PART TWO: Qualitative Characteristics of Latino Students aided by the WKBJ Foundation

Based on extensive interactions, my belief structure is that the Latino student has:

• A greater need for sheer information about higher education options
• An unclear understanding (like many of his peers for sure) of the link between individual actions and eventual consequences
• The tailwind of demographic change at his back
• An above-average probability that non-credit remedial and/or English language courses will be required in college

• A need for help on how to apply to, finance and graduate from college
• Reduced education options because of the high cost of attending a four-year college
• A struggle with respect to understanding the importance of self-advocacy
• A need, when college is either not feasible or not sought, to know that learning a marketable skill is a valid path to a sustainable economic life
• To be shown he can profit from more planning and less in-this-moment thinking when it comes to making decisions
• To better understand the education system, with its non-existent national standards
• To define a degree of individualism which is comfortable and rewarding
• A prospective advantage over peers as employers come to realize that hiring a bilingual person only helps them to understand language, whereas having a bilingual/bicultural person in an important position helps them to grasp how their customers or clients or patients think and make decisions

It is best to think of these beliefs as an “all other things being equal” listing as again, the impact of DOCUMENTATION ISSUES is not incorporated.

In any case, what is the Latino educational attainment comparison … on to Part Three.

PART THREE: Educational Attainment

According to the highly-respected Pew Research Center, Hispanic high school completions are now 86%, versus 67% twenty years ago, and the college headcount has tripled. Good news. Simultaneously, there is considerable room for improvement. Among Hispanics 25-29 years of age, 15% have a Bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 40% for their white counterparts.

Over the years, these are explanations which have been offered by various people for the lower rate of educational attainment, coupled with my brief comments on those reasons:

• Families do not care                            all the surveys contradict this slander
• Poverty of spirit                                    not sure what that means in real life
• Social readiness                                  cultural awareness is a challenge
• Documentation                                    obviously a critical factor
• Poor educational preparation                “an urban A is a suburban C”
• Lack of financial aid                              especially affecting undocumented students
• First in family issues                              nobody has direct knowledge of college
• Command of the language                     confuses analysis of the academic level
• No emphasis on reading                        a problem that hurts
• Single parent fatigue                              long hours cut the ability to help
• Quinceañera impact                             girls want to prove they are women
• Financial illiteracy                                  not unique to Hispanics
• Poverty of dollars                                 this is real in many instances
• No emphasis on writing                        another national issue, albeit quieter than reading

Each of these is worthy of a fairly lengthy analysis, although not here. Instead, I am proceeding to Part Four, which provides my own set of relevant questions.

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