Report Probes Educational Challenges Facing Latinas 01/15/10

By Catherine Gewertz

A potent mix of barriers—including family care-taking responsibilities, poor academic preparation, and gender stereotyping—leads Latina students to drop out of high school at “alarming” rates, a report released today concludes.

The study says the dismal graduation rates threaten the future stability of the fastest-growing group of female students in the nation. For the report, which paints a picture of the difficulties Latina students face as they try to complete high school, the National Women’s Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund conducted surveys, focus groups, and interviews nationwide with young Latinas and adults who work with them.

Lara Kaufmann, a senior counsel for the law center and a co-author of the study, said the organizations decided to focus on high school issues facing Latinas after a 2007 report by the law center about girls’ graduation rates showed particularly high dropout rates for Latinas.

“We really wanted to bring the voices of Latinas into the dialogue about high school graduation,” she said.

Numbers tell a disheartening story about Latinas in public school. The report’s authors, citing a graduation-rate analysis by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center in the 2009 edition of Education Week’s Diplomas Count report, note that 59 percent of Hispanic females graduate from high school on time with a standard diploma, compared with 78 percent of non-Hispanic white females.

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