Latinos in North Central Indiana: Education Need and Asset Study Robert Reyes, Ph.D. & Ana Lopez...

Latinos in North Central Indiana: Education Need and Asset Study

Robert Reyes, Ph.D. & Ana Lopez Juarez, M.S.S.A.

Outline for the Session

• Overview of CITL at Goshen College• The Need and Asset Study• Research Goals• Theoretical Underpinnings & Methodology• Findings– Secondary Data & Qualitative Interviews

• Recommendations

Research Questions

• Questions on demographic data--• What factors facilitate or impede the

relationships between students and their social networks inside and outside of school?

• What are the sources of support social networks provide and the challenges to they face in providing support to students?

• How do Latino students’ social networks (inside and outside of school) contribute to their academic success?

Theoretical Underpinnings• Family, community, school as three spheres of student’s lives.

Support of student development and achievement depends on connection between spheres (Epstein, 1995).

• Socio-cultural processes & and structures mediate ways families and communities participate and share responsibility (Auerbach2007; Lareau 2000).

• Social Capital Theory: Refers to social relationships from which an individual is potentially able to derive institutional support, particular that includes the delivery of knowledge-based resources, for example, guidance for college admission. (Brykand Schneider 2002, Dodd and Konzal2002, Oakes et al. 2000).

Influence of Social Capital on Student Success

Family (parents, siblings,

extended)

PeersCommunity (church, youth

group, nonprofits, etc.)

School (teachers,

counselors, system)

Student Success

Methodology (General Students)

• **Expand- Separate Methods and Sample• Qualitative Methodology• Focus groups with 36 students (9 in each

city: Goshen, Elkhart, South Bend, Ligonier)• Focus groups with 24 parents (6 in each

city)• Semi-structured interviews with 15

educators ( about 4 in each city)

Methodology (Study with High Achieving Students)

• Interviews with 25 college-bound (various achievement levels), Junior and Senior Latino students, 2009-2011

• Interviews with school teachers and staff• Observations of classrooms and school events• Semi-structured interviews: 40 minutes to 1.5 hours• Discussed topics such as: college preparation process,

development of aspirations, resources that supported them during process, challenges they faced, overall experiences in school

• Instrumental Case Study Approach: Select high achieving Latina students who faced and overcame significant barriers

Introduction: Demographic / Educational Context

Population by Race/Ethnicity: Elkhart, Noble, and St. Joseph Counties, 2009

Elkhart Noble St. Joseph0

50

100

150

200

250

154

42

208

110

3230

617

6 110

White Black Latino Other

Estim

ated

pop

ulati

on(in

thou

sand

• Whites remain the majority. Latinos are next significant minority in Elkhart and Noble counties

Latino Share of the Population: Elkhart, Noble, and St. Joseph Counties, 1970-2009

1970 1980 1990 2000 20090%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

0.9%1.3%

1.9%

8.9%

15.1%

0.0%

1.0%1.7%

7.1%

11.5%

0.9%1.5%

2.1%

4.7%

6.5%

Elkhart Noble St. Joseph

• Most of Latino population growth took place in the 1990s and continued into the 2000s but growth slowed

Latino Population, by Age and Nativity: Elkhart, Noble, and St. Joseph Counties, 2009

• Growth in this area has been mostly from foreign-born Latinos who then have children here

• Counties with less US-born children signal a settled population with less recent migrants

Elkhart Noble St. Joseph Elkhart Noble St. Joseph Elkhart Noble St. JosephChildren (under 18) Adults (18+) Total

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

US-born Foreign-born

Distribution of Latino and Non-Latino Workers, by Industry: Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties, 2006-2008

• In both Elkhart and St. Joseph counties, manufacturing and services employed more Latinos and non-Latinos than any industry

• In Elkhart County, a large majority of Latinos are employed in manufacturing and 30 percent are in services

