Substantial numbers of Hispanic Americans cannot complete school or compete effectively for jobs because of less than adequate literacy in English. Before anything can be done about this, our definitions of literacy and illiteracy need to be reworked. The conventional definition of literacy as the completion of fifth grade ignores the changing…

This paper outlines developments in the segregation of Hispanics in public schools. It begins with a review of Gary Orfield's study, "Desegregation of Black and Hispanic Students from 1968 to 1980." Orfield determined that during the last decade Hispanics have been increasingly segregated in public schools, and are currently even more…

Despite the pervasive and consistent pattern of undereducation for Hispanics and their rapid growth as a proportion of the school population, there is a dearth of appropriate preventive and remedial programs to address their special needs. This report provides an overview of the educational status of Hispanics and notes the implications of the…

This paper reports on the effects of the Education Block Grant, created as Chapter 2 of the Education Consolidation Improvement Act (ECIA) in 1981. Special focus is given to the availability of information about the way its funds are applied at public schools within the Hispanic community. An introduction argues for the right and responsibility of…

This paper focuses on the dropout rate of Hispanic students and provides an overview of dropout programs developed by Hispanic community-based organizations (CBOs). First, the paper documents the disproportionately high percentage of Hispanic dropouts, and considers the way in which school districts compile and report dropout statistics. Next,…

This paper presents recent data on the education and educational status of Hispanic Americans. The focus is on participation in elementary and secondary schools, and on the factors that prevent school completion and access to higher education. All included data are footnoted by source to facilitate further research, but the primary source of…

The National Council of La Raza's position on the reauthorization of Title I of the Higher Education Act is detailed in this paper, which was presented as testimony to the House Postsecondary Education Subcommittee. The paper begins by concurring with the assessment that, as long as Title I remains a largely untargeted program which serves…

Researchers gained useful information on the state of career education programs and their effectiveness for Hispanic youth by disaggregating the data from the Educational Testing Service's 1980 Survey of Career Information Systems in Secondary Schools. Despite the limitations of the study due to small sample size, the unrepresentative number of…

This paper describes the work of the National Council of La Raza to improve education for Hispanic students and their families. It provides an overview of the council's Innovative Education Project, an effort to demonstrate and evaluate effective models for use by affiliated community-based organizations to improve educational outcomes for…

An overview of the educational and language status of Hispanic American children is presented using data from a variety of sources. The following topics are reported on: (1) enrollment in private and public schools and by age category; (2) delayed education (enrollment two years or more below expected grade level) by language characteristics and…

Statistics on the educational status of Hispanic Americans are provided in this booklet. Primary focus is placed on participation in elementary and secondary schools, and on the factors that prevent school completion and access to higher education. High dropout rates, frequent below-grade-level enrollment, and an intensification of these problems…

This guide was designed to facilitate the sharing of successful program models, curricula, and educational strategies among community-based groups and to help make the education, philanthropic, and corporate communities more aware of the wealth of resources available from Hispanic community-based organizations. The guide includes brief profiles of…

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which provides legalization to certain undocumented aliens and imposes sanctions on employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers, affects school districts in their capacity both as employers and as providers of services to children and families who may be seeking to legalize their immigration…