Hispanic Girls Face Special Barriers on Road to College
Hispanic
women are more likely than Hispanic men to complete high school and college,
but they still trail white and African-American women
Originally Published
in Ed Week 6/19/2012
By Katherine Leal
Unmuth
Dallas: After 15-year-old Valerie Sanchez spent a day
of her spring break in Fort Worth touring the well-manicured grounds of Texas
Christian University and listening to an inspirational talk from members of a
Latina sorority, she felt sure of her future.
"I'm going to college," says the teenager
after the visit organized by the Dallas center of Girls Inc., a national
nonprofit group. "I want to be the first in my family."
But like many young Latinas, she faces a host of
challenges in the coming years, as she works to graduate from high school, go
on to community college, and then enroll in a four-year institution.
Sanchez moved from Mexico when she was 9 years old and
enrolled in the 156,000-student Dallas Independent School District. After
taking bilingual classes taught in Spanish and English, she found the
transition to all-English classes in middle school difficult.
Consequently, Sanchez was held back in the 8th grade
last year at Edison Middle Learning Center here in Dallas. She now attends
tutoring sessions after school in addition to programs provided by Girls Inc.
that focus on career planning and pregnancy prevention.
The plight of Latino young men often dominates the
discussion of graduation rates. But young Latinas also face cultural, economic,
and educational barriers to finishing high school and entering and completing
college.
"There's the assumption that girls are doing
fine," says Lara Kaufmann, a senior counsel at the National Women's Law
Center, in Washington. "It's true that within ethnic groups girls are
doing better than boys. But they're not doing well."
Falling Behind
While Hispanic women are more likely to graduate from
high school and college when compared with Hispanic men, some statistics
suggest they trail behind African-American and white women on some such
measures.
Postsecondary Engagement Lags for Latinas
Latinas ages 18 to 24 have lower
postsecondary-engagement rates than Asian, white, and black women of the same
age bracket. Asian women are twice as likely as Latinas to be either enrolled
in higher education or to have a postsecondary credential.
SOURCE: EPE Research Center, 2012. Analysis of data
from the American Community Survey (2008-2010), U.S. Census Bureau.
According to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of 2011
Census survey data, about 17 percent of Hispanic females ages 25 to 29 have at
least a bachelor's degree, compared with about 10 percent of Hispanic males, 43
percent of white females, and 23 percent of black females in that age span.
To delve into why such gaps persist, the National
Women's Law Center collaborated with the Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund on a 2009 study on educational outcomes for Latinas.
While the middle and high school girls interviewed in
the report said they wanted to graduate from college, they also said they
didn't expect to achieve that goal. The report also cited challenges for them
in reaching educational goals, including such difficulties as immigration
status, poverty, discrimination, low self-esteem, higher rates of depression
and attempted suicide, gender stereotypes, and limited English proficiency.
A cultural emphasis on loyalty to family also can play
a role. Latinas may be expected to take on additional duties as caregivers,
such as helping to watch younger children or aid elderly family members. They
may be expected to live with their parents until they are married, making it
difficult to leave home to go away to college.
Ties That Bind
Celina Cardenas mentors Hispanic girls in the
37,000-student Richardson Independent School District in the Dallas suburbs.
Cardenas, a district community-relations coordinator, is Mexican-American and
feels she can relate to their experiences.
Valerie Sanchez, 15, works on a writing assignment
during reading class at the Thomas A. Edison Middle Learning Center in Dallas.
The eighth grader is working to become the first in her family to attend
college.
—Allison V. Smith for Education Week
"It's kind of like you're born with
responsibility—especially the girls," she says. "Doing something on
your own may not sit very comfortably with them because they may not want to let
anyone down. I talk to them a lot about not feeling selfish that they're
disappointing their family by going away, and understanding there's nothing
wrong with having those goals."
Family loyalty can cause Hispanic girls to choose
less-competitive colleges than they are qualified to attend so they can keep
living with their parents. They may also not be well informed about
financial-aid opportunities to attend more expensive schools.
University of Texas at San Antonio education professor
Anne-Marie Nuñez says that when girls live at home while in college, they may
have a hard time focusing on their studies because of family obligations.
"They may be juggling multiple responsibilities
that pull them away from being able to focus on their studies," Nuñez says.
"Other family members may not understand the energy they need to focus on
their studies."
In Texas, a nonprofit online magazine written by girls,
called Latinitas, aims to empower young women. The organization also provides
workshops, mentoring, and college tours. On the website, Saray Argumedo, 23,
shares her own experiences about the tension with her family when she studied
at the University of Texas at El Paso.
"All I can do is ask for forgiveness when my mom
questions why I spend all my time outside of the house studying, working, and
getting involved in my community," she writes. "I thought that they
would be proud of me, but why are they so angry?"
Teenage Motherhood
Young Latinas also are more likely than most young
women in the United States to have their own children as teenagers. According
to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, in
Washington, about 52 percent of Latinas become pregnant before age 20, nearly
twice the national average. In Dallas, the nonprofit group Alley's House helps
mothers complete their General Educational Development, or GED, studies and
build their confidence.
Yesenya Consuelo, 19, dropped out of Spruce High School
in Dallas her freshman year when she became pregnant with her now-4-year-old
daughter. Consuelo wants to study at a community college to be a surgical
technologist, but she needs to pass the math portion of the GED, which she has
failed twice. She comes to Alley's House for math tutoring four days a week.
Consuelo says her daughter is her motivation to finish
school. "I'm trying to be the best I can for her," she says.
Despite the challenges, says Nuñez, the education
professor, "the truth is Latino families have as high aspirations as other
groups. Sometimes, they just don't know how to translate those aspirations to
reality."
Katherine Leal Unmuth is a Dallas-based
freelance-writer.
Latino
education issues at latinoedbeat.org.
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