| Description |
This study aimed at beginning the development of a useful and substantive body of information pertaining to the community of MexicanAmerican students in Salt Lake City, school district. It aimed specifically toward finding a truthful dropout rate, making comparisons between Mexican-American dropouts and other Utah dropouts, collecting and analyzing comparative data on Mexican-American dropouts and nondropouts relative to school performance, family and home conditions, and aspirations and self-assessment. The study's first segment reviews literature extensively relevant to the questions of Mexican-American students and the public schools. From this review, a list of assumptions are set out as to what one might expect to find if the school life of Mexican-American students in Salt Lake City parallels that of Mexican-American students in the southwestern, United States. The second segment reports the findings of a longitudinally designed study of Mexican-American secondary school students in Salt Lake City school district. Raw data for the analysis came from the following sources; cumulative school histories, SIS-Confidential Student Questionnaire Level II, Dropout and Stay-in Survey forms, and personal interviews. The study group was drawn from all of the Spanish surname students registered in the Fall of 1965 in seventh grade of Salt Lake City schools. When students who had transferred out, graduated early, or died were substracted, the study group totaled one hundred and seven students. Data were collected from records beginning in the seventh gra.de and through the first semester of the twelfth grade, January 1971. Drawing upon the specific findings reported, a profile for each of the following was constructed: the average Mexican-American male non-dropout, the average Mexican-American male dropout, the average Mexican-American female non-dropout, and the average Mexican American female dropout. The study results led to two major conclusions: (1) Mexican- American spokesmen. and parents speak from a substantive foundation when they question the quality of education their children receive in Salt Lake City school district and (2) the secondary school performance of Mexican-American students in Salt Lake City school district generally parallels the extraordinarily low school performance of Mexican-American children in the southwestern United States. Several more specific conclusions we're offered. They may be summarized as follows: (a) Mexican-American girls tend to have a better school experience than Mexican-American boys; (b) the dropout rate for Mexican-Americans equals forty-five percent over the secondary school years, (c) athough Mexican American parents tend to have better socio-economic status and level of educational attainment in Salt Lake City than in the southwest, Mexican American students measured approximately the same in educational evaluation; (d) dropouts tended to be older and to have much more negative attitudes toward school than non-dropouts, and (e) Mexican-American students who stay in school do not seem to rate themselves below other students in school abilities, but Mexican-American dropouts rate themselves very low in these school related capacities. The study concludes with suggestions for further research and with the suggestion that Salt Lake City school officials move emphatically and quickly to eradicate a situation which currently does little to meet the educational needs of Mexican-American students. |