Agricu

lture,

fores

try, a

nd fishing

Mining

Constructi

on

Manufac

turin

g

Tran

sporta

tion and co

mmunications

Wholes

ale tr

ade

Retail t

rade

FIRE

Servi

ces

Administrati

on

Agricu

lture,

fores

try, a

nd fishing

Mining

Constructi

on

Manufac

turin

g

Tran

sporta

tion and co

mmunications

Wholes

ale tr

ade

Retail t

rade

FIRE

Servi

ces

Administrati

on

Elkhart St. Joseph

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60% 49%

30%

4%9%

25%

7%

37%

11%

34%34%

7%

16%

45%

10%

Latino Non-Latino

Ethnicity of School Corporations by Percentage

Concord

Elkhard Goshen South Bend

West Noble

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

9.5%

15.6%

1.7%

34.2%

0.0%

20.1%23.4%

37.2%

16.4%

43.2%

60.6%

51.2% 51.5%

39.1%

54.5%

Black Hispanic White

White is the most common ethnicity, followed by Hispanic in all districts except South Bend, where Black is the second most common ethnicity.

Concord is the least ethnically diverse school system and South Bend is the most ethnically diverse.

Free and Reduced Meal Population by Percent

Concord

Elkhart

Goshen

South

Bend

West

Noble0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

45.9%

58.2%56.0%

59.8%56.3%

11.4%8.3%

10.3% 8.7%11.9%

42.7%

33.5% 33.7%31.5%

38.1%

Free Meal

Reduced Price Meal

Full price meal

There are more students receiving financial assistance for meals than not inevery district.

Concord has the highest rate of students who are able to pay full price, and South Bend has the lowest. Concord also has thelowest rate of ethnic diversity and the second lowest rate of English Language Learners.

South Bend has the highest rate of students receiving free meals. It is also the most ethnically diverse and has the lowest proportion of English Language Learners.

Percentage of Students who are English Language Learners

Concord

Elkhart

Goshen

South

Bend

West

Noble0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

16% 18%28%

12%

32%

84% 82%72%

88%

68%

English Language LearnersNon English Language Learners

South Bend has the lowest rate ofEnglish Language Learners.

West Noble has the highest.

Hispanic Diploma Achievement by Percent

Concord

Elkhart

Goshen

South

Bend

West

Noble0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

50.0% 52.0%

62.7%

53.7%

47.9%

27.5%

40.0%

31.0%

36.1%39.6%

17.5%

7.1% 6.0%10.2%

12.5%

Core 40 General Honors

In general, it is most common for Hispanicstudents to achieve the Core 40 diploma, which is the lowest diploma commonly accepted by colleges. Very few Hispanic students achieve the Honors diploma, which is the highest diploma offered by most Indiana schools.

Goshen has the lowest rate of Hispanic students achieving Honors diplomas.

Concord has the highest rate of Hispanic students achieving honors diplomas.

High School Graduation Rates in Selected School Districts, by Race/Ethnicity: Elkhart, Noble, and

St. Joseph Counties, 2008-2009

Concord

Community Sc

hools

Elkhart

Community Sc

hools

Goshen Community

Schools

South Bend Community

School C

orpora

tion

West

Noble School C

orpora

tion0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100% 93%

77% 82% 77%85%

75%

58% 59% 63%

80%

White Latino

• In all but one of the local school organizations, Latinos graduated at a lower rate than whites

• Noble County is the exception, with a Latino graduation rate close to that of white students

• South Bend’s gap between Latino and white student graduation rates (14 percentage points) is comparable to that of the state (14.6 percentage points) but in Elkhart County the gap is higher (23 and 19 percentage points)

Results: Qualitative Findings

Influence of Social Networks on Student Success


extended)



School (teachers,

counselors, system)

Student Success

Impact of Peer Networks on Student Success

Factors that Facilitate Positive Relationships

• US-born Latinos feel welcomed and comfortable in schools.

• US-born Latinos have friends from different ethnicities.

Factors that Impede Relationships

• It is difficult socially for foreign-born students at school. (Culture, English speaking ability)

• Cultural differences between newly arrivals and old timers/U.S. born.

