Growing Hispanic Enrollments: Challenge and Opportunity (1998)

When the secondary school in tiny Collinsville, Alabama, burned down several years ago, the new building looked just like the old one - plain brick front, straight halls, no frills. Things don't change much in this rural community, it seems. Enter a classroom, though, and be prepared to gaze in wonderment. About one-third of the 500 students in this K-12 school system - all two buildings of it, surrounded by farm fields with the tail end of Lookout Mountain in the background - are Hispanic. In the last five years, a few families from Mexico who had been attracted to jobs in nearby knitting mills turned into a flood as they first returned home to bring more family members and friends and then began to stay year round. They are poor, living mostly in trailers, but Collinsville teachers praise the families' interest in the schools. Students, both white and black, made videotapes showing simple vocabulary words for the Hispanic students, who, in turn, did the same for the foreign language teacher. The PACERS small-school program, a statewide network that supports revitalizing rural schools, brought Mexican teachers to visit the district. The football coach is learning about soccer. Members of the community are attending Spanish-language classes. Collinsville might look the same, but in truth it is changing immeasurably. Quite by accident, its students are being prepared for the future. The little town's transformation came to mind as the Census Bureau released some very significant data this summer. Numerically, Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the country. Most of us might dismiss the importance of this fact by saying, Well, that's California's problem, or That's an issue for urban districts. Not so. Between 1990 and 1995, the number of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in Arkansas grew by 120%; in Kansas, by 118%; and in Wisconsin, by 42%. By 1992, more than one million teachers in the country had at least one LEP student in their classes. The cultural impact of these changes has been creeping up on us. Few places in the country today are beyond driving distance of a taco dinner. One can practice Spanish by watching soap operas or the news on Hispanic channels, soccer camps and leagues are rampant in metropolitan areas, and the economic and political clout of Hispanics is only beginning to be recognized in policies and priorities. As they would in serving any group on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder, the public schools have struggled to adjust to a growing Hispanic enrollment. The results have not been good. Latino Education: Status and Prospects, an impressive report from the National Council of La Raza, paints a statistical picture that is shameful. If they are immigrants, Hispanic students who have had some education in their home country perform well in American schools. A study in San Diego, for example, found that children in immigrant families outperformed the district norms at every grade level. The longer they are in U.S. school systems, however, the more they begin to fall behind. The same is true for third-generation Hispanic children. While their parents might have performed well, these children are more likely to be poor learners. Other facts are also sobering. * Hispanic students are more segregated in schools than any other minority group. * A smaller proportion of Hispanic students (35%) are enrolled in college-prep programs than either white or black students. * Both suspension and dropout rates of Hispanic students have increased in the last decade, while other groups have reduced their rates on both indicators. * While their educational aspirations are rising, a higher proportion of Hispanic students than of other groups choose vocational or associate's degrees as their goals rather than four-year degrees. * The engagement of Hispanic students in high school life - for example, in student government or academic clubs - is declining. …