PROVIDENCE -- The profile of the typical high school graduate is
changing. No longer is that student white and from a working- or
middle-class background.
Increasingly, the American public high school will be dominated by
minority students, especially Hispanics, many of whom have limited
English language skills.
Although the number of Hispanic high school students in Rhode Island is
expected to grow by leaps and bounds during the next decade, the number
of those students who actually graduate is proportionally much smaller.
Nationally, the graduation rate for Hispanic students is 63 percent,
with only 38 percent attending college. Compare that to white students,
of whom 86 percent graduate from high school and 63 percent go on to
college.
What are the implications of this striking demographic shift for high
schools and colleges?
At the secondary level, it means that high schools, especially urban
ones, will have to do a much better job of explaining why higher
education is important.
"Many of our kids don't know why they should go to college," said
Central Falls Supt. Maureen Chevrette at yesterday's conference, The
Future of Higher Education in Rhode Island. "They really didn't have a
good understanding of the kinds of employment available to them with a
college degree."
In Central Falls, three-fourths of the students are minorities,
one-third receive English language instruction and over one-third need
special education services.
The district illustrates the kinds of barriers that many disadvantaged
students face as they contemplate going to college.
When asked, Chevrette's students said that money was the biggest
obstacle preventing them from attending college.
And yet a college education should be affordable for most needy
students, according to James Hanbury, director of financial aid at Rhode
Island College. The typical Pell grant, which will increase next year,
will more than cover RIC's tuition and fees.
Many foreign-born students, however, lack a full understanding of the
richness of the college experience, from living with one's peers to
pursuing a subject in depth.
The public schools, Chevrette said, must start talking to students and
their parents in elementary school, when attitudes toward higher
education begin to form.
In some cultures, college is not considered a valuable option,
especially for females, Chevrette said, and schools have to work with
families to counter that perception.
Minority students are in the majority at Central Falls High School, yet
the teachers are overwhelmingly white. These teenagers need role models
who not only look like them but who can help them explore a much larger
world of career options.
Finally, students who speak a second language should be rewarded for
that ability, not penalized.
Chevrette said one of her seniors, a straight-A student from Venezuela,
was denied admission to a local public college because she had only
taken one year of regular English.
"There is a mismatch between what colleges require and what high schools
require," she said.
Mary Sylvia Harrison, director of the Rhode Island Children's Crusade
for Higher Education, said parents have to demand that high schools
rethink the way they educate children to reflect the needs of the new
economy, one that requires analytical thinking, the ability to work in
teams and the capacity to acquire new skills.
"We haven't asked ourselves, 'Why are we using such an obsolete model of
high school?' " she said. "How many times do we ask our customers, the
students, about what they want?" The Rhode Island Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education is nearing the end of a two-year
study on how high schools should be reformed.
