What We Know about Latina/o Student Access and Success
in Postsecondary Education
A Report to the Lumina Foundation
Raymond Padilla, Ph.D.
Macro Context: The Latino Population
The macro context focuses on three major
themes related to the Latino population: Its demographics,
immigration patterns and trends, and the nature of the Latino
community. These studies often have a comparative focus and
provide baseline data for analyzing trends.
1. There has been a large increase in the
Latino population of the U.S. both in terms of numbers and
geographic dispersion. North Carolina experienced a growth of
394 percent between 1990 and 2000. High birth and immigration
rates are seen as the main driving forces for the population
increase.
2. Demographic studies provide the
baseline data for comparing the Latino population to various
other groups in the U.S. so that a clear pattern emerges in
which Latina/os experience lower levels of educational
attainment in all segments of the educational system leading to
the notion of an “achievement gap”. A typical description of
the Latino educational achievement gap can be sketched as
follows:
For every 100 Latino elementary school
students, 48 drop out of high school and 52 graduate
from high school.
Of the 52 who graduate from high school,
31 enroll in college.
Of the 31 who enroll in college, 20 go to
a community college and 11 go to a 4-year institution.
Of the 20 who go to a community college, 2
transfer to a 4-year college.
Of the 31 who enrolled in college, 10
graduate from college.
Of the 10 who graduate from college, 4
earn a graduate degree, and less than 1 earns a
doctorate.
3. Latinos attend community colleges in
disproportionately large numbers and tend to be concentrated in
nonselective universities.
4. Many Latino students come from families
with lower incomes and less education than parents than other
groups in the population.
5. Achieving proficiency in English is a
necessary but not sufficient condition for Latino students to
succeed in U.S. schools. There is some evidence showing that
the highest achieving Latino high school students are bilingual
as compared to lesser achieving monolingual (in either English
or Spanish) Latino students.
6. Immigrant status increases the number
of reported institutional obstacles to gaining a higher
education. For example, students born in Mexico reported
more institutional obstacles than those born in the U.S.
Students who wrote in English reported more institutional
resources than those writing in Spanish.
7. Informal, non family adult mentors can
be instrumental in increasing the educational success of Latino
students, including immigrant students. They accomplish this by
providing affective support and access to resources.
8. English language learners are often
tracked or segregated, and they can feel that they must choose
between a “gringo” identity and a Chicano one; they associate
“acting white” with good behavior in school. Most choose to
assimilate but are ambivalent about their decision.
9. Ethnic loyalty predicts whether
students think that college educated women of Mexican descent
are seen as elitist, thus potentially stigmatizing higher
education.
10. Framing educational pursuits as
methods by which students can fight discrimination, enhance
ethnic pride, and assist their communities when they return with
college degrees can make college going more attractive to Latino
students.
|
