Voices from the pipeline: high school completion among rural Latinos

Journal of Cultural Diversity, Summer, 2003 by Mary D. Lagerwey, Elizabeth Phillips, Kathi Fuller

Dropping out of high school is not an isolated event, but rather the final step in a process of student disengagement or withdrawal from school. Existing theories of school dropout suggest that factors such as educational and general attitudes, early and recent school performance, and academic and social behaviors influence the process of student disengagement. Both social and educational engagement influences a student s decision to remain in or leave school (Rumberger & Larson, 1998).

Unexpectedly, several factors were absent in these stories. While the interviews were held with youth groups at area Latino Roman Catholic Churches, none of the interviewees specifically mentioned ways in which religious factors or personal beliefs supported or challenged high school completion. None of the subjects cited role models who experienced educational success beyond high school.

Limitations

There are limitations to the study that impact generalizability. The most significant was sample selection and size. All three interviews took place at Spanish speaking Roman Catholic Churches. Thus, teens not affiliated with these churches were not assessed. Twenty-five of the 29 participants were in school. While these students identified knowing students who had dropped out of school this was not their experience. Interviews with students who have dropped out of high school could provide further valuable insight regarding this issue. Aspects of data collection may have had an impact on study results. Some of the richness of the data may have been lost owing to the inability to audiotape the interviews. Also parental attendance at the interviews may have shaped some responses.

Application

Since data collection and analysis have been completed, researchers have met with subjects, their parents, and community leaders to explore how study results could be used to plan interventions that support high school completion. The results of the interviews support multi-level interventions to aid Latino youth in Southwest Michigan in completing high school. Parents requested assistance in helping their children address challenges to graduation. Helping Latino families develop advocacy skills enables them to will support their children in reframing difficulties as challenges to be overcome. Although there were relatively few comments about peers, it is clear that patterns of skipping school, abusing drugs, and joining gangs must be addressed for Latino youth to succeed in school.

Interventions to increase Latino representation in nursing must begin long before college, work to increase the pool of applicants for health careers, and include, support for successfully completing middle and high school. Supporting Latino students in high school completion is a necessary prerequisite to increasing their numbers in nursing. While group interviews and narrative analysis do not give unmediated access to factors predictive of high school completion, local intervention to this end must be predicated on local knowledge, of which narratives offer unique glimpses into minorities' understandings of their own experiences.