05 September 2008
U.S. Schools Adjust to Growing Hispanic Population
More than 80 percent of Latino students are U.S.-born, fluent in English
Washington — A new report profiling the growing numbers of Hispanic U.S. public school students paints a picture of those students as overwhelmingly U.S.-born (84 percent); living in households with both of their parents (57 percent); and largely of Mexican origin (69 percent) but also of Puerto Rican, Dominican, Salvadoran and Cuban descent.
The report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research organization, finds that some 82 percent of Latino students — the report uses Hispanic and Latino interchangeably — speak English fluently, even though 70 percent speak a language other than English at home. While only about half of first-generation Hispanic students live in a home in which English is spoken fluently, by the third generation, almost all Hispanic students live in such homes. Second- and third-generation Hispanic students are also much more likely to be living in homes with two parents and incomes comparable to those of their non-Hispanic counterparts.
By 2050, there will be more Hispanic children in U.S. public schools than non-Hispanic white children, the Pew report projects.
In fact, minorities in the United States, now one-third of the population, will become the majority by 2042 and will rise to 54 percent of the population by 2050, according to the latest projections of the U.S. Census Bureau. In schools, the demographic shift will be even more dramatic: the percentage of children now considered to belong to minorities will reach 62 percent by 2050, census projections indicate.
The Hispanic population is projected to triple from 46.7 million to 132.8 million — 30 percent of the total population — by 2050. (See “U.S. Minorities Will Be the Majority by 2042, Census Bureau Says.”)
Many U.S. schools already have Spanish-language versions of their Web sites and school bulletin boards, and bilingual front office staff or Spanish-speaking “parent liaisons.” Some have developed Spanish-language videos to provide school information. Most schools can conduct meetings with parents in Spanish as well as English or provide devices for simultaneous translation.
The Pew report outlines challenges, too. More than a quarter of Hispanic students live in poverty, and more than one-third have parents who have not completed high school.
But there are grounds for optimism regarding the enormous demographic changes now occurring. Latino registered voters rank education as the most important issue facing Latinos, as indicated by a 2008 poll conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center. Education is considered extremely important or very important by 93 percent of Latinos — with 47 percent ranking it “extremely important.”
Hispanic parents like the schools their children attend. Nearly two-thirds gave their community schools a grade of A or B in a 2004 Pew survey.
A second new report, The State of Latinos 2008: Defining an Agenda for the Future, highlights the dropout rate among Hispanic students (three times greater than that for white students and twice that for African-American students) and the persistent achievement gap from pre-school to graduate school.
The report, commissioned by Azteca America, a Spanish-language TV network, and Fundación Azteca America, its nonprofit arm, urges such measures to address the problem as more Hispanic teachers who can be role models and “a more bilingual and culturally relevant education system for Hispanics.” The presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain will be officially presented with copies of The State of Latinos 2008 later in September.
Schools are on the front line when it comes to dealing with the impact of immigration. Many schools have responded to a 2007 report prepared by the Urban Institute for the civil rights and advocacy organization La Raza urging school districts to ensure that children have a safe place to go in the event of a raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (USICE) on a facility where a parent may be working during school hours.
While USICE makes every effort to determine whether people taken into custody have children, undocumented workers in the United States sometimes do not divulge that they have children for fear they, too, will be deported.
The usual figure cited for the number of undocumented aliens in the United States is 12 million, most of them Hispanic. Many Hispanic families have some members who are U.S. citizens, often children, and some members who are in the United States illegally. The Urban Institute estimates there are approximately 5 million U.S. children with at least one undocumented parent.
U.S. public schools are not allowed to inquire into the legal residency of students, according to a 1982 federal court decision. As a consequence, school officials have no way of knowing which students have parents who may be subject to deportation.
It is increasingly common for schools to ask all parents to list the names and phone numbers of six emergency contacts other than themselves, as urged by the Urban Institute report. Many schools also are trying to work with social service agencies and other organizations to figure out how to ensure that children will not be sent home if no one is there to care for them after a parent is detained or deported.
In a study of high-performing Hispanic schools in Texas, researchers found that schools need to promote parent involvement by doing three things: understanding cultural values, building on the strength of the extended family by creating a sense of the school as family and making a commitment to learn about Hispanic culture.
One-in-Five and Growing Fast: A Profile of Hispanic Public School Students is available on the Web site of the Pew Hispanic Center.
The State of Latinos 2008: Defining an Agenda for the Future is available on the Web site of Fundación Azteca America.
