Futures At Risk: The Story of Latino Student Achievement in California, 2010

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The educational success of Latino students is critical to the prosperity and vitality of California and the nation. The state has more than three million Latino students in its classrooms, accounting for roughly half of all the children in our public schools. Put in the larger national context, there are more Latino students in California than the total student population in each of the 48 other states. By 2020, Latinos are projected to be California’s majority population. Yet California’s education system has not served Latino students well—particularly those from low-income families.

Latinos are more likely than their white and more affluent peers to receive less of everything we know matters most in education—from highly effective teachers to a rigorous curriculum. Latino students are disproportionately taught by out-of-field teachers,1 and a culture of low expectations and dismal performance often plague the schools they attend.

As a result, three-quarters of the students in the state’s lowest 30 percent of schools are Latino. And only 15 percent of Latino students attend the top 30 percent of California schools. It is not surprising, then, that large and persistent gaps exist between Latino students and their white peers on every measurable benchmark of learning and achievement.

From the earliest grades, Latino students struggle to achieve proficiency in English and math. By middle and high school, these performance levels tend to decline. Even more disheartening, the achievement gaps between white and Latino students have remained largely unchanged over the last decade.