators, the task is before us but we cannot do it alone. It has to begin with the stakeholders, our own Hispanic/Latino community. If Hispanic youths have a low self-esteem, then we need to encourage, motivate, mentor, and implement programs that will attend to their personal as well as educational needs. We need to ensure that programs for college preparation courses are accessible since their early primary school years. We need to reinforce these strategies for academic skills throughout their formative years. We need initiatives that will raise the value of 'education' in the eyes of the parents. We need more parental involvement not only in the primary grades, the secondary grades, but also in higher education.
Research shows that colleges need to provide academic and support services, peer and professional mentoring at a very early stage in their lives. They need to share responsibility for educating all minority students. In addition, financial support to education has to be advertised to families since their early education. We need gradual phasing out of government involvement. Some sort of subsidy system needs to be implemented that will enable low-income families to participate effectively in their children's education. Better equitable scholarship programs need to be offered that will target the student's academic success before entering high school. Not all students are academically inclined but vocational services are offered at many schools to prepare them for some form of training. Thus, many students will perceive that they can and will be valuable to society.
Equal opportunities for academic enhancement and advancement must be given to all students in all levels of their education. It is our responsibility to prepare students to live and work in a global, technological, and communicative society.
References:
Ingram, Earl G. (2002). "A New Silence." The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education. New Jersey. April 22, 2002.
Office of Education Research Improvement. (1993). 1987 Reaching the Goals: Goal 2, High School Completion. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Perez, Antonio, Ed.D. (2002). "Hispanic Community Must Raise the Bar on Academic Achievement." The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education. New Jersey. June 17, 2002.
Sandefur, Gary D. (2000). "Family Structure, Stability, and the Well-Being of Children." University of Wisconsin-Madison. The RAND Corporation. Also online http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/irp/pubs/focusold/16.3.a/Indicators.txt
Texas Education Agency. (1999). Student Dropouts. Also online http://www.tea.state.tx.us/reports/1996/dropouts.html
Alejandra Rodriguez has been an educator for the past 32 years and currently teaches at Dr. Leo G. Cigarroa High School in the Laredo Independent School District. Presently, she is also a graduate student enrolled in the Educational Leadership Joint Doctoral Program with Texas A & M University at Kingsville, Texas and Corpus Christi, Texas as a member of Cohort IX. She is working on a dissertation that will address successful factors that influence upper-level Hispanic students at predominantly Hispanic universities in South Texas. She is of Mexican descent and a single parent of two beautiful children and three wonderful grandchildren. You may contact Alejandra G. Rodriguez at alebrodz@netscorp.net.
© December 2002 New Horizons for Learning
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