Impact of Peer Networks on Student Success (High Achieving Students)

• Factors that Facilitate Positive Relationships– Involved in supportive peer groups

Impact of Peer Networks on Student Success (High Achieving Students)

• “My friends are like, I told them, I don’t think I’m going to college and my parents don’t care [if I go] and they were like ‘Are you serious? You’re not going to college? You are an honors student! It’s not like you are another student…’ and it’s like ‘yeah so what does it matter?’ And they’re like ‘how can you say it doesn’t matter?...you’re doing college-based courses’ and she was like ‘no, you have to go, you have to go” so it’s like okay, if you can do it, then I can do it…”


The second, third generation is already involved in a lot of the activities that the school provides. Their circle of friends is different than our first generation who are just beginning to know the language, who are beginning to note things, what to join and what not to join. (Educator, Elkhart)


Unfortunately, many times the second-generation students would kind of put down the first-generation students. They felt like, “We've been here longer. We know what's going on. You guys are new.” And they would pick on them or put them down. So for me that’s sad. To see people who'd been here longer not accept the people who had just come recently. (Educator, Ligonier)



extended)



School (teachers,

counselors, system)

Student Success

Impact of Teachers & Staff (i.e., Institutional

Agents) on Student Success

Factors that facilitate positive relationships• Teachers who know their

siblings• Teachers who are also

Latino/bilingual • Teachers who have

similar interest in a subject

• Teachers who have more patience

Factors that impede relationships• Perception that teachers

don’t know how to relate

• Feelings of isolation

Impact of Teachers & Staff (i.e., Institutional Agents) on Student Success (High Achieving Students)

• Factors that Facilitate Positive Relationships– Multiple, strong relationships within family and

school

Impact of Educational System on Student Success

• Latinos don’t take as many college prep classes

• English ability is a barrier to be prepared for college

• Lack of access to information about college

Impact of Institutional Agents on Student Success

She shares where she went on vacation or what she did or she asks me what I am up to or how my family is. And you see it is a confidence the two of [us] share. She knew my brother in school. I never had her as a teacher. Rather, through my brother I knew she got along well with him. I started to spend time with her and I realized that she was a good person, and then I had confidence in her. (Latino student, Goshen)


I would also go with Miss X primarily because she is Latina. I think she knows how we feel and we trust her. She is the one who helps us with everything, in whatever problem we have. (Latino student, Goshen)


[I go to] the professors of the subjects that interest me, like science. I trust them if I have a problem. They are American, but there have been instances where I have not understood something and I go [to them]. (Latino student, Goshen)


Sometimes there are teachers who are more patient than others and they sit with you and they explain it to you. Sometimes they stay after class to help you if you need more help, but there are others that won’t. (Latino student, Elkhart)


We can go to the professors. They can explain [it] to us but they don’t feel as secure as the other professors who speak Spanish with us because they do understand what we don’t understand and they understand how we feel. (Latino student, Elkhart)


It has happened around two times that they leave us alone in the corner and they let us off easy at the start of class. Later they will give me help because I am Latino and I don’t understand the material very well. (Latino student, Goshen)

Impact of Institutional Agents on Student Success (High Achieving Students)

• “My home room teacher…I was the only honors student in his class and he was like you guys [other students] should follow her lead….it was really nice to feel like that, to feel that somebody actually cared about what you were doing. And that makes you feel really happy and like you want to do good things so they approve…I want to go to college and he is like helping me, he is always like ‘have you filled out your applications, scholarships and all this’…he’s been a big motivation. I am really thankful.”


The high school in general offers courses, the AP exams, honors courses, clubs, because colleges look at students overall: how they're doing, not only academically, but in the community. I think the high school offers all of that. We just have to get our students in there . . . . We have a lot of Latinos in the regular classes. Let's get them . . . higher. (Educator, Goshen)


It depends on when they entered our system. A student who arrives here speaking little or no English in junior high or high school is not going to be as prepared for success at an English-speaking college as the student who was born here and attends our school all those years. (Educator, Elkhart)


That’s a problem. [Counselors] give the information to [students] and sometimes . . . you have to fish for information hoping to catch something, and I see a problem with that. When they are in tenth or eleventh grade they get all the information and they only talk to you when they miss something, when they are late, and something like that, and they don’t give all the information to you . . . because they aren’t worried about money. . . . They are worried about their classes, their levels, but not about where they are going, how would they support themselves, and I say that that is in part because you don’t ask for information, and they won’t give it to you. (Latino parent, Elkhart)



extended)



