Frank X. Moraga
By Frank X. Moraga / AmigosNAZ
The news can be disconcerting for many of us who have been involved in one way or another in encouraging Latinos, and all young people, to succeed in education and life — high dropout rates in high school, students who enter college or university classrooms underprepared and a traditionally sluggish higher education graduation rate.
But should we give up our efforts to mentor young people in the K-12 system, raise funds for scholarships, provide internships and other opportunities?
Of course not. To provide us with a big boost of positive news, a new report indicates things aren’t as bad as traditional media make it seem to be. In fact, it was traditional media — NBC News — that reported that Latino youth are shattering the myths that they are mostly English-language deficient, are more likely to drop out of high school and are really not interested in going to college.
“The Condition of Latinos in Education: 2015 Factbook” documents that only 18 percent of young Latinos in the nation are English-language learners, they represent 24 percent of public school enrollment (expected to grow to 30 percent by 2023), with Latino high school graduates enrolling in college at a higher rate than their fellow white or African-American students, according to a story by Juan Castillo of NBC News.
The report was released by Excelencia in Education, which published its first survey in 2004. Since then, Latino K-12 enrollment has jumped from 19 to 24 percent, Latino math and reading scores have increased by double digits in the past 10 years, Latino high school completion rates have grown from 57 to 65 percent, the number of Latino high school dropouts has been cut in half to 13 percent, college enrollment has climbed from 54 to 70 percent, the number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (which includes Northern Arizona University) increased from 238 to 370 and college completion rates have grown from 17 to 22 percent.
The entire 32-page report is available for free download at http://www.edexcelencia.org/research/2015-factbook
The goal of Excelencia in Education is to not just document Latino educational success, but to use the data to “compel and inform action.”
We completely agree. This report must be used as a starting point by educators and community leaders to show the battle to educate our youth is far from over. In fact, let us renew our focus to provide the educational funding needed, not just for Latinos but to help all students to have an equal opportunity to succeed in K through 12, obtain a meaningful vocational, community college or university education and become strong contributors to the workforce of tomorrow.
On that front, we have been failing as a nation.
Education Week recently released its 19th annual Quality Counts State-by-State Report Card. For Arizona, the news wasn’t good. Arizona earned a D-Plus on the State Report Card, ranking us 47th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The nation as a whole didn’t fair much better, coming in with a grade of C.
Within some of the individual categories, the state received a C-minus for “Chance for Success,” 45th nationally; D for “School Finance,” 46rd nationally; and D-plus for “K-12 Achievement,” 38th nationally. In its “Early Education Index,” Arizona received a D-Plus, 38th in the nation.
Yikes!!! How would you have liked to take a report card like that home when you were a young person?
We have to do better than that for our young people.
Overall, Education Week provides a look at 40 categories that make up Arizona’s D-plus grade. Go to http://www.edweek.org/media/ew/qc/2015/shr/16shr.az.h34.pdf or http://www.helios.org/uploads/docs/Arizona_State_Highlights_2015.pdf to get the state’s full report.
After you download it, use the data in both these reports to educate yourself and take some meaningful action.
The educational achievement of the next generation of students depends on it.
— Frank X. Moraga, editor/publisher of AmigosNAZ, has served as business editor, director of diversity, city beat and environmental reporter in the newspaper industry. To submit information to AmigosNAZ, send an email to fmoraga@amigosnaz.com.