Research Blog 14

Toppo, Greg. "Hispanic Students Aspire To Higher Education But Face Barriers." USA Today. Gannett, 9 Oct. 2009. Web. 07 Apr. 2012. <http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-07-hispanic-college_N.htm>.

 

The reading that I found on USA Today is about the barriers that Hispanic students face when it comes to education. It gives a few statistics, and the major reason why students don’t continue to pursue an education is because of the need to support family.

Greg Toppo is the author of the article and he graduated from St. John’s College. He is hired as the national K-12 education reporter for USA Today. So because he has done a lot of research about school and the system I feel like he’s a very knowledgeable person to write about this article.

                                                         

This article really does not have any key terms or concepts that it talks about. Its very straightforward with the statistics about why Latinos don’t pursue a degree, and of those that do pursue it how much actually complete it.

“Many Hispanic students settle for pursuing a two-year degree at a community college, but only about one in 10 eventually earn one.” (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-07-hispanic-college_N.htm)

This really helps me with my paper and interests me because I know that many families encourage community college for practical reasons but the chances of success are clearly very slim. 

“…[M]any Hispanic families "tend to be more debt-averse," students are reluctant to take on heavy loan debt — instead, she says, many take on part-time jobs, which makes it harder to succeed in class.” (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-07-hispanic-college_N.htm). This is something that can also be looked at. This is very true I know personally I have to maintain a job in order to help pay for school and I have totally noticed a decrease in my grades.

“Nearly nine in 10 Hispanics say it's "necessary" to get a college education to get ahead in life — more than any other ethnic or racial group in the USA.” (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-07-hispanic-college_N.htm) This is a very astonishing statistic because the actual reality of it is that Hispanics have such a low rate of success. This statement is a great point for me to start discussing the barriers that Latinos face.

All of these statistics are very important to my paper. Statistics really can form a picture to the reader and I think that this is so important.  I really do believe this paper will be of great help to me.