Parents Are Key to Latinos’ Path to College
Study presented by PhD candidate Lisceth Cruz at AERA Meeting on April 28, 2013
Like most immigrant parents, Latino parents’ top priority is to provide their children with the opportunity for a better life, including the chance to attend college. But language barriers and a lack of knowledge about how to pay for college too often get in the way of Latinos realizing their dreams, according to Lisceth Cruz, a PhD candidate in the School of Education.
“Given the strong familial ties of Latino communities, parental engagement is central to understanding and addressing the disparities in educational attainment among Latinos,” said Cruz.
Cruz has focused her research on the ways Latino parents participate in the last two years of high school and the first two years in college – an important transition period, especially for first-generation college students. Four findings guide her understanding of the challenges facing Latino students and her recommendations for reaching out more effectively to their parents.
First, Cruz finds that networks are a key source of information and support. “Families deliberately extend themselves to include people who have experience with college,” as a way to gather information, she explains.
Another key finding is that parents often feel the need to rely on one person at their child’s school who will provide reliable information. “It can be a custodian; it just needs to be someone they are comfortable going to.” The role of siblings is also key. Once the eldest sibling has gone through the process, it becomes easier to go through the process again. “Knowledge accumulates,” Cruz said.
Perhaps the greatest barrier is a lack of financial literacy and knowledge about how much college costs and how to pay for it. Cruz cites several obstacles to parents’ understanding, from poor translations to basic differences in the way college works in their home countries versus the United States.
“In most of the parents’ home countries, college is free,” said Cruz. “There is no such thing as tuition, and high school is set up for college prep or technical training, so the path is clear.” In addition, not all immigrants read their native language, and those who do struggle with the non-vernacular Spanish used in many translations coming from schools.
“We have to be really savvy about how we work with families if we are to increase the opportunity for more Latinos to pursue a college education,” said Cruz.
Cruz will present “From High School to College: Documenting Parental Engagement of First-Generation Latino College Students” at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association on Sunday, April 28, 2013.
