Untangling Competing Forces in Family- Community-School Relationships: A Case Study of Latino Student College Access Aliah Carolan-Silva, Ph.D., Visiting Research Fellow Robert Reyes Ph.D., Research Director Ruben P. Viramontez Anguiano Ph.D., Visiting Research Fellow Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning Goshen College
Research Questions • How do families, schools and communities support college access for Latino youth? What are the barriers each faces in supporting college access? • How does the socio-economic context influence families, school and community in their interactions with each other and in their ability to share responsibility for college access?
Theoretical Framework Family-School-Community Relationships • Epstein (1995): home, community, school as three spheres of student’s lives • Support of student development and achievement depends on connection between spheres • Socio-cultural processes and structures mediate ways families and communities participate and share responsibility (Auerbach 2007; Lareau 2000) • Connections depend on high levels of trust, equal voice in decision-making, shared expectations and shared understandings of the problems and solutions (Bryk and Schneider 2002, Dodd and Konzal 2002, Oakes et al. 2000) Stages of College Preparation and Access • Pre-disposition, Search and Choice • Process begins as early as middle school and continues through the end of 12 th grade • Requires access to diverse information and knowledge • Much of process assumed to be responsibility of families
Methodology Case Study Approach • Draws on data from several larger studies of college access for Latino students in Northern Indiana • Focus groups with high school students and parents in four communities • Interviews with teachers and administrators • Interviews with 20 college bound Latino youth • Interviews with 40 Latino families • Document Analysis: Newspaper articles, policy documents • Observations of school and community events
Demographics: Elkhart County U.S. Census 2000-2010 ELKHART COUNTY 197,559 2000-2010 increase: 14,766 2000-2010 percent increase 8.1% Cedartown 31,719 White 21,140 Minorities 10,579 --Hispanics (8,903) % Minorities 33.3% --% Hispanics (28.0%)
School Snapshot: Minority Student Population 1990-2010 Minority Students as % of Total Student Body 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% Indiana State Average 30.00% Cedartown Community Schools 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% Source: Indiana Accountability System for Academic Progress (ASAP)
School Snapshot: English as a New Language (ENL) Population 1991-2008 40.00% 35.00% 30.00% Limited English Students as % of Student 25.00% Body Indiana Limited English Students as % of Student 20.00% Body Cedartown Community Schools 15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Source: Indiana Accountability System for Academic Progress (ASAP)
Findings: Family, School and Community Support for Latino Student College Access Family College Access Schools Community
Family Forms of Participation Barriers to Participation • • Conversations over Economic Work schedules and participation Reality. in school activities • • Encourage children to seek Feeling unwelcomed and resources from other sources. intimidated by traditional school events. • Emphasize the importance of • children’s bilingual and bicultural Feelings of Discrimination. development • Majority of parents have not • Help children to find balance completed high school or have between family and school knowledge of the system. responsibilities • Unsure of where to find support .
School Sources of Support for College Barriers to Support Access • Focus on responding to socio- • English as a New Language economic issues rather than (ENL) coordinator supports culture/race/ethnicity Latino students and parents • Focus on language as barrier for • Individual teachers provide Latinos families and students additional support for “high potential” students • Unrealistic expectations for • Latino students in higher parental support tracks immersed in culture • Educational policy labels school as of college expectations failing as a result of increase in ENL • School provides access to students translators and has • School policy makes it difficult for translators available at school events children from Spanish-speaking homes to become college bound
Community Sources of Support for College Barriers to Support Access • • Tensions in larger community over Emerging Latino community changes in school- fueled by “failing” groups have organized culturally- school label relevant college nights at High • School and Middle School Debates about immigration create • difficult environment for Many churches support immigrant undocumented families to seek rights and provide resources to assistance Latino families • Outside of individual churches, no centralized location that serves the Latino community
Gaps in Support for Students • Individual students piece together resources from multiple sources • Students as main cultural broker for their families • Students rely on peers (particularly in higher tracks) for information and support • Documented students in higher tracks receive more support from school • Students with college potential in regular tracks and undocumented students struggle significantly more with process • Students attend colleges below their potential
Conclusion • Tensions over immigration combined with socio- economic decline impede the relationship between schools and Latino families • Attention to relationship between public definition of educational problems and community climate • Definition of problem as language and poverty ignores cultural barriers in the school and community to family participation and college access • Latino college events demonstrate potential for school-community-family partnerships when culture is considered
References Auerbach, S. (2002). "Why Do They Give the Good Classes to Some and Not to Others?" Latino Parent Narratives of Struggle in a College Access Program.” Teachers College Record 104 (7), p. 1369-1392. Bryk, A. and B. Schneider. Trust in Schools: A Core Resource for Improvement. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2002. Cabrera, A. F. & La Nasa , S. M. (2000). “Understanding the College Choice of Disadvantaged Students . ” New Directions for Institutional Research . Number 107. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Dodd, A.W. and J.L. Konzal. How Communities Build Stronger Schools: Stories, Strategies, and Promising Practices for Educating Every Child. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2002. Epstein, J. (1995) “School/Family/Community Partnerships: Caring for the Children We Share.” Phi Delta Kappan 76 , 701-712. Hoover- Dempsey, K. & H. Sandler (1997) “Why Do Parents Become Involved in Their Children’s Education?” Review of Educational Research 67 (1), 3-42. Lareau, A. (2000). Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary School . New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Information on Public Schools and School Districts in the United States , National Center for Education Statistics, Retrieved May 2010 from http://www.nces.ed.gov/ccd/. Oakes, J., K.H. Quartz, S. Ryan and M. Lipton. Becoming Good American Schools: The Struggle for Civic Virtue in Education Reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2000.
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