Latino male students are “vanishing” from the American education pipeline, a trend that is especially evident at the secondary and postsecondary levels. The question of why Latino males are vanishing from America's colleges is complex, and this scholarly article explores some of the socio-cultural factors, peer dynamics, and labor force demands that may be conspiring to propagate this trend. The authors expound on various theoretical and empirical explanations for this persisting and troubling trend.
Alexander, K.L., & Entwisle, D.O. (1988). Achievement in the first 2 years of school: Patterns and processes. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 53(2), pp. i-157.
2.
Arbona, C., & Nora, A. (2007). The influence of academic and environmental factors on Hispanic college degree attainment. Review of Higher Education , 30(3), 247-269.
3.
Artiles, A.J., Harry, B., Reschly, D., & Chinn, P. (2002). Over-identification of students of color in special education: A critical overview. Multicultural Perspectives , 4, 3-10.
4.
Artiles, A.J., Rueda, R., Salazar, J.J., & Higareda, I. (2002). English-language learner representation in special education in California urban school districts. In D. J. Losen & G. Orfield (Eds.), Racial inequity in special education (pp. 117-136). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
5.
Barajas, H.L., & Pierce, J.L. (2001). The significance of race and gender in school success among Latinas and Latinos in college. Gender & Society, 15(6), 859-878.
6.
Bonczar, T.P. (2003). Bureau of Justice Statistics special report: Prevalence of imprisonment in the U.S. population, 1974-2001 (NCJ 197976). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved February 8, 2008, from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/piusp01.pdf
7.
Bonczar, T.P., & Beck, A.J. (1997). Bureau of Justice Statistics special report: Lifetime likelihood of going to state or federal prison. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
8.
Brown, M.K., Carnoy, M., Currie, E., Duster, T., Oppenhiemer, D.B., Shultz, M.M., & Wellman, D. (2003). White-washing race. Berkeley : University of California Press.
9.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2006). Bureau of Justice Statistics correctional surveys. Retrieved February 8, 2008, from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/corr2.htm
10.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2007). Current population survey. Retrieved May 9, 2008, from http://www.bls.gov/cps/#tables
11.
Cahalan, M.W., & Curtin, T.R. (2004). A profile of the Upward Bound program: 2000-2001 . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
12.
Cammarota, J. (2004). The gendered and racialized pathways of Latina and Latino youth: Different struggles, different resistances in the urban context. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 35(1), 53-74.
13.
Canino, G., & Roberts, R.E. (2001). Suicidal behavior among Latino youth. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 31, 122-131.
14.
Carter, P. (2005). Keepin' it real: School success beyond Black and White. New York: Oxford University Press.
15.
Castellanos, J., Gloria, A. M., & Kamimura, M. (Eds.). (2006). The Latina/o pathway to the PhD: Abriendo caminos. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
16.
Center for Community Development and Civil Rights. (2007). Pathways to prevention: The Latino male dropout crisis. Retrieved from http://cdcr.asu.edu/publications/publications-folder/latino_male_droput07wcoverb.pdf
17.
Center for Labor Market Studies. (2003). The growing gender gaps in college enrollment and degree attainment in the U.S. and their potential economic and social consequences. Boston: Northeastern University.
18.
Clayton, O., Hewitt, C.L., & Gaffney, E.D. (2004). Reflecting on reconnecting males to higher education . New Directions for Student Services, No. 107(Fall), 9-22.
19.
Connell, R.W. (1993). Disruptions: Improper masculinities and schooling . In L. Weis & M. Fine (Eds.), Beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in the United States schools (pp. 191-208). Albany: State University of New York Press.
20.
Cook, B.J., & Cordova, D.I. (2007). Minorities in higher education: Twenty-second annual status report, 2007 supplement. Washington, DC: American Council on Education.
21.
Cooperative Institutional Research Program. ( 2007). CIRP freshman trends data. Los Angeles : UCLA, Higher Education Research Institute.
22.
Crosnoe, R., Riegle-Crumb, C., Field, S., Frank, K., & Muller, C. (2008). Peer group contexts of girls' and boys' academic experiences. Child Development, 79(1), 139-155.
23.
Cuyjet, M.J. (1997). Helping African American men succeed in college . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
24.
Cuyjet, M. J. (Ed.). (2006). African American men in college. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
25.
Davis, J.E., & Jordan, W.J. (1994). The effects of school context, structure, and experience on African American males in middle and high school. Journal of Negro Education, 63, 570-587.
26.
De Leon, S.A. (2005). Assimilation and ambiguous experience of the resilient male Mexican immigrants that successfully navigate American higher education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin.
27.
"Deadly trend" of Hispanic worker deaths on top of agenda at OSHA. (2002, October 17). Labor Relations Week, 16(41), 1257.
28.
Dunn, L. (1968). Special education for the mildly mentally retarded: Is much of it justifiable? Exceptional Children, 23, 5-21.
29.
Excelencia in Education. (2004). Latinos in early childhood education. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.edexcelencia.org/pdf/Latinos_early_childhood-2004.pdf
30.
