One of America’s wealthiest jurisdictions, Montgomery County, Maryland, is experiencing rapid demographic changes. The D.C. suburb’s Latino population has nearly doubled since 2000, and now comprises almost 40 percent of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) students. In light of these changes, University of Maryland researchers Andrew Conway and Amy Lewin recently examined the lives and future expectations of these new pupils.
They compiled data from a variety of local and national sources to present a fuller picture of MCPS’s Latino students and how their experiences compare to peers across the country. They also partnered with Identity, a Montgomery County non-profit that offers academic support and other counseling services to local Latino students and young adults. Identity administered a survey to its own members, written to explore the prevalence of these national patterns in the lives of these kids. The results paint a worrying portrait.
Much of the report is set in terms of students’ expectations. Having “hopeful and positive expectations for one’s own future” is correlated with a number of positive academic and social-emotional outcomes, the authors explain. However, Latino pupils are less likely to report such expectations as other demographic groups, and that hope tends to decrease with age. The Identity survey found that, although 87 percent of those in middle school feel positively about their futures, only 76 percent of high schoolers and 67 percent of older youths feel that way. Latino students also tend to report depression symptoms—such as hopelessness and lack of enjoyment—at higher rates than others.
They also routinely score worse academically than nearly any other demographic group. Recent NAEP results found only 22 percent of Maryland’s Latino fourth-graders are proficient in reading, while 55 percent of white students and 27 percent of black students reached that level. (Admittedly, nothing to brag about!) In Montgomery County, Latinos have the lowest on-time graduation rates at 79 percent, compared to 88 percent for black students and 95 percent for whites. And while large majorities of teens in the Identity survey express a desire to attend college, only 10 percent of Latinos in Montgomery County earn an associate’s degree within three years of graduating high school. Of those, most needed remedial English and math courses en route to those degrees.
Maybe most concerning is the Latino dropout rate, which is higher than for other groups and is rising. In 2017, the dropout rate for Latinos in Montgomery County was 14 percent—nearly 3 percentage points higher than in 2014, and 10 points higher than for white students.
The survey also delved into adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), events or circumstances that are known to increase the risk of disease, substance abuse, and low academic achievement. Montgomery County’s Latino students experienced ACEs more frequently than their national counterparts, with the greatest difference among those who live with someone who has a substance abuse disorder (10 percent). They were also much more likely to live in poverty.
The authors sought to provide the reader a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing Latino students in Montgomery County, but their presentation bounces among national, state, county, and Identity-student statistics so frequently that it’s hard to grasp a clear picture for this region’s youth. The main takeaway—that Latino students’ excitement for their futures diminishes over time due to a variety of negative external forces—is intuitive and concerning, but can’t be fully supported without several more years of tracking the same cohort from middle school to graduation and beyond. Still, the results reported here should worry any educator or reformer who wants to see all students get their chance to succeed.
SOURCE: C. Andrew Conway and Amy Lewin, “The Promise of Latino Youth in Montgomery County.” University of Maryland School of Public Health, Department of Family Science and Identity (October 2018).
