Gándara, Patricia & Contreras, Frances. (2009). The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies. Reviewed by Billie Gastic, University of Massachusetts, Boston

Gándara, Patricia & Contreras, Frances. (2009). The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press Pp. 415         ISBN 978-0-674-03127-2 Reviewed by Billie Gastic University of Massachusetts, Boston August 17, 2009 We are on the cusp of a national emergency. Although evidence of the Latino educational crisis has been widely known for years, never before has the problem been so acute. Latinos are now the fastest growing and youngest minority population in the U.S. This rapid population growth has amplified what once could be narrowly characterized as community-based educational inequality to a crisis that has potentially devastating implications for the economic, social and political lives of all Americans. In The Latino Education Crisis: The Consequences of Failed Social Policies, Gándara and Contreras review the research on the Latino educational crisis and present specific policy recommendations aimed at improving educational quality. While the descriptive focus of the book is Latino student underachievement, Gándara and Contreras are deliberate in reminding readers throughout the volume that there are large numbers of very successful Latino students, who excel in school and go on to graduate from high school and college and earn graduate degrees. The authors actively reject any over-generalizations about the Latino community and portray the cultural, linguistic, regional and socioeconomic diversity of the Latino student population throughout the book. Gándara and Contreras acknowledge the academic talent in the Latino community and seek to learn from the trajectories of the most academically successful students how to better meet the needs of other students. The early chapters (A Call to Action, The Crisis and the Context) depict Latino underachievement across multiple dimensions, including math and English proficiency, grade point average (GPA), high dropout rates and Bachelors degree conferral. These chapters are highly notated and are replete with the latest research on the education of Latinos in the U.S. Additional data tables are also available in the Appendix. The authors briefly mention the distinct trends for Latinas and Latinos, noting that Latino males tend to underperform when compared to Latinas. In fact, the so-called “boy crisis” of underachievement is largely attributable to sex-differentiated trends in achievement among Latino and African American youth (Mead, 2006). Given the prominence of these sex-based disparities, the minimal attention paid to the topic in this volume was disappointing and the most notable gap in the book’s coverage. Gándaraand Contreras are critical of the common indictment of schools as the sole or primary cause of Latino underachievement and describe such characterizations as unfair. Instead, they describe the Latino educational crisis as highly intertwined with other policy issues such as immigration, English-only legislation and affirmative action. In Chapters 2 and 3 (On Being Latino or Latina in America, American Schools and the Latino Student Experience), the authors continue to pursue the influences of other contexts as well, namely the social and school contexts that Latino students often experience. Poverty is among the most significant risk factor for many Latino students. More than 31% of Latino children under the age of six live in poverty (p. 60). However, poverty only does not fully explain the Latino educational crisis. Also critical are children’s developmental needs (i.e., mental health, identity development), neighborhood conditions (i.e., housing segregation, peer support for achievement) and family conditions (i.e., socioeconomic status, structure, cultural and social capital, mobility). Most of the schooling conditions that Gándara and Contreras describe that affect the underachievement of Latino students also have implications for other student populations who find themselves in under-resourced schools that have difficulty meeting their educational needs. The authors highlight research that has linked Latino student underachievement to school resources, school climate and school peers. Latino students disproportionately attend schools that are unsafe and have poor facilities, limited technological resources and few opportunities for extracurricular involvement. Many Latino students also attend highly segregated, or majority-minority, schools. They are also subject to intra-school segregation, in the form of curricular tracking, which limits Latino students’ ability to take college preparatory courses and be eligible for college admission. These schools are often in desperate need of well-prepared teachers, particularly those who have been trained to teach English Language Learners (ELLs). The role of language instruction and related policy on Latino underachievement is addressed throughout the book and but is the sole topic of Chapter 4 (Is Language the Problem?). Gándara and Contreras discuss how politics and anti-immigrant feelings, rather than pedagogy, have shaped the prevailing approaches to the education of ELLs in the U.S. This chapter details many of the legal decisions that have shaped the trajectory that second-language instruction has taken in the U.S. Various approaches to second-language instruction and the relative merits and motivations of each are also compared and contrasted. Gándara and Contreras describe the particular challenges that have arisen in the accountability measures (e.g., standardized testing) most recently enacted under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). For example, they take issue with the current definition of English proficiency, which they assert is narrow, and which dictates what content is tested and taught. Gándara and Contreras argue that bilingualism and biculturalism (referred to as the “Latino advantage”) should be the goal for all students in the U.S. – no matter their native language. They also argue that the heated disputes over second-language instruction have obscured the more important issue and, …that ultimately the biggest problem for Latino students in the schools is and was the inequitable education they receive, regardless of the type of language program offered (p. 149). The authors are also critical of how research and evaluation funds have been spent on bilingual education. They argue that these studies have been driven by the wrong questions – specifically, which programs are most effective – without asking for whom and under what conditions or considering what the goals of instruction are. Instead, Gándara and Contreras argue that attention should be paid on understanding