Latino students' expectations of school success: do school supports matter?

Abstract

Abstract Latino Students’ Expectations of School Success: Do School Supports Matter? Poor educational outcomes for Latino youth at a 43% graduation rate (NCES, 2007) in the U.S. constitute a serious social problem that concerns this growing population and affects the future well being of the nation. Educational disparities ranked second only to immigration as the major concern of Latinos in a recent nationwide survey (NCLR, 2007). Prevailing research on educational outcomes for Latino adolescents contains individually focused deficit themes. Specifically, most education research on Latino youth is centered on the classroom where teacher student interaction takes place and on Latino families in a way that highlights student levels of risk rather than cultural strengths (Rodriguez & Morrobel, 2004). The bulk of research is culturally inappropriate in comparing white student populations with students of color, thereby assuming the white standard as normative (Quintana et. al, 2006). Little is known about how the school environment outside the classroom supports positive educational outcomes or about the students’ own expectations of school success. Moreover, a salient feature of available research is its geography, which is mainly located in Southern and Atlantic states. The educational experiences of Latino students in states such as Minnesota that have experienced increasingly large Latino population growth, is largely unexplored. This study examined the relationship between school supports and Latino students’ expectation of school success (ESS). Responses to the 2004 Minnesota School Survey of 5,318 Latino students in grades 6, 9, and 12 was used to conduct secondary data analysis using a within group comparison method. A three-part conceptual framework was developed to guide and select variables. The model linked a strengths perspective from social work with resilience theory tied to school supports and with Latino youth identity as the construct connecting the student’s own expectations of school success. It was hypothesized that higher levels of school support would be associated with higher levels of ESS. A path model guided the statistical analysis, which supported the hypothesis. Feeling safe and feeling cared for at school showed the greatest associations to ESS. Multivariate analysis including ANCOVA and logistic regression taking family closeness into account revealed that school safety and feeling cared for in the school environment are important to Latino students’ ESS irrespective of family relationship. The study contributes to the knowledge on Latino adolescent educational outcomes by giving voice to Latino youths’ concerns, by highlighting the role of school supports as a source for fostering their academic competence, by challenging prevailing comparative research that historically norms whites through the use of a strengths based framework, and by providing a geographic exemplar for further study of national and state level data. Use of the Strengths approach strengthens social work theory. Future research includes increasing understanding safety and care for Latino students, exploring social work’s role in bridging youth and families with learning communities, strengthening educational institutions through assessment of implicit and systemic curricula that act to subtract cultural assets, and developing evidence based interventions to reduce Latino educational disparities.