High School District Essay

The recent studies have shown that trend on school drop out is increasing every year. This is rampant drop out of young youths is becoming an alarming issues especially for students in their secondary schools and those enrolled in higher educations institutions. The rate of school drop out is varied between ethnic groups. For instance, it has become overt in the American research that the number of Hispanic students that do not complete their studies is much greater than that the number of the Caucasians. Generally, there is lot evidence which shows that score of Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and some Asian American rare graduates from secondary schools. Numerous reasons for school drop out have been put into consideration. (Velez, 1989) However, dropout from school is an issue which is the overall resultant of the society together with the institution/ organizations failure to perform satisfactorily of their assignments. This disparity in drop out rate displayed by various ethnic groups of has been an issue of major concern which has brought a lot of controversies in many research studies. Drop out from schools is attributed to several factors which may affect the communities differently. These factors are evident in studying them independently in different ethnic groups. The Impacts of such factor are well established as primary contributors to students’ drop out. These contributing factors include education and workforce preparation, health and safety, poverty as well as family structure. According to the research study, these factors have contributed variously to the dropout rate on Hispanic students as well as for the Caucasians, but there the overall results shows that Hispanics are much affected than the Caucasians. (Thornton-Little, 1996) Education and workforce preparation Although education systems in the kern count high district schools are the same, there are numerous ways in which the education systems do not satisfy or favor the retention of Hispanics in the systems. There are numerous challenges based on the education systems which face Hispanic students more than the Caucasians. Hispanics are much affected on the ways on gaining knowledge necessary for their success. This can be seen in the fact that most of the Hispanics lack preschool service for their young children unlike Caucasians who can access such services. Moreover, most of the Caucasians have better foundation not only on education ground but also the are much advantaged by have post studies services after school, hence they can continue studying at home areas. According to the curriculum of the kern count high school districts, the language which is officially provided on the teaching system is basically in English especially in the district schools. One factor of fundamental is that the school curriculum in the region has indirectly and directly disfavored the Hispanics. According to the curriculum set up, the education systems have set hierarchical system of the education institutions. Through this kind of set up, the Hispanics get marginalized more than the Caucasians. Several studies have shown that schools which have Hispanic students as the majority population have experienced a lot of problems based on management and financing. Most of the district high school whose population is dominated by Hispanic students has frequent straining due to inadequate funding. Inadequate funding on schools limits the school management on the purchase of essential facilities requirement to facilitate the understanding of the course being taught. In addition, marginalization of highly populated schools by Hispanics is well portrayed by having unqualified teachers. Despites the low qualification of the teachers in such school, the ratio of teacher to students is very high which is an indication of inadequate number of teaching staffs. Due to the marginalization of the learning institutions with dominant number of the Hispanic students, the formulated policies such as no child is left behind would be proven as ineffective as other previous policies. The integral results of this marginalized institutions is that there is no satisfaction of the students. The low level of English language understanding by the Hispanics together with the marginalization of the school has consequently resulted to low academic achievement. The low academic achievement on the students translates to the high rates of drop out among the Hispanics more than the Caucasians. (Brice-Heath, 1983) Since the establishment education system, education has played very vital role in the preparation of the individuals for job. Education is viewed as basic on imparting knowledge which is necessary for the well paid jobs. Therefore, there is very close relation on the kind of jobs which are done by those persons with the necessary knowledge on a particular work. While teaching language is very fundamental on imparting knowledge on particular job skill, most Hispanic students finds it difficulty on grasping the concepts which are passed on English language. For most of the Caucasians students, they experience easy time on learning such skill in English language rather than in any other language. This is because they are native speakers of English and therefore are have much understanding of its usage than the Hispanics. This encourages and makes them to get on and cope well with the education tracks. (Brooks-Gunn and Pamela, 1996) Employment opportunities do consider certain qualities