Excelencia in Education. (2007a). Latino males in higher education. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.edexcelencia.org/pdf/LatinoMales-factsheet-2007.pdf
31.
Excelencia in Education. (2007b). Latinos in early childhood education. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved from http://www.edexcelencia.org/pdf/Latinos_community_college-2007.pdf
32.
Ferguson, A.A. (2000). Bad boys: Public schools in the making of Black masculinity (law, meaning and violence). Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
33.
Ferri, B.A., & Connor, D.J. (2005). In the shadow of Brown: Special education and overrepresentation of students of color. Remedial and Special Education, 26(2), 93-100.
34.
Figueroa, J.L. (2002). Out of the neighborhood and into the ivory tower: Understanding the schooling experiences of Latino male undergraduates attending an institution of higher education. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
35.
Fordham, S., & Ogbu, J. (1986). African American students' school success: Coping with the burden of "acting White." Urban Review, 18, 176-206.
36.
Fry, R. (2005). The higher dropout rates of foreign-born teens: The role of schooling abroad. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center.
37.
Garcia, P. (2001). Understanding the obstacles and barriers to Hispanic baccalaureates. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies.
38.
Gloria, A.M., Castellanos, J., & Orozco, V. (2005). Perceived educational barriers, cultural fit, coping responses, and psychological well-being of Latina undergraduates. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 27(2), 161-183.
39.
Gurian, M., & Stevens, K. (2005). The minds of boys. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.
40.
Harrell, P.E., & Forney, W.S. (2003). Ready or not, here we come: Retaining Hispanic and first-generation students in postsecondary education. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 27(2), 147-156.
41.
Harrison, P.M., & Beck, A.J. (2006). Bureau of Justice Statistics bulletin: Prison and jail inmates at midyear 2005. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
42.
Hispanic prisoners in the United States. (2003). Retrieved February 11, 2008, from http://www.sentencingproject.org/PublicationDetails.aspx?PublicationID=365
43.
Horvat, E. M., & O'Connor, C. (Eds.). (2006). Beyond acting White: Reframing the debate on Black student achievement. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
44.
Hurtado, S., Saenz, V.B., Santos, J.L., & Cabrera, N.L. (2008). Advancing in higher education: A portrait of Latina/o college freshmen at four-year institutions: 1975-2006. Los Angeles: UCLA, Higher Education Research Institute .
45.
Kindlon, D., & Thompson, M. (2000). Raising Cain: Protecting the emotional life of boys. New York: Ballantine.
46.
Kochhar, R. (2005). The occupational status and mobility of Hispanics . Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved February 10, 2008, from http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/59.pdf
47.
Kochhar, R. (2006). Latino labor report, 2006: Strong gains in employment . Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center . Retrieved February 10, 2008, from http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/70.pdf
48.
Kozol, J. (1991). Savage inequalities. New York : HarperCollins.
49.
Kuvlesky, W.P., & Juarez, R.Z. (1975). Mexican American youth and the American dream . In J. S. Picou & R. E. Campbell (Eds.), Career behavior of special groups: Theory, research and practice, (pp. 241-296). Columbus, OH: Merrill.
50.
Longerbeam, S.D., Sedlacek, W.E., & Alatorre, H.M. (2004). In their own voices: Latino student retention. NASPA Journal, 41(3), 538-550.
51.
Losen, D.J., & Orfield, G. (2002). Racial inequity in special education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
52.
Maldonado, C., & Farmer, E.I. (2006). Examining Latinos involvement in the workforce and postsecondary technical education in the United States. Journal of Career and Technical Education, 22(2), 1-13.
53.
Marin, G., & Marin, B.V. (1991). Research with Hispanic populations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
54.
Mariscal, J. (2004, November). No where else to go: Latino youth and the poverty draft. Political Affairs. Retrieved from http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/295/1/36/
55.
McDonough, P.M. (1997). Choosing colleges: How social class and schools structure opportunity. Albany: State University of New York Press.
56.
Morales, E. (1996). Gender roles among Latino gay and bisexual men: Implications for family and couple relationships. In J. Laird & R. J. Green (Eds.), Lesbians and gays in couples and families: A handbook for therapists (pp. 272-297). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
57.
Mutua, K. (2001). Policied identities: Children with disabilities . Educational Studies, 32, 289-300.
58.
National Center for Education Statistics. ( 2005). Digest of education statistics, 2005, Table105. Available from http://nces.ed.gov/
59.
National Center for Education Statistics. ( 2006). Digest of education statistics, 2006, Table104. Available from http://nces.ed.gov/
60.
National Center for Education Statistics. ( 2007). Digest of education statistics, 2007, Table6. Available from http://nces.ed.gov/
61.
Orfield, G., & Gordon, N. (2001). Schools more separate: Consequences of a decade of desegregation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Civil Rights Project.
62.
Osborne, J. (1999). Unraveling underachievement among African American boys from an identification with academics perspective. Journal of Negro Education, 68(4), 555-565.
63.
