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New Poll on Latinos and Education from NCLR & Ed. Trust
- To: ca-resisters@interversity.org
- Subject: New Poll on Latinos and Education from NCLR & Ed. Trust
- From: Peter Farruggio <pfarr@cal.berkeley.edu>
- Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:38:54 -0700
Nat'l Council of La Raza and Ed Trust: corporate
shills. Anybody who has spent time in urban and
rural classrooms knows that high stakes testing
has been a disaster for Latino children since its
inception. Latino immigrant parents have been
respectful and trusting of US schools because
they are unaware of the harm being done to their
children. Those who exploit this unawareness
with devious polls should be ashamed of
themselves. Their conclusion repeats the mantra
call for "higher standards and better teachers,"
but fails to point out that the higher standards
regime has produced the exact OPPOSITE of what
Latino children need by proliferating narrowed
curricula and scripted, kill and drill lessons.
"This is a disturbing poll, since I think what will be
quoted most is the self-blame expressed by parents,
which gets the poor schools off the hook.
Also, the omission of any question about bilingualism
is infuriating-- would you like schools to teach your
child English AND Spanish, for example, would reveal
what parents really want. So, these results will be
cited as evidence in favor of sticking to the NCLB
formula, although the jeers of the crowd when it was
mentioned last night during the Democrat debates were
heartening."
Ana Celia Zentella
Dr. Ana Celia Zentella is a former Professor at
Hunter College, CUNY> She currently is a
Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at
the University of California, San Diego. Most
recently, she has edited Building on Strength:
Language and Literacy in Latino Families and
Communities (Teachers College Press, 2005).
-----------------------------------------------
Ana:
As a scholar who has looked at opinion surveys
before, I thought you'd be interested in this
brand new survey done by Education Trust for
NCLR (bedfellows in support of NCLB
reauthorization). They are funded by the Broad
and Gates Foundations. They never mention
bilingual education; although they indicate that :
"Latino parents of children in ESOL programs
(limited English skills) give very high marks to
the quality of the English language education program their children attend."
They also present the finding that:
"It is also revealing that almost half of
Hispanics with children in school feel that
parents, like themselves, are most responsible
for the high dropout rate among Hispanic students."
Their solution:
"The solution is rigorous standards, effective
teachers in every classroom, and more time and
support for learning. Visit
<http://www.edin08.com/>http://www.edin08.com/ to learn more."
Any thoughts about the study before I disseminate it?
Luis
<mailto:luisoreyes@aol.com>luisoreyes@aol.com
a new poll released today shows that a
candidate's position on education will have a
greater impact on Latino voters than their
position on any other issue ? including
immigration and health care ? and that Latinos
are nearly unanimous that improving public
education should be a "very important priority"
for the next president. The poll surveyed 1,026 registered Latino voters.
**************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
As the Democratic presidential candidates
prepare to debate tonight, a new poll released
today shows that a candidate's position on
education will have a greater impact on Latino
voters than their position on any other issue ?
including immigration and health care ? and
thathat Latinos are nearly unanimous that
improving public education should be a "very
important priority" for the next president. The
poll surveyed 1,026 registered Latino voters.
"The Latino community is increasingly showing
its desire to help shape the future of our
country at the ballot box,"said Janet Murguia,
President and CEO of the National Council of La
Raza, the largest Latino civil rights and
advocacy organization in the U.S. and steering
committee member for ED in â??08, a nonpartisan
campaign to raise awareness of education issues
in the 2008 presidential race campaign. "What
this poll makes clear is that Latinos believe
the key to our future is improving the quality
of public school education and will vote for the
candidate with the best comprehensive plan to do that."
"Presidential candidates have been largely
silent about our failure to give our children
the skills to be ready to succeed in college,
career and life," said Roy Romer, Chairman of ED
in '08, "the presidential candidates want to
respond to the priorities of Latinos and
demonstrate they are ready to be president, they
can start tonight by talking about their plans
to get our children ready to succeed in college, career and life."
Other Key Findings in this poll include: ?
Latino voters consider thhe high dropout rate
among Latino students to be the greatest
educational problem for the Latino community in
the U.S. ? Half of those surveyed declared that
they considered the quality of public schools to
be "mediocre" or "poor." ? While generally
rating teachers positively, more than 80% of the
Latino electorate feels that one way to improve
public education in America is to hire more
teachers with expertise in the subjects they will teach.
The poll was co-sponsored by ED in '08 and the
National Council of La Raza and released at the
NCLR's annual convention in Miami.