of the incumbents who apply for jobs. One key factor quality which is often considered in job employment is the ability to communicate both to fellow workforce as well as customers of the firm. English language which is a factor of paramount in job offer, it acts as barring and discouraging factor for the Hispanics. The Hispanic students find it hard in getting a job due to lack of English proficiency. This is a mandatory requirement for job security for the Hispanics who are non-English speakers while on the other side the Caucasian who are mostly English speakers are given an advantage by excluding such requirement. The Hispanics students therefore feel and perceive that this in unfair to them and they therefore term it as job and employment discrimination. According to some research studies on the employment of the Hispanics, the Hispanics students who are immigrants has the perception that the job market has taken the English deficiency to their advantage while punishing them by offering them low wages and salaries. While there is rationality on the argument about the language deficiency among the Hispanics, there is general conclusion that the Hispanics leaves the schooling system due to unsatisfying services offer to the students. This makes them to be not well prepared for their future job and career, as a great number of the Hispanic graduates are grouped as â€Å"not well† or â€Å"not all† English proficient. According to employers and the general understanding of the importance of language fluency, lack of language fluency leads to poor coordination of all organization activities. Thus, the handicaps of English speakers have limited number of the people they communicate to as workers. The handicapped Hispanics in English language are thus not prone to reduce job opportunities but they also have to cope with work environment which is harsh in nature. Furthermore, the low prepared Hispanics for job are exposed to the job market which offers them little chance of climbing the ladder for better opportunities which has better work environment as well as being well paid. (Ogbu, 1995), Adolescents risk taking Adolescence stage poses numerous challenges to the young youths. Despite the increasing population of the Hispanics in the region, there is still little concern over the academic achievement. Adolescence brings a lot of changes to the individuals’ behavior and therefore there is risk of letting the adolescent to get swayed from the education system. Though there is devotion of encouraging and maintaining the Hispanic students on the track of education, drop out from school at secondary level in hiked by the behavior adopted by the adolescents. The Hispanics are at more risk of dropping out from school as both male and female youths lack the essential foundation to have the sense of self esteem. According to the numerous studies which are revealed from different fields such as social and sociological studies, scores of Hispanics are involved in risky behavior which may lead termination of their education studies. According to Alva, Hispanics female students in district schools have average lower degree of self esteem which translates to undesirable academic results. This implies that a change must be instituted on their behavior to improve their education performances. Many have pointed out that high performance on grade and tests give an encouragement and aspiration to the student making them to keep on the education tracks. (Thornton-Little, 1996) Hispanics and Caucasians students are both faced with challenges drug and substance use in their schooling process. The use such prohibited substances are highly encouraged due to pressures and stresses arising from studies, families and general society. In most cases, they serve as means of coping with worse social environment. Comparing the situation of Hispanics with those of the Caucasians, it is evident that Hispanics have a lot stressful life than Caucasians. The increase in drug abuse among the Hispanics is another key factor which transforms to higher school dropout as such substance has great correlation on violent behavior unacceptable in school institution. (Sharon Boles, 1994) Hispanic female students get into risky and eroding behavior more than the Caucasians. This is well indicated from the point whereby the number of female students that get into relationships with their male counterparts end up pregnant. This shows that they have little awareness of involving into such risky behavior while are still in the course schooling. This not only ends up with most of the students being alienated by their friends but they also get alienated by the school institutions. Even though the opportunity of school continuation may be offered in future, this leads to development of immense stress on the individual hence the denial of furthering their studies. Thus, misbehaving and other disciplinary matters are depicted to be higher among the Hispanics than in the Caucasians. (Thornton-Little, 1996) Though the law of the U. S prohibits the child labor, the U. S labor market is anticipated to have estimated children as employed workers of 5 million. The foundation of the law on child labors is basically founded on the risks which are involved in the job markets. Therefore, while most of the school dropouts go out to search for jobs, they are employed mostly on workplaces where they have little knowledge of the risks involved. While most of the high school dropouts are aged between 12 and 17, they are offered