(NAME-MCE) Helping Latinas Succeed in School: How Schools Can Address Barriers to High School Graduation

[Anselmo Villanueva]

Helping Latinas Succeed in School: How Schools Can Address Barriers to High
School Graduation

Information:

http://www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=3631&section=education

http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/FactSheetforSchools.pdf

Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation  To help keep girls
in school and on track for success, the National Women’s Law Center and the
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund went straight to the
source: Latina students and the adults who work with them every day. Our new
report, Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation, explores
the causes of the dropout crisis for Latinas and identifies the actions
needed to improve their graduation rates and get them ready for college.

Latinas are dropping out of school in alarming numbers. Forty-one percent of
Latina students do not graduate with their class in four years—if they
graduate at all. Many Latina students face challenges related to poverty,
immigration status, limited English proficiency, and damaging gender and
ethnic stereotypes. And the high teen pregnancy rate for Latinas — the
highest of any ethnic group — reflects and reinforces the barriers they
face.