ED in '08/National Council of La Raza Poll of Hispanic Voters July 23, 2007
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The results and findings in this executive
summary are based on a public opinion survey of
1,026 registered Hispanic voters in the United
States. The interviews in both English and
Spanish were conducted July 18-20 of this year
by professionally-trained, bilingual
interviewers. The sample of the survey was
designed to be representative of the national
Latino electorate. It includes voters born not
only in the United States but also in Mexico,
Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,
Central America and South America. The survey
interviewed Latino voters in 24 states. The
margin of error of the poll is approximately three percentage points.
MAJOR FINDINGS
1. Education is the most important issue for
Hispanic voters. Forty-one percent of all voters
and almost half of voters with children in the
public schools indicated that the positions of a
candidate on educational issues would have the
greatest impact on their presidential vote.
Education was considered significantly more
important than other issues that receive much
greater press coverage like the Iraq war and health care.
2. An overwhelming majority of Latino voters ?
89 percent ? ?? felt that improving the quality
of public education should be a â??very
importantâ?? priority for our next president.
3. Hispanic voters consider that the â??high
dropout rateâ?? among Hispanic students is the
greatest educational problem for the Latino
community in the United States. More than 85
percent rate it as a very important problem. The
â??high dropout rateâ?? concerns more Latino
voters than other important problems like the
â??poor English-language skills of immigrant
studentsâ?? and the â??poor quality of some
teachers.â?? The importance of this is better
understood when we consider that more than half
of all Latino parents with children in school
are personally worried that their children will
drop out of school. Immigrant parents are even
more concerned ? two-thirds of them worry that
their childrren will soon drop out of school.
4. A substantial percentage of Hispanic voters
give negative ratings to the public education
system in the United States. Almost half of
those interviewed declared that they considered
the quality of the public schools to be
â??mediocreâ?? or â??poor.â?? Native-born Latino
voters are more likely to give the public
education system negative ratings than their
foreign-born counterparts. Almost a quarter of
Hispanics with school children complain that
students are not receiving enough support at the school that they attend.
5. In contrast to the previous finding, Hispanic
voters rate the quality of teachers in the
public schools positively. More than 60 percent
of them give public school teachers a rating of
â??excellentâ?? or â??good.â?? When asked to
identify the most important reason that there
are some low quality teachers in the public
schools, the largest group of Latino voters
suggests that it is because â??teachers are not
paid enough.â?? Nevertheless, more than eighty
percent of the Hispanic electorate feels that
one way to improve public education in America
is to hire more teachers with expertise in the subjects that they will teach.
6. Latino parents accept a significant share of
the responsibility for the problems that their
children encounter in the public schools. Our
poll indicates that the â??lack of parental
involvement in their childrenâ??s educationâ??
is considered to be one of the two most
important educational problems facing the
Hispanic community. It is also revealing that
almost half of Hispanics with children in school
feel that parents, like themselves, are most
responsible for the high dropout rate among Hispanic students.
7. A majority of Latino voters thinks that
Latino students need to be held to higher
academic expectations ? like attending more
difficult classses. Only one-third of those
interviewed feared that holding Latinos to
higher academic expectations could result in
many Hispanic students failing and dropping out
of school. The study also reveals that most
Latinos are not quite aware of the serious
difficulties faced by Hispanic students. Only
one-seventh of those interviewed was aware that
a recent study reported that the average
17-year- old Hispanic student has math and
reading skills that are equal to the math and
reading skills of an average 13 year old White Anglo student.
OTHER FINDINGS
1. Latino voters are supportive of students
spending more time in school to give those that
are falling behind time to catch up and to
better prepare themselves for college.
2. Latino parents of children in ESOL programs
(limited English skills) give very high marks to
the quality of the English language education program their children attend.
Latino Students Deserve Stronger Schools
Latino families depend on good K-12 schools for
the learning that leads to lifelong
opportunities. But Latino students are far less
likely to attend strong schools that prepare them for college, work, and life.
Too many Latino students face low standards and
unqualified teachers. â?? Almost 5 million of
the nationâ??s Latino students attend schools in
states that have set proficiency standards so
low in fourth grade reading that they fall below
even the most basic level on a national
assessment.(1) ? Academic courses in high-Latino
high schools are nearly twice as likely to be
taught by teachers who lack a degree in the
subject they teach compared with classes in high
schools with few Latino students.(2)
Poor education leads to low achievement, high
dropout rates, and reduced opportunities for Latinos after high school.
? Less Learning. Just one in ten Latino eighth
graders reads at a proficient level, and more
than half of Latino 4th graders read below the
basic level. By the time they near graduation,
Latino teenagers have math and reading skills
that are no higher than those of White middle
school students.(3) ? Too Many Dropouts. A study
just released by Education Week founnd that just
over half of Latino 9th graders graduate from
high school with their peers.(4) ? Not Ready For
College. Latino graduates are only abbout half
as likely as White students to leave high school
adequately prepared for four- year colleges.(5)
In states such as Florida and California, the
problem is worse: ? About 70% of Latinos who
enter Floridaâ??ss community colleges are
unprepared for higher education and are forced
to take remedial math, reading, or writing
courses ? more than twice the rate of White
students.(6) Across all Florida colleges, 61% of
Latino freshmen have to take remedial courses.