Parrish, T. (2002). Racial disparities in the identification, funding, and provision of special education. In D. Losen & G. Orfield (Eds.), Racial inequity in special education (pp. 15-38). Cambridge, MA : Harvard Education Press.
64.
Passel, J.S. (2006). The size and characteristics of the unauthorized migrant population in the U.S.: Estimated based on the March 2005 Current Population Survey. Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center. Retrieved February 8, 2008, from http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/61.pdf
65.
Pew Hispanic Center. (2005). Hispanics: A people in motion. Washington, DC: Author.
66.
Pollack, W. (1998). Real boys: Rescuing our sons from the myths of boyhood. New York: Random House .
67.
Prager, D. (2007). Marked: Race, crime, and finding work in an era of mass incarceration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
68.
Ramani, A.K., Gilbertson, L., Fox, M.A., & Provasnik, S. (2007). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic minorities (NCES 2007-039). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
69.
Riordan, C. (2002). What do we know about the effects of single-sex schools in the private sector? Implications for public schools. In A. Datnow & L. Hubbard (Eds.), Gender in policy and practice: Perspectives on single-sex and coeducational schooling (pp. 10-30). New York: Routledge and Falmer.
70.
Sabol, W.S., Minton, T.D., & Harrison, P.M. (2007, June). Bureau of Justice Statistics bulletin: Prison and jail inmates at midyear 2006 (NCJ 217675) . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
71.
Sadker, M., & Sadker, D. (1994). Failing at fairness: How America's schools cheat girls. New York: Simon & Schuster .
72.
Saenz, V.B. (2005). Breaking the cycle of segregation: Examining students' pre-college racial environments and their diversity experiences in college. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California , Los Angeles.
73.
Saenz, V.B., Hurtado, S., Barrera, D., Wolf, D., & Yeung, F. (2007). First in my family: A profile of first-generation college students at four-year institutions since 1971. Los Angeles: UCLA, Higher Education Research Institute .
74.
Saenz, V.B., Perez, P., & Cerna, O. (2007). Examining the pre-college attributes and values of Latina/o college graduates (HERI Research Rep. No. 3). Los Angeles: UCLA, Higher Education Research Institute .
75.
Sanchez, J., Marder, F., Berry, R., & Ross, H. (1992). Dropping out: Hispanic students, attrition, and the family. College and University, 67, 145-150.
76.
Shaffer, S., & Gordon, L. (2006, March 24). What is the impact of "boys will be boys"? Presentation at the 2006 annual conference of the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center.
77.
Slocumb, P.D. (2004). Hear our cry: Boys in crisis. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc.
78.
Snyder, H.N., & Swahn, M.H. (2004). Juvenile suicides, 1981-1998. Youth Violence Research Bulletin. Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/196978/contents.html
79.
Solorzano, D.G., Villalpando, O., & Oseguera, L. (2005). Educational inequalities and Latina/o undergraduate students in the United States: A critical race analysis of their educational progress. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 4, 272-294.
80.
Suarez-Orozco, C., & Suarez-Orozco, M. (1995). Immigration, family life, and achievement motivation among Latino adolescents. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
81.
Suskind, R. (1999). A hope in the unseen: An American odyssey from the inner city to the ivy league. New York: Broadway Books.
82.
Swail, W.S., Cabrera, A.F., Lee, C., & Williams, A. (2005). Latino students and the educational pipeline. Part III: Pathways to the bachelor's degree for Latino students. Washington, DC: Educational Policy Institute and Lumina Foundation for Education.
83.
Thomas-Breitfeld, S. (2003). The Latino workforce (Statistical Brief No. 3). Washington, DC: National Council of La Raza.
84.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2006a). American community survey. Retrieved May 9, 2008, from http://factfinder.census.gov
85.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2006b). Hispanics in the United States, a PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved May 9, 2008, from http://www.census.gov/population/www./socdemo/hispanic/files/Internet_Hispanic_in_US_2006.pdf
86.
U.S. Department of Defense. (2003). Population representation in the military services, fiscal year 2003. Retrieved February 10, 2008, from http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2003/#
87.
U.S. Department of Defense. (2005). Population representation in the military services, fiscal year 2005. Retrieved February 10, 2008, from http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2005/#
88.
U.S. Department of Education. (2005). Postsecondary institutions in the United States: Fall 2004 and degrees and other awards conferred: 2003-04 (NCES 2005-182). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics.
89.
Valenzuela, A. (1999). Subtractive schooling: U.S.-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. Albany: State University of New York Press.
90.
Valenzuela, A., & Dornbusch, S.M. (1994). Familism and social capital in the academic achievement of Mexican origin and Anglo adolescents. Social Science Quarterly, 75(1), 18-36.
91.
Yosso, T., & Solorzano, D. (2006). Leaks in the Chicana and Chicano educational pipeline (Latino Policy & Issues Brief No. 13). Los Angeles : UCLA, Chicano Studies Research Center.
92.
Zapata, J.T. (1988). Early identification and recruitment of Hispanic teacher candidates. Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 19-23.