jobs illegally according to the child law. The dropout rate of the Hispanics being the leading in comparison with that of the Caucasians, this means that the Hispanic adolescents are high risk takers. Family Structure Most families in the Hispanics have been categorized to have the old type family structure. Students and their families show strong hold on the extended family kinship. Due to the maintenance of the oldest systems of families, they impact of teaching of the ancient culture which increases the rate of marriages and reduces the habit of divorce. Thus most of the Hispanic students are brought up in families with both parents. This setting of family structure is viewed to offer better parenthoods to their children as compared to singled parents. In addition to offering better parent care to their children, they also help in maintaining attitudes that reduces the risk behavior that may lead to school dropout. The families of most Hispanics are composed of couples from the same ethnics groups, while in the Caucasians; there is some inter-marriage from different ethnics groups. This discourages the teaching of particular culture in the families of the Caucasians which final enhance the promotion education rather than ethnic cultures. Lack of intermarrying among the Hispanics gives them encouraging cultural languages has lead to difficulties in advice the students on academic matters. This is because, while the family couples do not the necessarily understand of the language, they do not encourage their children in learning the English language. (Chao, 1994) Health and safety The health status of the community is highly depended on the education and the vice versa. According to the education level, most Hispanics are illiterate and they therefore experience certain barriers concerning health services. One of main barrier which is depicted as lead to persistent poor healthy services is language. The Hispanics have well developed culture which is geared towards conserving their language. As result of this conservative nature of their language as their culture, most of the Hispanics do not receive the necessary health service both on personal level of education services and counseling as well as in the doctor treatment. Because of language barrier among the Hispanics, preventive measures are rarely achieved in the Hispanics than in the Caucasians. Language barrier makes the healthcare givers to delivery under-standardized services to the Hispanics. During the year of 2002, Hispanics were found to be 1. 5 time likely to access healthy services at severe illness or late stage sickness. (Sharon Boles, 1994) Hispanics’ limited access to healthy services has made them vulnerable to numerous ailments than the Caucasians community. Due to lack of the necessary information, ailments which are caused by bad eating habits are eminent among the Hispanics. Those they are caused by unethical eating practices, they have been of paramount importance concerning the education of Hispanics. They are diseases which are usually persistent and permanent, hence, the patients has to cope with the diseases for rest of their life. These diseases include mostly heart diseases, diabetes and cancer which general lowers the quality of life. As results of the high level of such disease infection among the Hispanics, most students also terminate their education due to deteriorated lives. (Ogbu, 1995) When sickness becomes persistence and permanent in a family, the treatment process has both psychological effects such as stress and pressure. The psychological stress, which is likely to develop in family members and those close relatives of the patients have negative effects on student academic performances. Moreover, persistent ailments affects the families financially depleting them their wealthy hence making them impoverished. This affects the Hispanics’ family ability to cater for the cost of education for their children more than the Caucasians. Poverty levels Hispanics have low job opportunities availability. This makes most of the Hispanics live as unemployed persons. The Hispanic employees are give the harsh jobs which are contrary low paid. The means that most of the Caucasians are favored in job opportunity chances, thus they end up being preferred for most skilled jobs and jobs that are well paid. While academic performance is closely linked to job opportunities, numerous Hispanic parents are employed as unskilled laborers, an indication that they have low incomes. Reference: Brice-Heath, S. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press Brooks-Gunn, J. and Pamela, (1996), Ethnic differences in children’s intelligence test scores: Role of economic deprivation, home environment, and material characteristics. Child Development, 67, 390-407. Chao, R. (1994). Beyond parental control and authoritarian parenting style: understanding Chinese parenting through the cultural notion of training. Child Development, 65, 1109-1116 Ogbu, J. (1995), Cultural problems in minority education: The interpretations and consequences. 27, 188-204 Sharon Boles, J. (1994): Alcohol and Other Drug Use Patterns among Mexican-American, Mexican, and Caucasian Adolescents: Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Vol. 23, 78-102 Thornton-Little, B. (1996): The Effect of Pregnancy on the Dropout Rate of Female High School Students. Velez, W. (1989), High school attrition among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic white youths, Sociology of Education, 62, 117-120