Getting Serious About Improving Hispanic Children's Chances

[Harold Schiffman]

Getting Serious About Improving Hispanic Children's Chances

Lisa Guernsey -
April 23, 2009 - 9:50am

Hispanic children are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United
States, yet they are doing worse in school than any of their peers.
They need urgent attention, says a new Social Policy Report from the
Society of Research in Child Development, which recommends many steps
to be taken by government, educational and community organizations.

Two of the boldest calls to action are to:

Establish and strengthen dual-language programs, which have been shown
in recent studies to be more effective than English-only programs at
bridging achievement gaps for Hispanic children.
Provide more pre-kindergarten programs to Hispanic children, who have
been shown in some studies to be less likely to attend preschool.

The report, which was written by Eugene Garcia and Bryant Jensen of
Arizona State University, is summarized in a helpful policy brief.
Here's an excerpt, outlining recommendations on the federal and state
levels:

The federal government should:

Develop, evaluate, and expand programs to raise the number of
preschool and early elementary teachers proficient in English and
Spanish
Develop, evaluate, and expand programs to recruit Spanish speakers
trained to teach students a second language to work as classroom
language specialists
Expand dual-language programs through Head Start, Early Head Start,
and other federal programs
Expand national and international databases that assess students’
academic performance
State governments should:

Collaborate with local communities to offer high-quality educational
experiences at different times of the day and week to meet families’
scheduling needs
Provide Hispanic 3- and 4-year-olds access to free, state-funded,
high-quality preschool programs
Give qualified preschool teachers pay and benefits equal to public
school teachers
Establish information systems for districts and state education
departments to 1) learn more about students’ race/ethnicity, parents’
education, family income, immigrant generation status, national
origin, and primary language spoken at home, 2) monitor the academic
progress of different groups of students, and 3) gauge policies’ and
programs’ effectiveness over time

http://www.newamerica.net/blog/early-ed-watch/2009/getting-serious-about-improving-hispanic-childrens-chances-school-11178
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