The Hispanic Education Crisis

Challenges Faced by Hispanic Students in American Schools and How Schools Can Address Identified Needs

Every classroom in America is made up of multiple cultures with many different believes; however, regardless of culture or beliefs all students should receive the best education possible without losing their identities while in the process. Culture is a way of life of a group. Culture and learning are connected in significant ways and for this reason having an understanding of different cultures and learning processes should provide an outline for instructional decisions (Guild, 2001). The first step a teacher must take is to gain an understanding of each child culture. This paper will examine the Hispanic culture, discuss how a teacher could build global awareness and understanding, and incorporate diverse social and cultural views to create innovative methods to solving problems in his or her classroom.

Sociologists have been studying the effects of education on Latino Americans and to their findings there are physical and conceptual issues which include: language barriers, issues with educators and peers which cause issues within their identity development and ultimately creating this separation of cultures which can effect Latino Americans success in school. While there are other factors that may be

In 1950 17 states were still segregated by law, the average schooling for Mexican Americans was 5.4 years, also 72% of disabled children were not enrolled in school. With the disabled children fact, every race has children born with disables, and some people are only disabled for so long, it seems crazy that they were being excluded so much.

This statistic is important because it shows how much Chicano students have struggled in school at every grade level. Compare these numbers with the white community, “84 graduate from high school, 26 graduate with a bachelor 's degree and 10 earn a professional degree...Chicanas and Chicanos, have the lowest educational attainment of any group” there is great cause for concern (Marquez). These realities have a variety of causes as these students “usually attend racially segregated, overcrowded schools” and with “poorly maintained facilities, students are often enrolled in classes where undertrained, under credentialed faculty attempt to teach with minimal resources” many as "tracked into remedial or vocational program” (Marquez). David Scott ran data in academic performances by ethnic-studies students and states that Chicano students do better in school when having these programs available because they are a "substantial boost" for those poorest students (Scott 2012). If they don’t have these programs the result then is that “they drop out, or are pushed, out of the educational pipeline in higher numbers than any other group” (Marquez). While enrolled, “students often describe graduate school as a place where they feel invisible” as most programs “tend to be racially exclusive with predominately white students, faculty and curricula that omit Chicano histories and perspectives” (Marquez). For this reason, it is suggested by Scott for imperative

Schhneider, B. Martinez, S. & Ownes, A. (2006). Hispanics and Future of America : 6 Barriers to Educational Opportunities for Hispanic in the United

Hispanics will represent more than one-quarter of school-age children in the United States by 2025. These children are more likely than others to be educationally and economically disadvantaged.

Cultural tendencies have a huge impact on the way children tend to participate in educational activities. The ethnicity of a child may change the way that teacher view a child. Suppose you had an Asian child in previous years who was quiet and reserved. You get a new child, you expect this one to be the same way, but he is not. We as teachers have to learn that each child is their own individual self, and they do not act the same way, no matter what race, gender, or social status they are.

When one thinks about Hispanics, all too often the image of a field full of migrant workers picking fruit or vegetables in the hot sun comes to mind. This has become the stereotypical picture of a people whose determination and character are as strong or stronger than that of the Polish, Jewish, Greek, or Italian who arrived in the United States in the early 1900's. Then, the center of the new beginning for each immigrant family was an education. An education was the "ladder by which the children of immigrants climbed out of poverty into the mainstream." (Calderon & Slavin, 2001, p. iv) That ideal has not changed, as the Hispanic population has grown in the United States to large numbers very quickly and with little fanfare. Now, the

There are more & more immigrants coming to the US from Latinamerica and the American people are feeling threateend by them. They are afraid they will become a minority very soon.

A.  Hook “The most urgent problem for the American education system has a Latino face.” (Gándara)

Mexican Americans in the education system have been treated unfair. From the Mendez v. Westminster to the low number of students graduating from high school and moving to a higher institution shows that the system has done nothing to help these students. By the help of the community wealth theory many of the few numbers of scholars who have been able to reach these higher institutions have been able to put families, schools, peers, and other influences for their benefit and for helping them enter these systems which are not welcoming to them. Various aspects of these systems need to be change from the diversity of teachers and desegregation in and within schools around the US which would influence the communication and thoughts that Mexican

In the end, the socioeconomic obstacles that Latinas must face in their education starting as early as middle school all the way until college had the biggest influence when Latinas choose to not go to college. Money and social status creates countless boundaries whether Latinas can’t pay for tuition, in or out of state, they need to support their families, or their parents cannot provide and assistance. More resources need to be provided for Latinas in and out of school so they feel supported on their path to finishing college while having an outlet for the frustration from discrimination they face on college campuses. Including more programs for Latinas to learn how to cope with their situation and offering more financial help to Latino families.

Nilda Flores-Gonzáles’ book School Kids/Street Kids: Identity Development in Latino Students provides a in-depth look at how students in our education system, specifically low- income, inner-city, Latino students, develop identities as a result of structural characteristics of schools and their attitudes towards education. The author goes past the “deficit explanations”, which blame a student’s culture of family for their lack of achievement. She uses the role identity theory to explain why some students develop “school oriented identities and some do not”. These are classified as “school-kid identities” or “street kid identities”.

The essential question I will focus on for this CREQ is “What kinds of changes need to be made in schools to better serve and reflect our multicultural communities related to curricula, policy, and engagement and collaboration with the families that schools serve?” The most prevalent idea that I took away from Chapter 4, 5, and 6 of Emdin’s text about how to better serve multicultural students was for teachers to rethink their role in the classroom, along with their students’ roles. In order to challenge the traditional urban education paradigm, Emdin instructs that educators make use of tactics that shift the teaching into the hands of the students, including: cogenerative dialogues, co-teaching, and cosmopolitan classrooms. Using these methods, students become responsible for