Hispanic High Schools Dropouts Decreasing.

Although the number of Hispanic dropouts is increasing due to immigration and high birth rates, the high school dropout rate for Latinos who attend U.S. schools is gradually improving, according to a report issued by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The report shows that the dropout rate for Latino students who attended U.S. schools is alarmingly high at 15 percent —twice as high as for whites—but still considerably lower than common calculations of a Hispanic dropout rate of 30 percent or more that include many thousands of immigrants who quit school before coming to this country.

The steady influx of young Latino immigrants, who come here to work and have little or no contact with U.S. schools, has complicated assessments of the Hispanic dropout problem. With a new analysis of Census Bureau data, the report provides a more nuanced picture of the Hispanic dropout problem as a reflection of the American educational system.

“Hispanic Youth Dropping Out of U.S. Schools: Measuring the Challenge” reveals that dramatic increases in the number of young Latinos counted as dropouts between 1990 and 2000 are more a measure of immigration trends than an indicator of
how well U.S. schools are performing. Moreover, the report shows that Hispanic dropouts, native and immigrant, have distinctive characteristics which are substantially tied to economic status and work expectations.

“When you pick apart the numbers, you see that the Hispanic dropout problem has several different components that call for different policy responses,” said the report’s author, Richard Fry, a senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center. “For the teenage immigrants who come here to work rather than to finish their schooling, the challenges are to provide opportunities for workforce training and to learn English. For the Latinos who attend U.S. schools, the need is to ensure access to programs with a proven ability to improve retention.”

Fry noted, “Aside from the education issues, there is also a broader economic challenge evident in the work history of Latino youth who leave high school. The need to work is clearly one major reason Latinos dropout.”

The report shows that Hispanics who dropout of U.S. schools are much more likely to be employed and working fulltime than their white or African-American counterparts. Nonetheless, about a third of these youth live in poverty. Among immigrant atino dropouts who did not attend U.S. schools, employment and earnings are higher than for any other category of dropouts and their poverty rates are lower.

“This analysis does not minimize the significance or the magnitude of the Hispanic dropout problem,” said Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center. “But, it does show that the challenge is somewhat smaller and more manageable when you account for the impact of immigration and focus on the status of Latinos in U.S. schools.”

Some of the report’s key findings include:

*The dropout rate for native-born Latinos declined from 15 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2000, which is in line with the downward trend in dropout rates for other racial and ethnic groups. Counting immigrant Latinos educated here produces a dropout rate of 15 percent for Hispanics who attended U.S. schools.

* Because of the enormous growth in the number of Hispanic youth due to immigration and high birth rates, the number of Latino 16- to 19-year-old dropouts grew dramatically, from 347,000 to 529,000 between 1990 and 2000.

*About one-third of all Hispanic youth counted as high school dropouts are immigrants who had little or no contact with U.S. schools.

*Dropout trends for Latinos vary considerably by state. The rate for the nativeborn declined somewhat in Florida between 1990 and 2000 and decreased more notably in California while increasing slightly in Texas.

*A lack of English-language ability is a prime characteristic of Latino dropouts, but it pertains primarily to immigrant youth. Language is a relatively small factor among dropouts who received most of their schooling here.

*A greater share of Latino dropouts (56 percent) are employed than of whites (49 percent) or blacks (35 percent), and 78 percent of the Latino dropouts who work are employed 36 hours a week or more compared to 52 percent of white dropouts and 54 percent of black dropouts.

To view report CLICK below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):

http://www.pewhispanic.org/site/docs/pdf/high%20school%20dropout%20report–final.pdf

Download a FREE copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader CLICK below:

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html