A 2009 report by the National Women's Law Center and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund had sobering information. Latinas were dropping out of school in alarming numbers, the report said. Forty-one percent of Latina students did not graduate with their classes - or graduate at all. Many grappled with poverty, immigration issues, limited proficiency in English. The odds were formidable. Nearly a decade later, Ivonne Diaz-Claisse stood in front of students at Hamilton's Nottingham High School and recalled her own trials and triumphs on the way to earning two master's degrees and a PhD in mathematics. The native of Puerto Rico was there not only to share her own success story, but also to serve as a role model for members of the school's growing Hispanic population. "Though we have made progress, Hispanics still have the highest dropout rate of all major and ethnic groups, and fewer than 10 percent have earned a bachelor's degree or higher," said Kelly Grossman, spokeswoman for Hispanics Inspiring Students' Performance and Achievement, which sponsored Diaz-Claisse's presentation.
Hispanic mentoring program launches in N.J. Diaz-Claisse is CEO of HISPA, a Princeton-based nonprofit which since 2006 has brought together Latino professionals and students in their local communities to help build the pipeline of Latinos in higher education. The organization has since extended into New York and Florida. According to the 2010 census, nearly 11 percent of Hamilton's residents claimed Latino/Hispanic ethnicity. In the last decade, the Latino population in the municipality more than doubled, with residents hailing from Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia. As their numbers swelled, Hamilton responded by offering documents, forms and other paperwork in Spanish, as well as shoring up the programs and services the township offered to its Spanish-speaking residents. HISPA brought its Role Model Program to the township's West and Nottingham high schools last month, with additional programs slated throughout February. Grossman said the goal was to provide Hispanic students examples of success stories with which they can identify, by people "with whom they share a language or cultural background, someone that reminded them of their families." She noted that according to predictions, one out of every three students in the country will be Hispanic by the year 2025. It's in everyone's best interest to provide a positive and nurturing educational experience for this next generation of teachers, doctors, scientists, lawyers, engineers and entrepreneurs. Hamilton is setting an admirable example.
The aggregate Hispanic high school dropout rate is a poor indicator of U.S. secondary school performance. Many of the 530,000 Hispanic high school dropouts are recently arrived immigrants who have never been enrolled in U.S. schools (Fry, 2003; Vernez and Abrahamse, 1996; National Center for Education Statistics, 1997). They meet the status dropout definition, but that does not imply that they necessarily dropped out of U.S. secondary schools. Using 2000 Census survey data, it is estimated that about 175,000 of the 530,000 Hispanic high school dropouts were likely never enrolled in U.S. schools (Fry, 2003). Although it is difficult to obtain a precise estimate of the number and characteristics of Latino teens that have been enrolled in U.S. schools using Census data, the status dropout rate for Hispanic 16-to-19 year-olds that have been enrolled in U.S. schools is about 15 percent (Fry, 2003). This is about twice, rather than three times, the non-Hispanic white dropout rate. Distinguishing between Latino youth that have never been exposed to U.S. schools and those that have been in U.S. classrooms is also critical for the prospects and design of appropriate interventions. Hispanic teen dropouts that have never been in U.S. schools have markedly different language, gender, family, and labor market characteristics from Latino teen dropouts that are U.S. educated. For example, the vast majority of dropouts that have never been in U.S. schools have very limited spoken English abilities. Most Hispanic dropouts educated in the U.S. have English fluency by age 16.