Original URL: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0527HispanicStudents-ON.html

Hispanic students: Growing numbers, growing expectations
Associated Press
May. 27, 2003 04:39 PM

CHICAGO - To make sense of a line graph, Gila Hernandez's third-graders must know more than how to connect the dots. They
must know how to connect in English.

"Make sure you remember that word we use. What is that really cool word?" Hernandez says.

"Data!" shouts the gifted bilingual class at Jose Clemente Orozco Community Academy, a south Chicago public school where 99
percent of students are Hispanic.

Looking on, acting principal Leticia Gonzalez whispers that these students soon will face their first city reading and math tests in
English.

"Watch her," Gonzalez says proudly of the teacher. "She's getting them ready."

The nation's schools must get ready, too, to serve students who are changing the face of public education. Hispanic youths are
growing in number faster than whites or blacks, mirroring an overall population surge that has made Hispanics the nation's largest
minority.

One in six children in the United States is Hispanic, and by 2020 the number is expected to be almost one in four. Hispanics
outnumber any other demographic group in the country's largest school districts, and their enrollment is booming in American
suburbs too.

This growth comes as the federal government is requiring schools to improve English fluency and achievement among Hispanics. Without such gains, Hispanic advocates warn, the country will be saddled with more undereducated workers and greater demands for costly social services.

More than one in three Hispanics - 36 percent - drops out of high school, although those born in the United States do better. About 16 percent of blacks and 8 percent of whites don't finish high school.

On test scores, 75 percent of whites score better than Hispanic students in reading, math and science. Just one in 10 Hispanics graduates from a four-year college or university.

No longer just an inner-city issue, the challenge of educating Spanish-speaking students is spreading, from Sarasota, Fla., and Nashville, Tenn., to Indianapolis and Providence, R.I., according to the Brookings Institution and the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hispanic populations in those areas have grown by more than 300 percent, or twice the national average, since 1980 as Hispanics move to areas they perceive as offering good work opportunities, education and affordable housing.

"The school systems that are not used to this - that's where there's going to be a substantial sense of surprise and confusion about how to work with these youths," said Richard Fry, an economist with the center, a nonpartisan research group based in Washington.

Not only must Hispanics be better prepared for college, Fry said, but their largely working-class parents must understand the benefits of a bachelor's degree.

A presidential commission agrees, calling for a national campaign to raise achievement among Hispanic students and help parents understand how to navigate American education.

Chicago already knows this. The city's school system, the third largest in the nation, has seen its Hispanic enrollment double to 36 percent over two decades.

At largely Hispanic James Monroe Elementary on the northwest side, parents are everywhere.

School officials train some parents to visit the homes of youngsters to help get them ready for school by teaching them the alphabet and colors through songs and games.

Other parents serve as mentors, assisting students and teachers in the classroom. After school, as students take English training or accelerated reading, parents get their own courses in adult literacy, computers or other subjects based on their requests.

"The educational agenda becomes stronger because it's reinforced in the family," said Carlos Azcoitia, a deputy education chief for the Chicago school system. "The aspiration for high school completion is greater. The aspiration for a college degree is greater."

That reinforcement works better when everyone speaks the same language. Only half of Hispanic adults can carry on a conversation in
English well, according to a Pew Hispanic Center survey. Leticia Barrera, a Mexican immigrant, used to have that problem.

But a few years ago, when she enrolled her son in kindergarten at Monroe, Barrera noticed streams of parents heading in to help out in the school. She joined them. Since then, she's become a parent mentor and a bilingual teacher-in-training.

"The experience is wonderful," Barrera said as another parent helped kindergartners sprinkle glitter onto paper fish. "You can impact the children, and then you practice in your home."

Monroe is one of Chicago's 20 community schools, which work with neighborhood associations to offer extra hours and courses. The school system wants 100 within five years.

The outreach pays dividends, Monroe Principal James Menconi said. Almost all of the school's math and reading scores on national
achievement tests have risen steadily in grades three to eight.

Such progress is expected under No Child Left Behind, the 2001 law that lets students transfer or receive tutoring if their low-performing schools don't show enough improvement.

Schools must show yearly progress among English learners, both in language fluency and achievement in general, and those scores are
counted toward school performance. High-poverty districts that spend aid on English-learning programs must tell parents how the language is taught, how it will support other academic subjects and what other options are available.

The law also says any student who's been in a U.S. school for three consecutive years must take that state's reading test in English, although a school district can waive the requirement for a student for up to two years.

Chicago, for example, steers students to make the English transition in three years but offers extra time and help. Spanish is not shunned as students enter the mainstream.

"When a student relies on what they bring for subsequent learning, it doesn't make a lot of sense to say 'We're not going to build on this,' or 'We're going to erase this,' " said Azcoitia, the Chicago deputy chief and a former teacher.

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On the Net:

Chicago Public Schools site: http://www.cps.k12.il.us/

White House Hispanic Initiative: http://www.yesican.gov/

Pew Hispanic Center: http://www.pewhispanic.org/