A Troublesome Truth
According to high-school drop out rates for the last three years, educational outreach efforts to Latino youth appear to be failing miserably. In 2006, 24.1% of Latino students in Lincoln Public Schools dropped out of high-school. That number increased to 27.3% in 2007, and again increased to 28.7% in 2008. We could try to console ourselves by assuming the remaining 71.3% of Latino students must be graduating, but we would be wrong. In 2006 the graduation rate for Latino students was only 56.6%. That dismal number plummeted even further in 2007 to 53.2%. Fortunately we saw a small increase in the graduation rate for 2008 – it’s all the way up to 55.7%! (I suppose we should be grateful for the small things.) Sadly, hidden in all of these numbers, is the fact that 15.6% of Latino students did not earn enough credits to graduate with their class in 2008. In 2007, 19.5% were held back and in 2006 it was 19.3%. As much as we would like to blame the schools, the parents, the community, the government, SOMEBODY for these discouraging numbers, I believe a courageous first step might be to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some tough questions – what are WE doing to stem the tide of students dropping out of schools? Are we volunteering for mentoring or tutoring programs that target underserved youth? Are we giving our time and resources to reading programs at elementary schools to encourage literacy development (research indicates a strong correlation between early literacy experiences and dropout rates)? If each of us were to invest a small percentage of our time and energy into waging war against the dropout rates of Latino – and other minority – youth, I believe we could begin to make sustainable progress in eradicating the scourge of illiteracy and undereducation in our community.
