Falling Through the Cracks: Critical Transitions in the Latina/o Educational Pipeline

Book excerpt: Within educational research, the pipeline metaphor is often used to describe how students move through the primary, secondary, and postsecondary levels of educ. The pipeline for Latina/o students, however, does now allow this group of students to flow smoothly through the various levels of educ. and yield a fairly proportionate number of high school and postsecondary grad. For ex., out of every 100 Latina elementary students in the U.S., 54 will graduate from high school; from these, 11 will graduate from college, 4 will graduate from grad. or professional school, and less than 1 will receive a doctorate. This report discusses this problem as well as areas of concern that must be addressed if current educ. outcomes for Latina/o students are to improve. Illus.