By: David Conde
It was 1966 and Latino students were finally beginning to get recognized as important to educational institutions that had a history of ignoring their unique presence in the practice of teaching and learning. Key to this new general awareness was the home language these children brought to the classroom, its cultural implications and the relationship of those characteristics to educational success.
The Chicano Movement and Chicano youth were to take those issues to the streets of America giving notice that being ignored was no longer a feasible approach by educational institutions in the country. High school “blowouts” in cities, especially in the Southwest, became an integral part of the theme encapsulated in the word “Basta,” enough.
There was much to be done to get Latino students to the mainstream of educational progress. At that time, at least half were becoming high school dropout statistics as compiled by a variety of public and private agencies.
The United States Office of Civil Rights, for example, did studies on the condition of Latino educational attainment that revealed the major culprit in the classrooms to be low teacher expectations. This and other important issues were the starting point and a challenge to a community that took it upon itself to change the vision and mission of Latino education.
It took some 50 years of hard work and a lot of disappointments to get to within a striking distance of the ability to set the educational standards for a multicultural America. Pre-pandemic statistics show the startling progress of a Latino K-12 community that today represents almost one third (28 percent) of the student population in the nation.
From a dismal 50 percent or more dropout rate in the third quarter of the 20th Century, Latino students were able to reduce the rate to 10 percent in 2017. This progress together with an 82 percent pre-pandemic graduation rate shows the great learning turnaround.
Latinos going to college have transformed the educated workforce as they achieved a pre-pandemic rate of 47 percent that is the same as their White counterparts. Much of this transformation has occurred as a result of Latino family engagement and partnership in motivating their children to finish high school and go to college.
This advocacy and push for Latino education that began in the second half of the 20th Century started to bear significant fruit as we came into the 21st Century. Continuing this progress will assure that when the turmoil of major demographic, social and political changes are completed, the Latino community will be in a place to help provide a new face for America.
We still have major challenges like the fact that three quarters of English learners are Latino, that during the pandemic half of the children living in poverty fell behind in grade attainment because of little or no access to the internet, that even though Latino students make up 28 percent of the national student body, Latino teachers make up only 9 percent of classroom workforce and that funding for poor school districts is critically behind other systems. Despite these obstacles, there is plenty to celebrate given the achievements of the last 60 years.
Standing on the platform represented by those achievements, we can see a future America that brings a stronger presence to the world stage and provides continued leadership for global unity and peace. Latinos are in the position to help provide that leadership and presence in part because of the success and commitment to educating our children for the roles they must play.
