Promoting the Success of Latino Language-Minority Students: An Exploratory Study of Six High Schools

Abstract

For the growing numbers of Latino students in U. S. secondary schools, academic success has been elusive. Poor attendance records, low test scores, high drop-out rates, and small numbers going on to college all bear witness to schools' failure to meet their needs. But some secondary schools are providing an environment in which language-minority students and others can achieve academic success. In this article Tamara Lucas, Rosemary Henze, and Rubén Donato report on an exploratory study of six such schools in California and Arizona,and describe the key features they found to be integral to these schools' success. By focusing on broad issues of schooling in secondary schools with large populations of language-minority students, the authors extend existing research on effective schooling,which until now has focused primarily on urban elementary schools in low-income neighborhoods. They also offer suggestions and a sense of possibility to educators seeking an effective response to the secondary education of language-minority students.