School Choice and Hispanic Dropouts

Sat Nov 17 19:00:48 UTC 2007

 NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
 <http://www.ncpa.org/contact.html>

School Choice and Hispanic Dropouts

Monday, November 12, 2007 **

by Madison Jones and Renee Bou-Waked

In 2005, more than one-fifth (22.4 percent) of Hispanics 16 through 24 years
of age were dropouts, according to the National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES).  This means they were not enrolled in school, and had not
graduated from high school or passed General Educational Development (GED)
tests.  These dropout numbers do not accurately measure the performance of
U.S. schools in educating Hispanic students because they include immigrants
educated abroad.  However, even after adjusting for the portion of Hispanic
dropouts who never attended U.S. schools, the dropout rate for Hispanic
students is higher than for other major ethnic groups in America.

The failure of such a large proportion of Hispanics to complete a basic
level of education is a serious concern, particularly considering the
positive economic benefits of earning a high school diploma. * *According to
Census data:

   - The lifelong earning potential for a high school graduate is about
   1.8 times that of a high school dropout.
   - On average, a high school graduate earns $9,000 more annually than a
   person who did not complete that level of education.

While most of the benefits of a high school education accrue to the
individual, dropouts impose significant lifetime costs on society.  High
school dropouts cost the United States more than $260 billion in lost wages,
lost taxes and lost productivity over their lifetimes, according to U.S.
Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings.  They are also
3.5times more likely than high school graduates to be incarcerated.

Fortunately, there is a proven way to increase the success rate for Hispanic
students:  school choice.

*Evaluating the Hispanic Dropout Rate.*  As Figure I shows, the dropout rate
for young adult Hispanics is more than double the comparable dropout rate of
blacks (10.4 percent) and three times the rate of white non-Hispanics (6
percent).  However, the 22.4 percent Hispanic dropout rate includes both
native-born and immigrant Hispanics.  This is important because the dropout
rate is much higher for immigrants than for native-born students.  Using
2005 survey data, the NCES estimates:[image: Dropouts]

   - More than one-third (36.5 percent) of Hispanics ages 16 to 24 who
   were born outside the United States were dropouts.
   - By contrast, only 13.9 percent of first-generation Hispanic
   Americans (native-born children of immigrants) were dropouts, and only
   11.6 percent of second-generation American Hispanics were dropouts.

Furthermore, a high percentage of Hispanics who immigrate as older
adolescents or young adults have already dropped out of the education system
in their home countries, and they never attend American schools.  Using 2000
census data, the Pew Hispanic Center estimated that about one-fifth of
Hispanic immigrants ages 18 to 24 received all of their education abroad,
and about four-fifths of these foreign-educated immigrants were dropouts.
The inclusion of this group raises the overall Hispanic dropout rate by more
than one-third.

These numbers indicate that Hispanics who are educated entirely in the
United States have much lower dropout rates than those who immigrate.  But
the dropout rates of American-educated Hispanics are still higher than for
other ethnic groups.

*Why Do Hispanic Students Drop Out? * A factor contributing to a higher
dropout rate for immigrant Hispanics (whether or not they were educated in
American schools) is a lack of English language proficiency.  Unlike most
white and African American dropouts, many Hispanic dropouts are not
proficient English speakers.  According to the Pew Hispanic Center, among 16
to 19 year olds in 2000 [see Figure II]:

   - An estimated 59 percent of Hispanics who did not speak English well
   were dropouts.
   - Only 16 percent of Hispanic youths who spoke English well were
   dropouts.
   - But among Hispanics in homes where English was the only language
   spoken, only 13 percent were dropouts in 2000.**

[image: Dropout Rates by English Proficiency]By the second generation, the
vast majority of Hispanics are proficient in English.  However, the dropout
rate of English-proficient Hispanics is still higher than other ethnic
groups, even after accounting for language and immigration factors.  Census
data do not reveal the reason for this ethnic difference in dropout rates,
but regardless of the cause there is an effective way to improve prospects
of students of any ethnicity in the public education system.

*Reducing the Hispanic Dropout Rate.*  What can be done to lower the dropout
rate for Hispanics?  School choice would greatly increase opportunities for
Hispanics to excel by requiring public schools to compete for students.
Charter schools, for example, are publicly funded schools that are free of
many of the regulations imposed on traditional public schools.  Charter
schools characteristically serve a disproportionate number of minority
students who have had limited academic success in public schools.  Unlike
most public schools, charter schools do not have a local residency
requirement.  According to the Center for Education Reform, students
attending charter schools are beginning to perform better academically than
their peers in the public school system:

   - Hispanic students have a greater chance of being proficient in math
   and reading if they attend a charter school.
   - Students' test scores at charter schools are "rising sharply" and
   beginning to outperform underprivileged students in public schools.

Furthermore, in Texas, students in grades 6 through 9 attending charter
schools performed better on state reading and mathematics tests than
comparable students in traditional public schools.

If traditional public schools had the same open enrollment policies as
charter schools, a student could attend any public school the student
chooses that has classroom space available, regardless of school attendance
boundaries.  An NCPA analysis of test scores of sixth-grade students taking
the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) in 2003 shows how this policy
change would improve student performance.  The NCPA found that public
schools in Texas tend to excel at educating some subpopulations of students
better than others.  For example:

   - Carpenter Elementary in south Dallas ranked first in Dallas for
   teaching Hispanics but was only 89th or 82nd at teaching black students.
   - On the other hand,  Field Elementary in the northwest section of
   Dallas placed a dismal 49th or 28th in educating Hispanics, but rated 2nd or
   4th for teaching black children.

Open-enrollment would allow students at schools that do not serve them well
to transfer to schools that do.  With school choice, schools that perform
exceptionally well with one subgroup of students could specialize.  This
could include, for example, programs geared toward English-language
acquisition by Spanish-speaking students, or other minorities, low-income
and disadvantaged students, or low-or-high achievers.

Schools that catered to certain populations better than others would be more
likely to retain Hispanic students who might otherwise drop out.  If they
competed with other schools through open-enrollment policies, they would
have a comparative advantage in Hispanic education that would improve
academic achievement and attract even more under-performing students.

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba/ba602/

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