Latino Students in Mass. Underperforming in Achievement and Graduation

Cover of the new report, "The Status of Latino Education in Massachusetts," by Nicole Lavan and Miren Uriarte, Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy (NEWz courtesy image: Gastón Institute)

A new report, "The Status of Latino Education in Massachusetts," reveals that Hispanic students in the Commonwealth have the highest rates for school absences, suspensions and drop-out rates.

Nicole Lavan, the report's co-author for the Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy, told EthnicNewz.org that the middle-school years are especially critical.

That's when achievement gaps are the highest between Latino and other students, she said.

Lavan is a researcher for the Gastón Institute and the lead author of the report. Her co-author is Miren Uriarte, director of the Gastón and a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Following is the condensed edited interview with Lavan, who spoke to EthnicNewz.org by phone on March 20, 2008.

If you could advise some of these school principals or superintendents in Massachusetts, what would you tell them?

There needs to be strong focus on the middle-school years for Latino students, to make sure they don't become lost in the system, and that they do stay on track to go on to high school.

Most of the engagement variables - like absences, suspensions, and even the drop-out rates for Latino students - they start to show up strongly in the middle-school years.

Also, the middle-school years are when the failure rates (for the Mass. Comprehensive Achievement tests, or MCAS) are the highest, and the (achievement) gaps between Latino and other students are the highest.

So, in some respects, it's actually more critical to devote resources towards Latino students in middle school, more so than to those in high school?

Well, in a sense, yes, because unfortunately many of them aren't even making it to high school.

Not to say that resources should be taken away from high school, but a lot of the intervention-type programs and the early-warning systems really need to be happening maybe as early as fifth grade, certainly during the middle-school years.

The middle-school years are when a lot of the (Latino) students fall off track. We are seeing this (drop-out trend) emerge in other data that we're working on.

Why should people care about helping kids stay on track in education?

Education is the foundation that leads to other of life's outcomes - the types of jobs you get, where you live, and so on.

In many cases, it's a strong predictor of your health.

The kinds of economies that Massachusetts has really does require education that's beyond K-to-12 (kindergarten to 12th grade). College and advanced degrees are required.

What are some recommendations for education policy that you make at the state level?

From a state policy level, we discussed raising the school-leaving age to 18.

Also, having something like a middle-school success act in which a lot of time, energy and resources are put into those middle-school years.

Also, develop early-warning systems that keep students from getting off track, so that they will make it to high school and finish.

What would you say are your report's major findings - or just some of them?

When it comes to engagement variables - such as (school) attendance, suspensions and, in particular, the graduation and drop-out rates - Latino students have the worst outcomes.

The drop-out and the graduation rates are pretty disturbing.

Second, Latino students (in Mass.) have the highest failure rate on MCAS.

But the failure rate - and, in particular, the (academic achievement) gap between Latino students and white students - is decreasing.

What's the correlation between suspension rates and graduation rates?

Definitely other studies (have shown that) absences and suspensions are strongly correlated with dropout rates.

It's all part of this term called "disengagement," or dis-identification with school, in which students feel less and less attached to school.

Being absent, being suspended, removing students from the school environment is all part of disengagement.

Dropping out of school is sort of the final step in that process.

Could it be a circular problem in which the suspensions are part of the problem, not the solution?

Yeah, quite often that IS the case. Obviously there's a fine line between creating a safe school (environment) and creating a welcoming school where all students feel that they're wanted.

There is, sort of, an over-representation (of Latino students being suspended) in Massachusetts - and also nationally with black and Latino students.

Different advocacy groups have found that for the same infraction, black and Latino students would receive a suspension, whereas another student might not.

Were there some predictors or common factors for students who didn't graduate? Socioeconomics? Being an English-language learner?

Based on DOE (Mass. Dept. of Education) data (which was used for the report), it's hard to figure out who these students are who aren't graduating, meaning (for example) if they are low-income. There's no way for us to tease that out.

Mass. DOE doesn't disaggregate (its data) by if they (the students) are English-language learners or low-income or special education. The way the DOE data is presented, you can only know that it's a Latino who didn't graduate.

Your report says that Latinos are no longer settling in large numbers in Boston and Springfield, two major urban cities in Massachusetts. Instead, they're settling in smaller cities, such as Lawrence, Holyoke, New Bedford and the area near Rhode Island. Do you have any sense of how the Latino students in the smaller cities are doing compared to their counterparts in the large urban school districts, such as Boston and Springfield?

We didn't really look at (this specific educational issue) at a district level per se. For the most part, (educational) success is sort of all over the place.

Some are doing okay; some are kind of in the middle. Then, you've got some of the somewhat worst-performing areas.

Lawrence, for example, has some of the highest (MCAS) failure rates, whereas Brockton is doing not so bad. So it's kind of all over the place.

Your report also says that 23.6% of Latino students in Massachusetts are still learning English. Do you expect that this percentage will taper off over the next five to 10 years with acculturation?

There is some hope that the failure rates (in MCAS) will continue to go down, and the (achievement) gap between Latino and white students will continue to narrow.

But a lot of new immigration is still coming in. The students who are here and those who continue to enter this country are often going into some of the most-underperforming schools.

So the outlook is mixed. There are some structural issues in place that could continue to kind of create these circumstances in which there is this lag (of Latino students) behind other students.

What are some of these structural issues?

We didn't really go into that in this report, but I do think that some of our recommendations are trying to get at some of these issues.

One thing that's certainly a big issue is the idea of cultural competence (of teachers and administrators, districtwide), that is, understanding the needs of diverse learners in school, and creating a more welcoming and more engaging environment for all students.

The Boston Globe revealed last year that Latino and African American teacher candidates are failing, at relatively high rates, the MTEL (Mass. Teachers Licensure) exam that they must pass to become teachers. Your thoughts?

We didn't do research on (school) districts that have a higher percentage of teachers who are Latino [to see if those districts have] a great impact on Latino students.

But I think that for teachers of whatever race or ethnicity, it would help to have a fuller understanding of the experiences of immigrant students and students of color.

In addition, you read many times anecdotally about students who have a teacher who looks just like them and has a circumstance similar to their own, which has helped the students recognize: "Hey, this person (teacher) came from where I came from and understands me."

That (shared background with teachers) can help students feel more comfortable in the school as well.

What do you think about the MERA (Mass. Education Reform Act) or federal No Child Left Behind acts?

The book is still open on them, but to this point, we haven't really seen the results that were promised by either of the acts, evidenced by that fact that there IS still this achievement gap.

No Child Left Behind intended very specifically to close this achievement gap. It's narrowing (for Latino students), but it's still far too wide.

MERA has been in place for about 15 years, since 1993; No Child Left Behind, in 2002.

Is there anything you'd like to say to parents and teachers?

Parents and teachers do work very hard to try to make sure that all children succeed. But we all together need to figure out a way to improve these outcomes. It's going to take continued collective efforts on the part of everybody.

Source: EthnicNewz.org

SEE ALSO:

"Alleged Cultural Bias in the Mass. Teachers-Licensure Exam," Sep. 9, 2007

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