Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012 - 18

Senior Krystal Acevedo takes notes in her AP English Language and Composition class at the Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School. This year, 100 percent of the senior class applied to college, the principal says.

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week in 11th and 12th grades, the Harlem fund provided Cruz with extra help in the college-admissions process, from sat preparation to scholarship searching. He also participated on its robotics team as a senior, which required him to take part in Saturday sessions from October through March. “There was a time when I felt coming to heaf was overwhelming,” says Cruz, who had conflicts with sports and other activities. “I felt like I was not able to deal with it all. But I was able to sit down and figure out what I really wanted to do and I continued coming because I knew being here would open up different opportunities. … I saw academics as more important.” Cruz was raised by his single mother, who is from Honduras. His father is Dominican. To accommodate the diverse backgrounds of its participants, the Harlem fund offers parent conferences in English and Spanish. Through the program, Cruz estimates he has visited nearly 30 campuses and after weighing numerous offers, he decided to study engineering at Pennsylvania State University, in State College, Pa. Involving families as early as middle school is vital to increasing educational attainment for Latino students, says Anne-Marie Nuñez, an assistant professor in educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Texas,

San Antonio. “If parents aren’t familiar with college, they are apprehensive about their children going,” she says. Many are recent immigrants and don’t realize the difference between community colleges and universities. Research shows that many Hispanics “undermatch,” not choosing a four-year college even though they are eligible, says Nuñez. That tendency may be linked to a desire to stay close to home or to concern over finances. Latino students often lack financial literacy, overestimate the cost of college, and tend to be loanaverse, says Nuñez. While a payas-you-go approach has its merits, students are less likely to finish a degree if they attend part time or

if they start at a community college. Programs that partner with schools and businesses to reach out to Latino families can help build the economic, social, and cultural capital that it takes to succeed in college, says Nuñez. “The numbers of Latinos are going to be increasing so much that [this issue] is going to be harder and harder to ignore,” she says.

High School Outreach
Some individual colleges and universities also have developed innovative programs to reach out to the Latino community. In the late 1990s, students from the

Sweetwater Union High School District in San Diego County— about 75 percent of whom are Latino—were not completing high school in large enough numbers, and few were going to college. To guide and motivate students, San Diego State University started the Compact for Success program that guarantees university admission to students in the district who meet set benchmarks. “If we were going to change the tide, we needed education reform in a big way,” says Louis Murillo, the program’s director. Now in its 12th year working with students in grades 7-12, the program entails enlisting both university faculty members and district teachers to make the col-

lege expectations clear and pump up the academic rigor of students’ coursetaking. To earn university admission, students have to maintain a 3.0 gpa through their senior year, complete course requirements, take the act or sat, and pass the college’s math- and English-placement tests. Students are given a laminated sheet that spells out by grade level what they need to do to be on track. Once on campus, the Compact students receive extra tutoring and advising to increase retention. The number of students from Sweetwater passing the proficiency exams for San Diego State has increased 600 percent from 2000 to 2010, and enrollment has grown from 308 students to 650—

college loan-averse
Percentage of students in nondegree, two-year, and four-year postsecondary programs who did not borrow funds from 2003 to 2009 to finance their higher education, by race and ethnicity

44.3%

28.8%

47.1%

56.2%

white

Black

latino

asian
istockphoto.com

source: Beginning Postsecondary students longitudinal study, 2009

education week | June 7, 2012

melanie burford/prime for education week

http://www.iStockphoto.com

Diplomas Count - Issue 34, 2012

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