Each year, Latino families pay nearly $2 million
in tuition for those courses, which teach skills
that students should have learned in high school
and earn them no credit toward a college degree.(7)
? In March, the California State University
system reported that 62%% of Latino freshmen who
enrolled in fall 2006 had to take remedial
courses in English and 53% had to take remedial
math.(8) ? Low College Compleetion. At the
current college enrollment and completion rates,
out of every 100 Latino kindergartners, only 10
will obtain at a bachelorâ??s degree.(9)
The solution is rigorous standards, effective
teachers in every classroom, and more time and
support for learning. Visit
<http://www.edin08.com/>http://www.edin08.com/ to learn more.
Rigorous American Education Standards: ? A 2006
study by Education WWeek found that states that
had raised academic standards over the past
decade were more likely to see gains in math and
reading on the National Assessment of
Educational Progress.(10) ? A national study
found that high sschools with a more rigorous
curriculum have lower dropout rates than those
that allow students to take lots of low-level
courses. For every two low-level math courses a
high school offers, students experience a 30%
greater probability of dropping out.(11)
Effective Teachers in Every Classroom: â??
Economists estimate that assigning disadvantaged
students to good teachers rather than average
teachers for 4 to 5 years in a row would
entirely close the achievement gap.(12) More
Time and Support for Learning: ? Students in
KIPP schools get about 60 percent more class
time than their peers, and the results are
impressive: In Washington, D.C., KIPP fifth
graders improved so much in just one year that
they rose from the bottom 15 percent to the top
25 percent of students in the nation.(13) ? A
national studdy found that high schools where
teachers provide students with high levels of
support manage to cut dropout rates in half. It
found that support is especially important for
disadvantaged students who generally drop out at much higher rates.(14)
Strong American Schools, a project of
Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, is a
nonpartisan campaign supported by The Eli and
Edythe Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation promoting sound education policies for all Americans.
SAS does not support or oppose any candidate for
public office and does not take positions on legislation.
(1)SAS calculations based on 1) National Center
for Education Statistics. (2007). Mapping 2005
State Proficiency Standards Onto the NAEP
Scales. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Education. 2) Sable, J., and Garofano, A.
(2007). Public Elementary and Secondary School
Enrollment, High School Completions, and Staff
from the Common Core of Data: School Year
2005-2006. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Education. Washington. Retrieved June 12, 2007
from
<http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007352.pdf>http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007352.pdf
(2)The Education Trust. Latino Achievement in America. Washington, DC: Author.
(3)Data from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress.
(4)Education Week. (2007, June 12). Diplomas
Count 2007: Ready for What? Preparing Students
for College, Careers, and Life after High
School. Bethesda, MD: Editorial Projects in Education Research Center.
(5)Greene, J. & Winters, M. (2003, September).
Public High School Graduation and College
Readiness Rates in the United States. New York: Manhattan Institute.
(6)Windham, P. (2002). Bridging the Gap: An
Analysis of Floridaâ??s College Preparatory
Program. Florida State Board of Community Colleges, Tallahassee, Florida.
(7)Summers, D. (2006, April) Steps Can Be Taken
to Reduce Remediation Rates. Office of Program
Policy Analysis and Government Accountability. Tallahassee, Florida.
(8)California State University System, Analytic
Studies (2006) Proficiency Reports of Students
Entering the CSU System, accessed at
<http://www.asd.calstate.edu/proficiency/2006/Prof_Sys_fall2006.htm>http://www.asd.calstate.edu/proficiency/2006/Prof_Sys_fall2006.htm.
(9)US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the
Census. (2005). March Current Population
Surveys, 1971-2003, in The Condition of
Education.
<http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2005/section3/indicator23.asp#info>http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2005/section3/indicator23.asp#info.
(10)Education Week. (2006, January 5). Quality
Counts 2006: A Decade of Standards-Based
Education. Bethesda, MD: Editorial Projects in Education.
(11)Lee, V. & Burkam, D. (2003). Dropping Out of
School: The Role of School Organization and
Structure. American Educational Research Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 353-393.
(12)Hanushek, E. (2006). Alternative School
Policies and the Benefits of General Cognitive
Skills. Economics of Education Review, Vol. 25, pp. 447-466.
(13)Schaffler, S. (2006, December 3). Three Tips from KIPP. Washington Post.
(14)Croninger, R. & Lee, V. (2001). Social
capital and dropping out of high school:
Benefits to at-risk students of teachersâ??
support and guidance. Teachers College Record,
vol. 103, pp. 548-581. Strong American Schools
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