what the best practices are when it comes to the education of ELLs and how to train teachers to apply these techniques in the classroom. In Chapter 5, Inside the Lives of Puente Students, the authors turn their focus to the experiences of six Latino students who participated in a college access program called Puente that is active in 36 high schools in California. The research described in this chapter comes from a larger longitudinal study, the aim of which was to understand how the Puente students made decisions about school and college. The reflections and testimonies of these students describe the challenges that many Latino students face. The stories of these young people powerfully underscore the findings of other research studies: the educational trajectories of too many Latino students are interrupted or derailed for varied reasons and at different stages. To Gándara and Contreras, these students’ accounts are also evidence of the fallacy of the assumption that only academically “at-risk” students are in need of intervention. All Latino students, even those that are excelling academically, can benefit from supportive mentorship and guidance. Much can be learned from the experiences of Latinos who have been academically successful. In Chapter 6 (Beating the Odds and Going to College), the authors describe those characteristics and circumstances that set such students apart from less successful peers. These attributes, …provide a context for achievement and engagement in school, and serve as the foundation for the motivation, persistence, and resilience of those Latino students who beat the odds and transition to higher education (p. 197). The distinguishing factors include students’ social background, language use, aspirations, choice of friendship groups, adult support, involvement in extracurricular activities, the kind the school attended, self-concept as learners and the availability of financial aid for higher education. Successful Latino students are more likely than not to be monolingual (English only), come from better-resourced families and have highly educated parents who cultivated their literacy skills early. At school, they have higher GPAs, have taken more Honors and Advanced Placement courses and participate in more extracurricular activities than their less academically successful peers. They also have adult and peer support for their academic pursuits and have participated in enrichment or other kinds of programs offered at school or in the community. A handful of such programs are profiled in Chapter 7 (The Costs and Effectiveness of Intervention). Gándara and Contreras provide an overview of the features and associated costs of several intervention programs for which they determine exists sufficient evidence of their effectiveness, especially for Latino students. The following programs are described in detail (listed from Pre-K-16): Abecedarian Project, Head Start, Success for All, Project GRAD, ALAS (Achievement for Latinos through Academic Success), I Have a Dream, Posse, Puente, Upward Bound and AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination). In general, Gándara and Contreras find that successful college access programs include counseling, academic enrichment, personal and cultural support, mentoring, scholarships and parental involvement. Gándara and Contreras conclude this volume with a hopeful but determined message. In the final chapter, RescatandoSueños – Rescuing Dreams, the authors state: We believe that the research on education and achievement yields seven areas in which public policy that acknowledges the interlocking nature of schools and communities can change the course of academic achievement for Latino students, and all of these are within our grasp (p. 307). Better health care and access to social services are essential. The authors also make the case for subsidized pre-school programs and housing policies that aim to reduce neighborhood segregation and the mobility of families. Gándara and Contreras call for efforts to recruit more Latinos to the teaching profession and to better prepare and support teachers, especially those who teach low-income students and ELLs, in the provision of effective and high-quality instruction. Other recommendations are immigration policy reform, support for dual language instruction, dropout prevention and college access programs, and increased financial aid for higher education. Reducing educational disparities is critical to our nation’s future, success and well-being. Addressing the Latino educational crisis is one important step toward that goal. Along with an explication of the myriad social, political and economic benefits of increasing the level and quality of education received by all students, Gándara and Contreras provide a final and compelling rationale for the reduction of the Latino achievement gap: We should do this because we have a moral imperative to match our actions to our rhetoric, and because ultimately, it will be good for the soul of America (p. 333). Reference Mead, S. (2006). The truth about boys and girls. Washington, DC: Education Sector. About the Authors Professor Gándara is co-director of The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA. Her research focuses on educational equity and access for low income and ethnic minority students, language policy, and the education of Mexican origin youth. She has just completed a study (with R. Rumberger) entitled Resource Needs for California's English Learners, as part of the statewide adequacy project funded by four major foundations. She is the author of numerous articles and several books, including the forthcoming,Understanding the Latino Education Gap, Why Latinos Don't Go to College, with Harvard University Press. Ph.D., Educational Psychology, UCLA, 1979. Dr. Frances E. Contreras is a University of Washington Assistant Professor in Education Leadership and Policy Studies. Dr. Contreras presently researches issues of equity and access for underrepresented students in the education pipeline. She addresses transitions between K-12 and higher education, community college transfer, faculty diversity, affirmative action in higher education, and the role of the public policy arena in higher education access for underserved students of color. Dr. Contreras received her Ph.D. from Stanford University, Master of Education from Harvard University and B.A. from University of California, Berkeley. About the Reviewer Billie Gastic, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Public Affairs at University of Massachusetts Boston. She is also a Research Associate at the Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy. Her research focuses on school violence, educational policy and the education of Latinas and Latinos in the U.S.