Latino High School Graduation Defying the Odds

Summary: "The authors focus on stories of 'students who graduate from high school against the odds'--especially gratifying since Hispanic youth drop out at about twice the rate of non-Hispanic whites. Romo and Falbo emphasize strategies the students, their parents, and the schools used to achieve graduation. . . . The longitudinal data and combination of qualitative and quantitative data strengthen the study and give it signi...ficance." -- Choice "This book ...tells stories about Hispanic community life, family life, gang life, and about what it means to be an at-risk kid trying to make it.... I have yet to read a similar book attempting this magnitude of diversity with the skill found here." --Nestor RodrÍguez, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Houston While high school drop-out rates have steadily declined among white and African American students over the last twenty years, a constant 35 percent of Latino students continue to quit school before graduation. In this pioneering work, Harriett Romo and Toni Falbo reveal how a group of at-risk Latino students defied the odds and earned a high school diploma. Romo and Falbo tracked the progress of 100 students in Austin, Texas, from 1989 to 1993. Drawing on interviews with the students and their parents, school records, and fieldwork in the schools and communities, the authors identify both the obstacles that caused many students to drop out and the successful strategies that other students and their parents pursued to ensure high school graduation. The authors conclude with seven far-reaching recommendations for changes in the public schools. Sure to provoke debate among all school constituencies, this book will be required reading for school administrators, teachers, parents, legislators, and community leaders. [read more]