Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 16

College Remains Elusive Goal For Many Latino Students
But some k-12 schools, colleges, and nonprofits are succeeding in helping such students make the leap from high school to higher education
By caralee adams

T

he college-application process is hard enough. Between studying for admissions tests, writing essays, and filling out financial-aid forms, many students find it overwhelming. Now consider how much harder it might be if English is not your first language, no one in your family has gone to college, and you don’t have enough money to visit campuses, let alone pay tuition. That’s the situation for many Latino students. And experts and advocates say those barriers, in large part, explain why they trail other Americans in completing higher education. Just 37 percent of adult Hispanics have completed some college coursework or an associate degree. This lags behind the postsecondary attainment of Asians, whites, and blacks, each of which have rates above 50 percent. That’s not to say there hasn’t been progress. Over the past decade, Latino adults’ educational attainment has increased significantly, and the number of Hispanics with a bachelor’s degree has risen 80 percent from 2.1 million to 3.8 million, according to research by Excelencia in Education, a Washington-based national nonprofit that advocates for Latino success in higher education. “I do see progress and find great hope,” says Deborah Santiago, a co-founder and the vice president of policy and research for the organization. “But we still have large gaps.” As Latino students transition from high school to a career, they often lack the academic preparation, money, and college know-how to make it in college. Many are firstgeneration college students whose families aren’t familiar with the U.S. higher education system and financial aid. There can be language barriers and a cultural reluctance to move away from family and borrow for school. And, like other historically disadvantaged minority groups in the United States, many Hispanics attend K-12 schools without adequate counseling or course rigor. To meet President Barack Obama’s national collegecompletion goal by 2020, Latinos need to earn 5.5 million certificates and degrees from 2010 to 2020. Upping educational progress for this population is particularly important because nearly 60 percent of the workforce in the next 15 years is expected to come from Latino families, says José Rico, the executive director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. He says the federal government needs to work with the states, as well as colleges and high schools, to improve access and completion. “It’s a no-brainer from our end to invest in our communities,” he says. “This is preparing to grow our economy and workforce.” Not only is the Hispanic population growing faster than most other racial and ethnic groups, it is also much younger, suggesting the opportunity is prime for increasing the college-going rate. The average age of Latinos is 27, compared with about 40 for most other population groups.
education week | June 7, 2012

To help Latinos overcome the barriers that stand between them and a college degree, high schools, colleges, governments, and nonprofits are developing innovative programs to provide guidance about course selection, trips to college campuses, and mentoring through the college-application process and scholarship search.

Setting the Tone
One such example is the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School at the northernmost tip of Manhattan in New York City. Spanish is spoken widely at this public school, where 98 percent of students are Latino—most are from the Dominican Republic or of Dominican descent— and all qualify for the federal free and reduced-price lunch program. Principal Brett Kimmel opened the school in 2006 with 150 students and now has 600 students in grades 6-12, with the founding students on the cusp of graduation. “Our goal is to work with students and families to prepare academically and socially for success in college and beyond,” says Kimmel. To achieve this, the school aims to create a college-going culture starting in middle school. It promotes academic rigor, gets families involved, provides college-preparation workshops, and arranges bus trips to colleges to give students an exposure to the postsecondary world that they might not get otherwise. “To connect them to kids at those campuses who look like them—it’s so much more of a powerful experience than sitting with a laptop and looking at college websites,” says Kimmel. Washington Heights students are facing difficult odds. Many arrive at the school two or three years below grade level academically, but by the end of 8th grade, the goal is for students to be up to speed and into rigorous high school courses. About 90 percent of the students will be first-generation college students. This year, 100 percent of the school’s 76 seniors applied to college, and most have hopes of attending, according to Kimmel. Across the country, in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District along the Mexican border in Texas, Superintendent Daniel King believes the early-college high school model is the best hope for helping his students, 99 percent of whom are Hispanic and 41 percent Englishlearners. The program is designed so all students graduate with at least 12 college credits and the skills to complete a full degree or credential. To overcome the language barrier, limited-English-proficient students entering the district— as well as English-speakers—can participate in a duallanguage enrichment program and graduate bilingual and biliterate. “We can’t do what we were doing yesterday,” King says. “We need college and high school to be seamlessly connected.” As it’s being expanded—2,000 of the district’s 8,000

