The growing Hispanic minority in the United States has far reaching consequences. The 2000 U.S. census shows that the population continues to grow and projects a population of 47.8 million Hispanics by the end of the decade (McCaffrey, 2007). The Latino dropout rate is more than three times greater than non-Hispanic: “white alone” dropout rate (Fry, 2003). These large numbers impact our public education. The purpose of my research is to explore the gap in Latino achievement and to consider possible solutions.
My paper will address the reasons for low performance of Hispanic youth, identify behavior management modifications, present effective instructional strategies and discuss school practices to promote achievement by Hispanic students. My research has included statistical data on Hispanic students. I visited the ironbound section of Newark, which has a predominately Hispanic population. I also visited Barringer High school in Newark as well as Snyder High school and interviewed Mr. Guess Della Pia, Assistant Superintendent of Newark Public schools and Mrs. Regina Della Pia, social services coordinator and former high school teacher of Jersey city public schools. These first hand experiences helped me to draw some conclusions regarding the educational problems and needs of Hispanic students.
This is a great topic to explore. I think sometimes we forget about the others that are living and falling behind in Newark, since so much research has been done on the African American Population. Firstly coming to a new environment where you know essentially no one and not knowing the language can be very trammatic for an individual and their families. These factors can cause much stress and can cause an array of behavioral and academic issues that will subside, I feel once they are more comfortable and confident in their environment. Keep in mind programs like ESL or ELL to help close the gap. I don't know too much about these programs, but perhaps there could be a mentor for each subject to help the transition from Spanish to English while in the classroom. I don't always agree with a student being pulled from an environment in which they are trying to become one with.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is a lot like mine! My research focuses on the English-Spanish language barrier in West New York and its implications in the classroom. The dropout rate is certainly an issue in some Hispanic communities. But at the school I visited, the dropout rate among Hispanics was less than 1% (0.6%). It would be interesting to find out what accounts for the differences in dropout percentages in Newark and West New York.
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