School (teachers,

counselors, system)

Student Success

Influence of Parent Involvement on Student Success

Sources of Support• Providing Moral

Support

• Being a provider

• Monitoring Behavior

Barriers for Support• Limited school exposure

• Lack of knowledge of the educational system

• Language proficiency

Influence of Parent Involvement on Student Success (High Achieving Students)

• Maintain high expectations despite limits in other forms of support

• Education as the ONLY option for the future• Strong source of emotional and moral support• Religious faith

Influence of Parent Involvement on College Access

Sources of Support

• Support and motivation from families

• Students motivated by parents’ stories

Barriers to Support

• Parents don’t understand college experience and college choice process

• Female social pressure to start own family.


Moral Support: I told them that they have to see that we make big efforts so they can [have this education], because maybe we don't have a lot of studies but we want them to be better. (Latino parent, Ligonier)


Being a Provider:To me, as a mother, it’s important to provide them with the educational materials that they are required to have. Sometimes it’s complicated because I don’t have money to buy them and I don’t know what to do because if they don’t bring them they are going to get behind compared to other children. And they have the capability to do the work, but if you as a parent say, “They need this for tomorrow, but I’m going to leave it until Friday because I get paid that day,” your kid is going to get behind, not because of his capabilities. You as a parent have to provide the educational materials that your children are asking for. (Latino Parent, Goshen)


Monitoring Behavior:My mom, she’s always been on my back about everything, every single thing I’ve done. It’s school, friends, where I go with who, sports . . . . She goes to school, she talks to counselor, she talks to principal. I wouldn’t even know but then she’ll just tell me when I come home, “I talked to your teacher.” She’s . . . in all these programs just to learn about how the school system works and I appreciate it. (Latino student, South Bend)


Limited School Exposure:I think you bring your own limitations. Because you feel, you feel less [of a person]. When you are in a group of people that are from here, I mean, they look at you like that, and you feel bad because of those limitations . . . . And you don’t know. You are not useful. (Latino parent, South Bend)


Knowledge of Educational System:I spoke with parents about this . . . . Most of them are uneducated themselves. They haven’t figured out how to help them yet. This is just first generation that I am talking about. They do try to encourage students to do well in school, but then again I don’t [know] if they understand the concept of a “D” or a “C.” The comments on the report card are all in English. (Educator, South Bend)


Language Barrier:Language is a barrier, and sometimes teachers don’t know how to communicate . . . so you have to have an interpreter so he can translate what’s going on . . . . [D]uring the first years of school language was a barrier for me. I as a mother didn’t know English. It was too big and if we want our children to succeed we had to learn. Now that I’ve learned a little more I realize that during my first few years I didn’t go to school—not at all—just to pick them up. No celebrations, nothing, because of the language. (Latino parent, Goshen)


Language Barrier:Because of that [not speaking English], it is like a large part of why she doesn’t go [to school activities such as parent-teacher conferences]. She says because she doesn’t understand and later there are bilingual teachers but they say everything wrong. (Latino student, Elkhart)

Influence of Parent Involvement on Student Success (High Achieving Students)“My parents have always been supportive of education too, because they didn’t really have the opportunity to go to school, so they think it’s very important that we do. Even though they haven’t been able to help me much with applications and all, they are still very motivated to help me in whatever way they can, and to take me to college visits.”

“[My parents] talk to me a lot about college. What they said is mainly it is because they want me to have a better opportunity than they had and my dad attended college for a year in Mexico and he said it was really hard for him to pay and that is why he came here and my mom, she didn’t go to college, she just got her high school diploma so for them it is really important for me to go to college and I am their oldest daughter so it is, I guess, they want me to be a role model for my younger siblings and I want to be a role model for them too so it is important for me.”


