By Daniel A. Domenech
11/9/04 — Recent news from the Pew Hispanic Center that found Hispanic students earn bachelor’s degrees only half as often as whites is distressing.
A study by the Urban Institute has found that while 72 percent of white students who entered the ninth grade in high school in 1997 graduated with a standard diploma four years later, only 52 percent of Hispanic students did so.
It is readily apparent from this data that Hispanic students have little more than a fifty-fifty chance of finishing high school with a diploma. In the age of No Child Left Behind, this reality is totally unacceptable.
Hispanics are America’s largest minority, and Latinos represent 15 percent of our nation’s K-12 enrollment. An undereducated, poorly trained work force will negatively affect our knowledge-based economy. The average annual earnings for Hispanic college graduates are almost $20,000 higher than that of Hispanics without a high school diploma.
Beyond the lost opportunities for these young people and the harm to America’s socioeconomic future, the statistics are discouraging because we know how to do better. And we must begin as early in these students’ lives as we possibly can.
As an immigrant kid from Cuba who survived the tough streets of Manhattan in the 1950s and went on to lead one of America’s best school systems in Fairfax County, Va., I have devoted most of my career to closing the achievement gap between majority and minority populations. Based upon my many years of experience as a superintendent in Virginia and several districts in New York’s Long Island, here is what I have learned.
First, our schools need comprehensive strategies to improve literacy. The Fairfax County school district — where Hispanics make up 15 percent of the student population — found that even schools with a high incidence of poverty and English language learners (ELLs) could achieve literacy results for Hispanic children close to the school system average.
The keys are full-day kindergarten combined with a focus on literacy, properly trained and motivated teachers, and appropriate instructional materials and strategies.
At P.S. 94 in Brooklyn, N.Y., where 95 percent of the students are ELLs, the principal has achieved impressive results using a focused literacy program. Seventy-five percent of his ELL kindergarten students can move up to a first-grade classroom where only English is used.
By middle and high school, students who had been in Fairfax County schools since kindergarten were generally passing their state exams and achieving at grade level.
An influx of immigrant students from Central and South America and the Caribbean in the secondary school grades present a much tougher challenge. One result: Hispanic 16 to 24-year-olds born outside the United States drop out at a rate more than triple that of U.S.-born Hispanics.
But even here, we can improve. Fairfax offers four ways to earn a regular high school diploma.
High-stakes testing and the standards movement have forced most high schools to abandon traditional vocational education. Fairfax integrated vocational and academic subjects so students learn marketable job skills while earning a regular high school diploma.
Other programs, such as the multiyear Early Identification Program, operated in conjunction with George Mason University, have been successful in encouraging Hispanic students to not only finish high school but look forward to going to college.
Combined, the effect of these and other programs was dramatic: More than 93 percent of the Hispanic students attending Fairfax’s 24 regular high schools received standard diplomas in 2003.
Beyond regular high school programs, Fairfax schools offer students flexible day and evening schedules with individualized instruction. One example is the Woodson Adult High School, which operates from 4 to 9:30 p.m. for students 18 and over and is free to age 22.
But the schools can’t do it all. We must motivate Hispanic students to stay in school and believe in themselves. Knowing that role models are essential, I often recounted my own story to emphasize that, if I could succeed, so could others.
In addition, we must convince the students’ parents. Lacking an education and often speaking little English, many Hispanic parents see minimal value in a high school diploma, let alone a college degree. Even if they cannot help their children do their homework, they can encourage them to stay in school — just as my parents encouraged me.
And I would share with them statistics from the Census Bureau that say a Hispanic high school graduate will earn more than $1.1 million in their life time, and as much as $2.6 million with an advanced degree.
By taking steps that have proved successful, we can end the tragedy of failing Hispanic and other minority students.
Daniel A. Domenech is senior vice president of national urban markets at McGraw-Hill Education and previously was superintendent of schools for Fairfax County, Va.