|
|
|
What We Know about Latina/o Student Access and Success
in Postsecondary Education
A Report to the Lumina Foundation
Raymond Padilla, Ph.D.
Micro Context: The Family
11. Supportive parents and family can positively impact the
educational achievement of Latino students. Support entails
positive communication, good relationships with adults, a caring
environment, and parents’ interest in their children’s
education. Students from such families say that their families
value academic goals, believe in their ability to contribute,
provide role models, advocate for the students, and provide a
safe environment. Families also can provide “counter stories”
that portray college going as challenging but worthwhile. Thus,
families can create either a “culture of possibility” or a
“culture of success” that channels the student into high
educational attainment.
12. Family poverty has an overall negative impact on children’s
test scores and correlates with an absence of stimulating books
and learning activities in the home.
13. Academic achievement may be negatively impacted by having
mothers who dropped out of high school, by being raised in a
single parent household, by having a mother with a low prestige
job or unemployed, by living in an unsafe neighborhood, by
having three or more siblings, by being physically punished
frequently, by having low birth weight, by being born to a
teenage mother, or having a mother who is depressed. These are
all risk factors that must be taken into account in assessing
the educational achievement of Latino students.
14. Though not always a direct verbal message, Latino parents
were encouraging of their children’s educational pursuits. Such
encouragement may not always deal directly with the mechanics of
the college going process, but with the need to advance oneself
economically and avoid the life the student’s parents had to
endure due to limited educational attainment. Latino parents may
be unaware of the importance or meaning of SAT scores, the
availability of SAT preparation courses, state university
entrance requirements, or how to obtain financial aid. So while
they may have high expectations for their children, Latino
parents may not be able to advocate effectively for their
children to succeed in educational institutions.
15. The advocacy of the mother can be particularly important in
promoting the educational success of Latina/o students.
16. The ranking of filial responsibility expectations is similar
between Mexican Americans and Whites.
17. There are three environments in institutions of higher
education that may be alienating to Latino students: The
physical, social, and epistemological environments. The physical
environment encompasses architectural and design features
premised on a White aesthetic; the social environment includes
the predominantly white population of the campus, and the
epistemological environment refers to the knowledge that is
valued by the university, mostly knowledge from a Euro-centric
perspective. Under these circumstances, Latina/o students can
become “cultural workers” who attempt to transform the campus
environment; similarly, the students’ attempts to connect with
Latino spaces on and off campus are seen as strategies to lessen
their alienation from the campus environment.
18. For Mexican American females, cultural incorporation, i.e.
combining of elements of Mexican and majority culture, related
positively to achievement.
19. Latino students who perceive less support from students on
campus are more likely to seek and find support among other
Latino students.
20. Latina/o students offer cultural resources to each other and
to White students who associate with them. These benefits
include socially conscious values, an emphasis on community
service careers, and engagement in community service activities
after graduation.
21. On some campuses, the emergence of multiple Latino student
organizations highlights the diversity within the Latino
population, but also works to segregate various Latino groups
based on cultural or nationalistic lines. Student organizations
often realize the need to minimize competition for membership
and resources.
22. Language difficulties, among other factors, can be barriers
to the college success of Mexican American students.
23. When teachers demonstrated negative actions (including lack
of cultural understanding), Latino student academic success was
hindered.
24. High achieving Latina/o youth evidenced high social capital
and a “culture of success” that including active seeking of
information about college and connecting to resource networks.
25. With respect to Latina/o students, discriminatory behaviors
directed toward them can be expressed as a set of “institutional
abuses”. These include being emotionally discouraging, providing
inaccurate information or insufficient knowledge, withholding
critical information, and limiting access to opportunities for
college.
26. Highly ethnically identified Latinos seem to be particularly
at risk in institutions in which Latinos are vastly
underrepresented.
27. The relationship between ego identity, crises, and
racial-cultural conflicts were strong for Mexican American
students.
28. Courses in K-12 often overlook the presence of people of
color in the curriculum, focusing exclusively on White versions
of U.S. society and use White mainstream models of education.
Mexican Americans are invisible in the curriculum, uncritically
portrayed by educators, or portrayed in negative or hostile
ways.
29. For high achieving Puerto Rican students, having a strong
Puerto Rican identity was a success factor. Students were able
to counter negative stereotypes and low expectations because
they felt proud of their identity and cultural heritage.
30. Regarding access to the University of California system,
Latino students are expected to travel a greater learning
distance, with less affirmation of their ethnic/racial
identities, and with less support than students of the dominant
culture.
31. Attendance and credits for classes posed a major problem for
students that for various reasons could not attend classes
regularly, which included work obligations and migration.
32. Chicano and Latino students report feeling uncomfortable in
special education classes to which they often have been referred
unnecessarily when language or other issues were actually the
problem.
33. It may be unrealistic for educators to place their hopes
exclusively on students’ individual motivation and resiliency in
the face of limited and scarce educational and personal
resources.
|
