The Importance Of Latinos In Higher Education

Throughout history, the United States of America has often been described as a “melting pot,” meaning a place where many different types of people blend together to form one, unified nation. If this description of the United States is accurate, it is crucial to ensure that all of these different individuals are able to live in harmony with one another. This is especially true at the collegiate level of education. In the last few decades, liberal arts colleges have made it their mission to increase diversity on their campuses. Diversity comes in several forms, particularly class-based and racial. This undertaking is one that should be prioritized at colleges across the country. There is significant evidence that diverse college campuses produce stronger, more intelligent individuals. With diversity come enhanced social development, stronger critical thinking skills, and heightened self-awareness. These features produce stronger individuals, thus strengthening the community at large.

Education has been a major influence on government policy and social standards concerning American youth. With hard work and education, one can better themselves and open up more opportunities for financial and social success. Waiting for Superman directed by Oscar winner, Davis Guggenheim, counters that the current education system is failing students by limiting their upward mobility, particularly among minority and low income groups. The documentary advocates for a radical change in the modern education system, modeled after charter school curriculums. Even though these successful schools produce great students many children, majority African American and Hispanic, are being left behind. In Maya Angelou’s

I attend Perry High School, not “prestigious” school but more advanced type of school. Each Wednesday’s the Hispanic juniors attend a meeting with David Snell. He helps, primarily Hispanic students, with anything school-related. David helps us with our grades, talk about our future before and after graduation. Thus, we talk about the disadvantages and mainly the advantages of being a Hispanic student applying to college. Also, he explains that being Hispanic is very helpful in finding colleges; as a result of that college seek out for Hispanic students. As David Began to explain how we can receive money for being Hispanic

One of my biggest supporters are my parents. Their support and conviction about the worth of acquiring an education has shaped my beliefs, values and ambition to continue higher education and use my career in a progressive way to give back to my community. Unfortunately, not everyone had the same support system like I did. Many of my peers struggled whether to continue their education or financially support their family. This is a very dangerous reality within the Latino community that needs to be addressed and resolved immediately. An education should be a priority to all students and we, as the Latino community, must reshape the policy flaws to establish a foundation that will help the growing Latino community.

According to the 2015 Building a Grad Nation report, low-income high school students are graduating at a rate 15 percentage points behind their more affluent peers. The graduation rate is decreasing because of a problem that is affecting more and more students which is the opportunity gap. The opportunity gap is a barrier that low-income and minority students encounter when wanting to be educationally successful. The opportunity gap enlarges when students are lacking in resources, services, and experiences. This problem is mostly occurring to low-income and minorities students because they don’t have the advantages to afford the same resources as the privileged students. Because the opportunity gap creates inequality, minority and low-income

In the US, parents play important role in students’ education, so it is important to develop relationships with parents (Quiocho & Daoud, 2006; Zarate, 2007). In the United States, parental involvement in the school is considered a positive influence on students’ education. Schools in the US must explain to Latino families the purpose of parent teacher conferences and actively recruit families to participate in them. Schools should offer conferences at times when working parents can attend them and provide interpreters and

According to a Pew Research Center survey “among Hispanics ages 25 to 29, just 15% of Hispanics had a bachelor’s degree in 2013” (Krogstad). This is worrying; it is great to analyze the lack of Hispanics higher education in the United States and the State of Kansas something that one cares about by using statistics and information about the racial gap in educational attainment that explains the lower rates in Hispanics. Hispanics lowest rates of college degree attainment are a result of immigration growth, parental lower incomes, family socioeconomic status, family cultural background, and poor parental involvement.

The increasing numbers of Latino youth who obtain college degrees are become active in politics, with the biggest trend of Latino population is youth and growth we can only hope for even more support in politics. “For the first time ever, Latinos accounted for one in ten votes cast nationwide in the presidential election, and Obama recorded the highest ever vote total for any presidential candidate among Latinos, at 75%” (Barreto and Segura 145). The Latino vote is becoming a crucial element to politics because of their size in population. . “While turnout declined nationally from 2008 to 2012 (by 2%), among Latinos there was a 28% increase in votes cast in 2012 (from 9.7 million to 12.5 million) and Obama further increased his vote share among Latinos in 2012 compared to 2008” (Barreto and Segura 145). In recent polls

Despite the US Supreme Court ruling that made segregation in schools illegal (in Brown v. Board of Education), school districts around the country continued to discriminate against Latino students. As [someone from documentary] mentions, “quote”. Although nearly half a century has passed since East L.A. Walkouts, limitations on Chicano Studies continue to occur. To understand the contributions of the ‘Walkouts’, we will paragraph 1 and challenges that the education of Chicanos currently face.

Hoekenga (2012) noted that the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that the Hispanic population in the U.S will reach 132.8 million by the year 2050, when almost one in three Americans will be Hispanic. Yet today Hispanic students (as well as other minorities) continue to be underrepresented in the STEM disciplines (Hoekenga, 2012). In the face of these disparities Hispanic scientists have had a major and lasting impact on the world around them. In many cases they overcame obstacles, including racism and sexism, poverty, cultural and family expectations, and lack of mathematics background, in order to work and excel in the fields that they love. Such success stories are inspirational to perspective student studying and/or working in a STEM field.

Civic engagement will become incredibly important for the Latino population in America as we seek to enhance our political representation at the local, state, and federal levels. It is no secret that a Latino majority is coming to our great nation. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2014 there were more than 20 million children under 5 years old living in the U.S., and 50.2 percent of them were minorities, mostly Latino. Given these numbers, it is especially troubling that research indicates a low level of civic engagement for Latinos across the nation. Because the number of Latinos in the United States is relatively large and growing, the extent to which Latinos remain less engaged in civic life represents a serious gap in America’s public

Hispanics, initial drawbacks frequently come from their parents ' immigrant and economic position and their sparse knowledge regarding the United States education system. While Hispanic students navigate through the school system, insufficient resources in schools and their awkward rapport with teachers continues to weaken their academic achievement. Initial drawbacks continue to mount up, causing the Hispanic population in having the least high school and college degree accomplishment, which is counterproductive of having a possibility for stable employment. According to Portman & Awe (2009) school counselors and comprehensive school counseling programs are anticipated to play a dynamic role in addressing the discrepancy between diverse

Do you know of someone that has dropped out of high school? Are they of Hispanic descent? The dropout rate for Hispanic students has gone up to 30 percent nationwide. The saddest thing knowing about all of this is that American born Hispanics is higher than those that immigrate here (“The Hispanic Dropout Mystery,” by Susan Headden, reprinted from U.S. News & World Report, vol. 123, no. 15, October. Used by permission. 1997, pp. 64-65.). I will go into further detail to address some of the questions and explain the individual and structural levels.

In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race. Racial inequality in education is predominant in black students and is perpetuated further by educators. A theory that explains this could be the “hidden curriculum” theory which conditions students to believe that their cultural backgrounds must be silenced to resemble the model white student. Studies show that training educators in cultural sensitivity and establishing trust between students and teachers allows students from varying cultural backgrounds to improve in classroom settings.

As the Latino population of the United States continues to burgeon, so does its influence in all aspects of American society. The far-reaching influence of Latinos has exploded in the past few decades, with 17% of the U.S. population who identify as Latino controlling over $1.5 trillion USD in spending power. A section of society where Latino influence continues to rise is in the American political process and the formation of public policy. Latinos have managed to fill a vacant position in nearly every spot of government, culminating with a U.S. Latino holding a crucial stake in a fierce battle for the presidency. As Latinos continue to grow in size and influence, attention should be invested in promoting civic engagement and enhancing political representation of Latinos at all levels of government.