Mexican American Opportunity Foundation

Hispanic Education Report (Indepth)

July 2002

KEY FINDINGS

Hispanic Children Are Quickly Becoming The Nation’s Fastest Growing School-Age Population.

Ø      Hispanic school-age children have grown by 60% since 1990 -- a rate faster than any other American community.  One out every six children that attends public school is Hispanic.

Ø      Hispanic school-age children are growing at the greatest rate in communities with little or no history of serving them – in the nation’s heartland and in the South.  In Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, for example, the Hispanic school-aged population has grown by over 250 percent since 1990. 

Ø      A growing number of Hispanic children in the nation are immigrant students (49 percent), migrant students (7 percent), or English language learners (30 percent).

v      Hispanic Students Face Significant Challenges to High Academic Achievement.

Ø      An achievement gap between the academic performance of Hispanic and non-Hispanic students continues to persist.  Hispanic students perform below their non-Hispanic peers in reading, math, and science by age 9, and more than one-third of Latino students of high school age are enrolled below grade level.

Ø      Hispanic students attending predominately minority schools are twice as likely to receive instruction from unqualified teachers.

Ø      Hispanic youth over the age of 16 are more than twice as likely to drop out of school than African-American students, and four times more likely to drop out of school than White students.

v      Despite the Growing Demands On Schools To Serve Hispanic Children, Many Hispanic-Serving Schools Are Facing Budget Cuts.

Ø      Already 17 of the nation’s 25 urban Hispanic-serving districts have made cuts to next school year’s budget, totaling $1.5 billion. 

Ø      Specific cuts are being made to bilingual and language instructional programs as school districts are forced to reduce the number of bilingual teachers, increase class sizes in bilingual classrooms, and defer the purchases of classroom supplies for bilingual students.

v      Investment Is Needed To Address The Achievement Gap In Hispanic-Serving School Districts, As Well As The Needs Of Hispanic Students In Emerging Communities.

Ø      Urban districts still face the challenge of closing the achievement gap.  In the nation’s 17 largest Hispanic-serving school districts, Hispanics lag behind white students in reading achievement by an average of 30 points, and lag behind in math achievement by an average of 27 points. 

Ø      Many urban school districts, however, are making greater progress than others in their state in helping Hispanic students succeed academically, suggesting that many districts are less prepared to meet the unique educational needs of Hispanics.  9 out of 15 large, Hispanic-serving school districts have posted gains in achievement for Hispanics than in their respective states.  

v      Last Year’s No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) Enacted Key School Reforms Critical To The Academic Success Of Hispanic Children In The Nation’s Schools, Including:

Ø      Ensuring that – for the first time – all states, school districts, and schools would be held accountable for the academic achievement of all Hispanic students, including limited English proficient children, migrant children, and poor children;

Ø      Dedicating support to school districts for language instruction and bilingual programs that help limited English proficient students learn English and other academic subjects; 

Ø      Requiring every state to develop benchmarks and assessments to measure the progress of limited English proficient and immigrant students in learning English and meeting other academic standards;

Ø      Requiring teachers to be trained in how to address the needs of limited English proficient students, and dedicating support for training new bilingual education teachers; and

Ø      Enacting a new Dropout Prevention program to help Hispanic youth stay in school and graduate.

v      The Bush Education Budget Fails To Adequately Fund Education Programs With The Potential To Significantly Increase Hispanic Educational Achievement.

Ø      The Bush budget freezes funding for teacher quality, undermining the goal to ensure that all Hispanic children are served by a highly qualified teacher.

Ø      The Bush budget freezes federal bilingual education funding, cutting off services to 25,000 limited English proficient (LEP) students nationwide, including 1,300 children in Florida, over 3,000 children in Texas, and over 8,000 children in California.

Ø      The Bush budget eliminates the federal dropout prevention program which supports continued efforts to reduce the high school dropout rate, especially among Latino youth.

Ø      The Bush budget provides zero increase – not even inflation – for the migrant education program to provide tutoring, support, and instructional materials to children of seasonal farm workers.