Although schools have started to focus on the diversity of students, Latinos are still underrepresented in educational attainment. This underrepresentation has resulted in lower graduation rates, lack of appropriate resources, and problems with how the curriculum is delivered to students. In the United States, the national graduation rate for Latino students increased from 71 percent in the 2010-2011 school year to 76.3 in 2013-2014 (NBC NEWS). Early childhood education, social programs and housing can determine a Latino chances of being academically successful. This begs the question: Does every child have the same opportunity from a young age?
“The most pleading problem for the American education system has a Latino face. Latinos are the largest and most rapidly growing ethnic minority in the country, but, academically, they are lagging dangerously far behind their non-Hispanic peers. For example, upon entering kindergarten 42% of Latino children are found in the lowest quartile of performance on reading readiness compared to just 18% of White children.” (Patricia Gándara, 2008) By 4th grade, 16% of Latino students are proficient in reading according to the 2005 NAEP, compared to 41% of White students. A similar pattern is notable at the 8th grade, were only 15% of Latinos are proficient in reading compared to 39% of Whites. What are the reasons that Latino children have lower attainment rates than their non-Latino peers? One of the reasons for this are that Latino children are not only less likely to be enrolled in preschool, they’re also less likely to be prepared for kindergarten. New research conducted in Miami shows that early childhood education can close that skills gap for low-income Latino students, both at the kindergarten level and through the end of third grade.
Talking about the different status of a latino students some come from undocumented parents, some come from legal parents. Everyone has a different case, why not help them out with what they might need to make them more successful. For example the migrant program, that program is only for latino students and families that have worked on the fields. That helps some latino students but what about the others? Social programs sometimes can be such a great help for students. But why is it that for latino students you don’t see a lot of those programs.
Housing, do you think that housing can affect the process of a students thinking or school? For example how will a students education become better if the transportation system doesn't work well. It’s crazy to think that many of the dual immersion schools are the ones that have neighborhoods much worse than other schools. How can we change that or make it better? What policies must be considered to address the crisis? A review of research on effective strategies for supporting the healthy development of children from birth to young adulthood yields a series of target areas for policy development. Begin cognitive enrichment early. Early intervention, if sustained over time, can change the intellectual development of children. The evidence suggests, though, that this early intervention needs to extend beyond the classroom, involving the homes of preschool children, helping their parents to understand the demands of school and how practices in the home can work hand in hand with the goals of schooling. Most important of all are literacy practices in the home reading to and with children and also talking to them about ideas and inviting their curiosity about the world. Many low-income Latino parents have come to believe that they cannot help their children learn because they haven't experienced much formal education themselves, or because they don't speak English, and their skills and abilities are often overlooked by schools. Research shows, however, that such parents can and should be critical educators for their children. Policies that enable them to do so in their primary language and that support them while they do it could greatly assist students learning. There is a critical role for teachers and schools in helping parents to support their children's schooling.
Establish housing policies that help desegregate neighborhoods and schools, and build social capital in the Latino community. It has been argued that housing is the fulcrum of opportunity, linked to many factors critical to the success of adults and children in American society. Such factors include access to good schools, but they also include "wealth, healthy and safe environments, positive peer groups for children, good local health care, convenient access to areas of greatest job growth, high-quality public services, networks to jobs and college, and many other forms of opportunity."Changing school boundaries, providing racially and SES-balanced magnet schools, and providing transfer opportunities to attend two-way language programs are among the many options schools can employ to help desegregate Latino students. There are also powerful social policies that can more radically change housing segregation. While such policies are not in the hands of schools to enact, teachers and school districts can give voice to the need for such policies and can cooperate with city and county government to implement them.
Prepare and recruit specifically qualified teachers. Teachers must be given the specialized tools they need to be successful with Latino populations, and, contrary that good schools are good schools for all children, some additional and different things must be present in schools that serve this population. Teachers must have skills and the means for communicating with Latino parents and enlisting them as allies. They must be able to communicate with and motivate their Latino students. They must understand the circumstances of the students’ lives and histories. Critically, teachers must know how to provide deep, rich, and intellectually challenging instruction that pushes students to excel and, simultaneously, builds on the fund of knowledge that resides in students' communities. In the words of Michael Martinez they must be able to cultivate intelligence, not just the acquisition of knowledge. They must be able to help children learn to think deeply and creatively about problems, and they must be able to build on the foundations of learning that students bring with them to school. This also implies that teachers must be given the autonomy to exercise their professional judgment and expertise in the classroom. Although most Latino students speak English, many come from families and communities that primarily speak Spanish, and most teachers have difficulty communicating with students' families and thus enlisting their support. In a recent survey of 5,300 teachers in California, we found this inability to communicate with parents to be the single greatest concern of teachers of English Language Learners.15 The fact that most Latino students come from backgrounds where mainstream and academic English are not spoken places them at an educational disadvantage that must be attended to with specific pedagogical strategies. Moreover, many of these students are labeled (reclassified) "fluent English proficient," RFEP, when only yesterday or last week they were considered English Language Learners. Their language development in English must be viewed as occurring along a continuum that will require many years, and teachers need to be skilled at assessing and addressing those linguistic needs.
Teachers from the same communities as their students are not only much more likely to understand their students' challenges, they are also more likely to remain teaching in the same schools, developing expertise and gaining experience. Of course there is a problem in that so few Latinos successfully make it through the college pipeline that the prospective teacher pool is small. Providing incentives for Latinos to go into teaching would be good public policy, and should include tuition-free college and teacher preparation for those who serve the public schools in these communities—one-year free tuition for each year of successful teaching. Teachers from these communities should also be helped to purchase a home in the community through low interest, low down-payment home ownership programs. The costs of the proposed incentives to attract and retain these teachers are small by comparison to the lost taxpayer investment in teachers who leave the classroom early in their careers out of frustration and a desire to find a better paying or less stressful job in a more affluent part of the city. There is no consensus in the field on the critical competencies that teachers must have to effectively meet these students' needs. The field needs to develop this consensus.