COLLEGE PARK, MD (February, 2016) Molly F. Morin, a Ph.D. student in the Higher Education, Student Affairs, and International Education Policy (HESI) program, was the lead author of A National Education Blueprint: Investing in Hispanics to Fulfill Americas Future, a 2015 report from the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, housed in the U.S. Department of Education.
Released on the Initiative’s twenty-fifth anniversary, the report covers a wide range of issues important to education in the Latina/o community. It addresses early learning, K-12 and postsecondary education, teacher recruitment, engaging parents and families in education, and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.
The report observes that while preschool is very beneficial for all students, Latina/o children are the least likely to have access to preschool. It lauds the Obama Administration’s efforts to address this disparity.
The report also calls for increasing the number of Latina/o teachers and giving all teachers a strong foundation in culturally responsive and culturally inclusive teaching practices.
Though their scores have increased over the last ten years, generally Latina/o students still score below national averages in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). As they move through the K-12 system, these achievement gaps become more pronounced, especially in the transition to high school. Thus, while their high school completion rates have risen, Latinos continue to be less likely to graduate high school on time: their rate for this benchmark stands at 71 percent, compared to 83 percent for Whites and 94 percent for Asian Americans.
But there is brighter news. Even though high schools serving predominantly Latina/o student populations need to offer more Advanced Placement (AP) courses, Latina/o students are the second most represented group taking at least one AP course in high school. Additionally, while Latinos have the highest high school dropout rate in the U.S. compared to other groups, that rate has dropped nearly by half over the last twenty years.
Latina/o students are also increasingly able to access higher education. Since 2008, their college enrollment has risen by nearly 50 percent.
Latinos now account for nearly a quarter of children in the nation’s K-12 public schools. With this number expected to continue rising, it is imperative to understand Latina/o educational experiences and to contribute to the access and retention of Latina/o students. That is the mandate of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, which was established in 1990 through executive order by President George H.W. Bush to address educational disparities faced by the Latina/o community.
Click here to read the full report.
Molly F. Morin is a second-year doctoral student in the Higher Education, Student Affairs, and International Education Policy (HESI) program within the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education. Her research interests focus on the college and graduate school access and retention of Latina/o and first-generation college students and the experiences of Latina administrators in higher education and student affairs. Molly currently serves as a research assistant to Dr. Michelle Espino, as co-president of the Latina/o Graduate Student Association, and as graduate coordinator for the Office of International and Leadership Programs in the A. James Clark School of Engineering
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