Cipriano Lopez
Cross-Cultural Issues In Education
Oregon
State University
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Hispanics remain the most undereducated major segment of the US
population. Although the Hispanic population has grown about five times
as fast as that of the non-Hispanic population since 1988, the education gap
between Hispanics and non-Hispanics continues to widen. |
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First of all, I would like
to take a few minutes to thank my fellow classmates and professors for going
the extra mile of planning, facilitating, and managing the Cross-Cultural
Issues In Education class. It was challenging, demanding, exciting and
a privilege to have been a part of this class. |
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Based on the information which was presented to us by panel members and articles in the reading kit, we learned of many of the problems that African-Americans and Hispanic students confront within the school system which has led many to drop out of school. Among these problems, some were commonly mentioned: lack of teacher’s support, few teachers of color, lack of federal support, poverty, and language barriers. The CIM/CAM exams, for example, were repeatedly mentioned among stakeholders, as exams which cripple students of color and keep them from showing their true potential.
What are the short and long-term effects of these obstacles on students of color? These are few of the problems I will discuss in this web page.
I feel that is very important to bring to our attention the school dropout rate amongst Hispanic and other students of color. In this class I learned to identify few of the factors related to high dropout rates, and would have liked to have written more about all of these factors, but due to limited space I will only discuss the correlation of these factors associated with schools’ dropout rates in primarily the Latino population. One stakeholder, Anthony Veliz, mentioned that Woodburn High School is comprised of 63%-67% Latino/a students, 12% Russian and the rest white, and yet there is only one Latino teacher to represent the Latino/a students. It was mentioned by stockholders such as professor alkfjasj that teachers of color are more able to meet the needs of white students than white teachers to students of color. Despite the large Hispanic student population in attendance at Woodburn High, to my surprise, courses of Mexican American History are not offered and there is only one Hispanic teacher. There has been very little effort to recruit teachers of color. By having a more diverse curriculum and having more teachers of color not only do schools become more diverse but also are able to meet students’ needs. I am sure that this would decrease the Woodburn High School dropout rates, which in some classes is as high as 50%.
I recall what Principal Judy Bryant said, that children at an early age are aware of their surroundings and that more damage is done because children are so vulnerable at this age. I feel that this goes on more than we realize. The majority of the Latino students in Oregon go through the school system without ever having a Latino/a teacher. This means that students are left without role models during hard times.
The dropout rate among Hispanics students nationwide is estimated to be between 30 percent and in some places up to 54 percent, almost three times the rate for Whites and twice the rate for Blacks. (US News & World Report 1997, page 12) Approximately 43 percent of Hispanics aged 19 and over are not enrolled in high school and don't have a high school diploma. In 1988, it was estimated that 50 percent of Hispanics aged 25 and over, graduated from high school. If comparing this percentage to the other groups within the U.S. population, 63 percent of Blacks and 77.7 percent of Whites aged 25 and over, have graduated from high school. One can easily see the huge difference between these groups.
I am happy to hear that people such as Larry T. McMurray, Superintendent of the Salem-Keiser School District, are making an effort to recruit more teachers of color. Currently in Oregon 98% of teachers are white and the remaining 2% are teachers of color. I don't mean to be disrespectful, but it’s logical to say that teachers of color are able succeed where others can't in certain areas, either having better communication with students of color, increasing the self-esteem of students of color, and working with their parents, etc.
Language barriers and the constant moving back and forth to and from Mexico can cause students to dropout. Laura Zinch, a bilingual teacher, mentioned that it's one of the challenges her school is currently facing. She said that families are constantly moving back and forth to and from Mexico; affecting children’s education. Poverty was mentioned by one of the stakeholders as not being a problem among the students. I disagree with this notion, because based on research conducted by the Oregon Department of Employment in 1998, "20% or 54,000 of the 200,000 Hispanics in Oregon live below the poverty line. Connecting this percentage to nationwide statistics of migrant and seasonal farmworkers, we can see that "70% of the 3-5 million migrant and season farm worker children's families live below the poverty line." (Migrant World Magazine 1998) To me, this says that Latino children start at a disadvantage at fairly early age. How can individuals flow into the US mainstream without an equal start?
Being a student of color myself I know how hard it is for a students of color to cross these boundaries. When my family and I moved here to the US in the early 1980s, I was only 7 year old. I spoke neither Spanish nor English, but my indigenous language called Mexteco. Over the years, like many migrant families, we constantly moved from one location to the next following the flow of seasonal work. I remember at the time, not being able to register for school, because our stay was each location was so temporary. As I grew older (at the age of 10), I was expected to help my family financially by working during the weekends and after school in the fields. When I was in the ninth grade, I dropped out of school due to academic problems that I was having in school. I felt that the curriculum was too hard and every day was a challenge for me. I am telling my story with the hope of motivating other students of color. No matter how big these obstacles may seem, it’s possible to survive. As for me, I am the eldest of nine, and the first in my family to graduate from a university. I am privileged to get a chance that not many Latinos, Chicanos, or Mexican-Americans get and that is a chance to show their true potential. I plan to become a social studies teacher, and to take on the roles and responsibilities of being a role model, counselor, mentor etc.
If you would like to get involved and would like to know more on Latino issues, I have provided some websites below. Only through exposing these problems and coming together can we solve many of the problems that migrant children are faced with.
For further information on migrant farm workers issues please see the following websites: