Latino students lag far behind White and Asian students on every indicator of school success — achievement, high school graduation, and college preparation, according to a study by the University of California-Los Angeles Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
The study said, “The result is that Latinos are dramatically underrepresented in California’s public institutions of higher education, in high-paying jobs, and in middle-class lives.”
“California’s Latino students also have limited access (both in absolute terms and in comparison to White and Asian students) to the resources and opportunities they need to graduate from high school prepared to succeed in higher education and careers, and to be ready for significant participation in public life,” the report summary said.
The study by the institute directors, Jeannie Oakes and John Rogers, found that many African-American and Latino students are attending “segregated” schools, those with enrollments that are more than 90 percent or more Latino and African-American students.
It was part of a larger study, the California Educational Opportunity Report 2007, (www.edopp.org), which also included a supplemental report on opportunities for African-American students. The main report released Nov. 8 revealed a “national opportunity gap,” maintaining that California lags behind most other states in providing fundamental learning conditions and students outcomes and permits “systematic inadequacies and inequalities” that leave California students from all backgrounds unable to compete with their counterparts elsewhere.
One supplement traced the progress of Latino high school students in the Class of 2006 into college, using publicly available state data, comparing the educational resources and opportunities that California high schools provide to Latino students and those who speak Spanish and are learning English. The report compares Latino high school students’ experiences to those of White and Asian students and examines the opportunities provided in 90 schools with large concentrations of Spanish-speaking Latino students who are still learning English.
“English Learners are at a particular disadvantage,” the report said. “Schools with high concentrations of English Learners require additional and specialized resources (teacher training, professional development, instructional materials, etc.) than other California schools. Yet, California’s high schools serving the highest proportion of English Learners are less likely than other California schools to have quality learning conditions in place.”
