For decades, Latino students have been disadvantaged in the
public school system. The etiology of the problem is multi-faceted, ranging
from rapidly expanding Latino populations to ineffective teachers to a language
barrier in the daily curriculum as well as on standardized tests. Regarding the
language barrier, there are four million Latinos in U.S. public schools that do
not speak English as their primary language. According to the Department of
Education in 2002, 1 in 3 teachers working with these ESL students were not
sufficiently trained or lacking certification.
Poor standardized test scores are often linked to low
socioeconomic status which is made up of disproportionately minority students.
However, the disparity between Latino and white students goes beyond rich
versus poor. In my hometown of Plainfield, Illinois, a middle class suburb with
a median income of $81,000, Latino students struggle disproportionately to
whites. It is evident that, disregarding socioeconomic status, there is a major
discrepancy occurring between Latinos and whites.
There are four high schools in Plainfield: Central, South,
North and East. Among these schools, the South and East campuses have the
highest number of Latino students with 27.7 and 29 percent respectively. Not
coincidentally, these two campuses have the lowest percentage of students
meeting and exceeding standards on the Prairie State Achievement Exams (PSAE).
Over the last three years, the discrepancy between the South and East campuses
and the North and Central campuses has been on average between 10 and 15
percent lower.
It should come as no surprise that throughout the Plainfield
high schools, 93 percent of teachers are white while Latinos only make up 3.8 percent.
There is a clear gap in the scores of schools with higher percentages of
Latinos versus the schools with lower percentages. Plainfield South High School
has the lowest percent of students exceeding standards and the highest percent
of students in the warning level. Plainfield South High School ranks 460th
out of 669 high schools in the state of Illinois based on PSAE scores.
I believe that in order to alleviate this problem,
Plainfield School District should attempt to hire more Latino teachers. The
percent of Latino students versus the percent of Latino teachers is nearly ten
times higher. I believe that Latino teachers would have a better understanding
of the issues faced by Latino students and be able to better assist them by
helping to eliminate the language barrier in the curriculum.
No comments:
Post a Comment