Hispanic K-12 Students in the United States Public School System: Why are they Disproportionately Underachieving in School?
Author
Corona Gonzalez, Eduardo
Subject
Washington and Lee University -- Capstone in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Immigrants -- Education
Limited English-proficient students
English language -- Study and teaching -- Foreign speakers
United States
Metadata
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Capstone; [FULL-TEXT FREELY AVAILABLE ONLINE] Eduardo Corona Gonzalez is a member of the Class of 2019 of Washington and Lee University. Hispanic students account for 22% of all people enrolled in school in the United States and, on average, these students are significantly educationally underachieving compared to their white peers in every academic measure. One of the main reasons that they are falling behind in school is that many of them do not speak English fluently and the U.S. public school system is not adequately accommodating their needs as English Language Learners (ELL). Through increased and more strategic funding at the federal, state, and local level aimed at ELL students, this achievement gap can be shrunk. The issue of Hispanic student underachievement is an issue that demands policy makers' attention in increasing funding and establishing effective funding models that can allow every American school to provide its' Hispanic students the opportunity to attend college and contribute to the United States' educated and diverse work force.