high school students are enrolled in a college course each semester—progress is being made. The district has raised its four-year graduation rate from 62 percent to 87 percent in the past three years, and the number of students enrolling in college after graduation doubled between 2007 and 2010, which administrators attribute to several initiatives, including the early-college high school. To whittle away at the dropout problem in the school, King joined his staff members in making home visits to get students back—not talking about high school, where they had already failed and quit, but interesting them instead in a college track, talking about careers. “When they see we won’t give up on them, that’s when we see that spark,” says King. “It’s about relevance, expectations, and knowing somebody cares.”

Nonprofits Fill Gaps
Beyond schools, nonprofits are stepping in to help at-risk students such as Jackie Ruiz-Velasco, 18, of Milwaukee, make the transition to college. Since she was a little girl, Ruiz-Velasco’s parents encouraged her to go to college. But as immigrants from Mexico, they didn’t have the experience or the language skills to guide her in the college-application process. So she turned to College Possible, a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul, Minn., that provides free support to low-income students, many of whom are from diverse backgrounds. For two years, Ruiz-Velasco spent two days a week after school studying for the act, filling out college applications, applying for financial aid, and working with a mentor. “She helped me a lot,” Ruiz-Velasco says of her mentor. “I know when I have a problem or feel I can’t continue, she will always have a smile for me and encourage me.” It’s been a stressful senior year, says Ruiz-Velasco, between taking part in College Possible, maintaining her 3.9 grade point average, and working with her mother 11 hours every Saturday and Sunday for a cleaning company. She has been accepted to five colleges and is piecing together scholarships to pay for it, trying to avoid taking out loans. She is looking for a small, private college close to home so she can help out her family. “What they can do, they will,” says Ruiz-Velasco of her parents. “They have other problems to handle. I don’t want to put more problems on them.” Her biggest concern about college is performing well enough in English, since Spanish is her first language. For David Cruz, a New York City public school student, the process of working with a nonprofit group to find a pathway to college began in the 6th grade through the Harlem Educational Activities Fund, or heaf, which tries to help students like him in the Big Apple complete college. The program kept him busy in the summers with electives from which he learned how to run his own restaurant, design comics, and work with robotics. After school three days a week in middle school, two days a week in 9th and 10th grades, and once a
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Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012

Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012
Table of Contents
Latinos’ School Success: A Work in Progress
A ‘Demographic Imperative’: Raising Latinos’ Achievement
Mexico
Immigration Law Casts Shadow Over Schooling in Alabama
Puerto Rico
N.J. District Bucks the Trend, Draws Latinos to Preschools
El Salvador
College Remains Elusive Goal For Many Latino Students
Dominican Republic
Special Barriers Can Constrain Latinas’ Educational Progress
Cuba
Miami-Dade Educators’ Advice to Districts: Embrace Diversity
Guatemala
Graduation Rate Keeps Climbing; Strong Gains for Latino Students
Graduation in the United States
As New Federal Rules Kick In On Graduation Rates, States Change Their Calculations
A Focus on Latinos
Graduation Policies For the Class of 2012
Sources and Notes
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Cover2
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Table of Contents
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Latinos’ School Success: A Work in Progress
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 3
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - A ‘Demographic Imperative’: Raising Latinos’ Achievement
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Mexico
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 6
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 7
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Immigration Law Casts Shadow Over Schooling in Alabama
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 9
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Puerto Rico
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 11
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - N.J. District Bucks the Trend, Draws Latinos to Preschools
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - El Salvador
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 14
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 15
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - College Remains Elusive Goal For Many Latino Students
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 17
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 18
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Dominican Republic
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Special Barriers Can Constrain Latinas’ Educational Progress
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Cuba
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Miami-Dade Educators’ Advice to Districts: Embrace Diversity
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 23
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Guatemala
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Graduation Rate Keeps Climbing; Strong Gains for Latino Students
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Graduation in the United States
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - As New Federal Rules Kick In On Graduation Rates, States Change Their Calculations
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - A Focus on Latinos
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 29
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Graduation Policies For the Class of 2012
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 31
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Sources and Notes
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Cover3
Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - Cover4
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