Admit it, LA’s Latino Students Still have a Long Way to Go

LATINO PERSPECTIVE--It’s now a fact that Latinos, have surpassed non-Latino whites to become California's largest ethnic group. American Latinos are gaining clout and power in our state. Assembly member Anthony Rendon  (D-Lakewood) has been selected to be the next state Assembly speaker. When Rendon takes power in 2016, both houses of the California Legislature will be for the first time led by Latinos. Senate pro Tempore Kevin De León his counterpart in the Senate, can stay in office until 2018. 

This is huge but if American Latinos want a bright future we have to make sure that our students get the education they need and deserve. 

It’s true that for over ten years educators in the state and Los Angeles have focused on helping black and Latino students perform as well in school as their white and Asia peers, calling the issue a social and economic imperative. 

Based on a Los Angeles Times analysis of results from new state tests given this year in California the gap in academic achievement between different ethnicities and family income levels is worse than previously reported. 

While fewer students in all ethnic groups hit academic targets on the new test, blacks and Latinos dropped more than Asians and whites did. 

Asian students' results dropped the least on the new tests, which widened the gap between them and those who are white, black or Latino, the analysis showed. 

White students maintained higher relative scores than their black and Latino peers. 

“There’s a problem and it’s not, per se, the test,” said Bill Lucia, of the Sacramento-based advocacy group EdVoice. “There is something going on here when you talk about the difference in the size of the gap, particularly in math.” 

In that subject, 69% of Asian students achieved the state targets compared with 49% of whites, 21% of Latinos and 16% of blacks. 

State officials have warned against making comparisons between the old and new tests, which are different in form and content. 

L.A. Board of Education President Steve Zimmer said the results need to be carefully interpreted, and that a variety of factors could have affected the scores, particularly in the fist year of a test. 

We need to figure out a way of narrowing the achievement gap, and I agree with Maria Brenes, executive director of InnerCity Struggle, a nonprofit that works with schools east of downtown, which have mostly Latino students,  “LA Unified should invest more in technology, teacher training and parent education about the new learning goals.” 

We all need to pull together Latinos, Asians, whites, blacks. After all we’re all Americans, and our future depends on how well we prepare all students to face the challenges ahead.

 

(Fred Mariscal came to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 1992 to study at the University of Southern California and has been in LA ever since. He is a community leader who serves as Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition and sits on the board of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council representing Larchmont Village.  He was a candidate for Los Angeles City Council in District 4. Fred writes Latino Perspective for CityWatch and can be reached at: [email protected] )

-cw

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 13 Issue 75

Pub: Sep 15, 2015