Motivation from Family:

One of my best friends told me how she saw my mom working so hard at the restaurant. It almost made me cry because, seeing them break their backs for me—if I don’t work hard then I’m letting my parents down and that’s a stamp on myself as well. I don’t want to have that feeling that I failed them or failed myself, so going to college will be something that I will focus on and achieve. (Latino student, South Bend)


Knowledge about College Choice Process:When we went on college trips we would come back and they would ask us, “Why didn’t you let us know so we could go?” And they would say: “How was it?” Good, but they don’t know what to ask you and at the last second they ask, “How are you going to pay? How will you pay for it?” When it’s time, they worry. It’s late. They don’t know the terminology. My mom asks [how] we are going to pay . . . . We go to the financial aid office and they tell us. They explain how to do it and my parents don’t understand because they didn’t go to college. They don’t know you have to do this or that, because when I took the IST my mom asked why I was taking it and now that I have to go and take my freshman placement exams she asks me, “Why? What is it for?” (Latino student, Goshen)


Expectations:• I have a limited experience, but in my limited

experience, girls in particular are frequently discouraged from going to college because their role is to become a mother. (Educator, Elkhart)

• Expectations for their boys [are] still different than for girls. If their daughter graduates high school and gets married and is a mom, that's ok. (Educator, Ligonier)



extended)



School (teachers,

counselors, system)

Student Success

Other Ecological Factors

• Socioeconomic Challenges

• Legal Challenges

• Discrimination

Economic Challenges

• He [a Latino student] was working to help his parents, help with rent, the bills. (Latino student, Goshen)

• “When you’re hungry, there’s no room for your ABC’s [La letra no entra cuando se tiene hambre].”

• The reason why I think it's happening [Latinos dropping out] is parents play a big role because education—sometimes [it’s] not really important and working and surviving is. (Educator, South Bend)

Legal Status

• The environment where they live creates that mentality: if they don’t have Social Security they can´t go. That’s the mentality. (Latino parent, Goshen)

• Another reason [Latino students drop out] I would say [is] undocumentation. If you're undocumented and you come to this school, you graduate and then when you graduate a lot of students say, “Well, what do I have to look forward to? What is this [high school diploma] going to do for me?” Really, I don't have an answer. (Educator, South Bend)

Discrimination

I went once [to the school] because my daughter fought with a teacher, and the fight started because my daughter heard the teacher saying that he didn’t think that my daughter and another boy were in that math level. He said, “I thought Hispanics were stupid,” so I went to clarify. [She cries.] It makes me sad to feel that, because you feel powerless, because maybe you don’t know how to say she can do it. She defended herself. She is not at their level of education, because she tells me, “Mom, help me,” and I don’t know. You don’t know. And she has to deal with lot of things beside doing her homework. She has to stand out. She has to face the rejection of lot of people at school, just because you are Hispanic. (Latino parent, Elkhart)

Recommendations

Recommendations

• Create a culturally responsive school environment • Focus on cultural knowledge and cross-cultural skills• Bilingual faculty and staff

• Develop culturally responsive guidance practices• Increase Latino students in advanced classes and programs

• Use the school as a community-building institution• Create opportunities for the development of social networks for

Latino parents

• Provide more information and support for the college preparation and application process.

• Increase research, program development, and policy initiatives that address the experiences of specific subgroups

Recommendations (cont.)

ReferencesAuerbach, S. (2002). "Why Do They Give the Good Classes to Some and Not to Others?" Latino Parent Narratives of Struggle in a College Access Program.” Teachers College Record 104 (7), p. 1369-1392.

Bryk, A. and B. Schneider. Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002.

Dodd, A.W. and J.L. Konzal. How Communities Build Stronger Schools: Stories, Strategies, and Promising Practices for Educating Every Child. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002.

Epstein, J. (1995) “School/Family/Community Partnerships: Caring for the Children We Share.” Phi Delta Kappan76, 701-712.

Guzman, J.C., J.R. Reyes, Palacios, J. & Carolan-Silva, A. (2011). In J.R. Reyes & J.C. Guzman (Eds.) Latinos in North Central Indiana: Educational Challenges and Opportunities. (Vol. 3). Goshen: Goshen College.

Lareau, A. (2000). Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary School. New York: Rowmanand Littlefield Publishers. Oakes, J., K.H. Quartz, S. Ryan and M. Lipton. Becoming Good American Schools: The Struggle for Civic Virtue in Education Reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000.

Latinos in North Central Indiana: Education Need and Asset Study Robert Reyes, Ph.D. & Ana Lopez...

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