A Tale of Two Schools: Disrupting the Educational Pathways of Latino Males

• In Event: Empowering and Supporting Young Men of Color Through the Pre-K–20 Pipeline

Abstract

While extensive research on college access has focused on college choice and preparation, limited research explores the middle school context or transition to high school (Allen et al., 2018; Hernandez, 2015). For Latino males, expanding the pathway to college is crucial as they encounter challenges that lead to the decreased high school completion and college enrollment rates (Sáenz & Ponjuan, 2009). Lower college enrollment patterns for Latino males, when compared to Latina females may be explained, in part, by the differential treatment that males encounter in the educational system that are often a result of tracking into lower performing paths, special education programs, and frequent portrayal as deviant and deficient (Gregory, Skiba & Noguera, 2010; Huerta, 2015).

The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of Latino males during their transition from middle school to high school. Recently scholars have begun to push for increased attention to earlier stages in the educational pipeline to understand the factors that shape outcomes for students of color (Martinez & Castellanos, 2018; Musto, 2019). As such, this paper seeks to expand our understanding of college access research beginning in middle school and the factors that cause college aspirations to change for students from middle school to high school.

Using Critical Race Theory and Intersectionality as a theoretical framework, the study explores how students are positioned based on their race, gender and class identities by their teachers (Crenshaw, 1991; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). CRT allows us to centralize the discourse about race, class and gender as the focus of analysis (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017; Howard, 2008). Data for this paper comes from a follow up study that explored the lives of a group of middle school students. Participants were interviewed five years after the initial study took place and explored their transition from middle school to high school and their high school experiences. Two individual interviews were conducted with each participant that explored the changes in their educational experiences.

Preliminary findings reveal that two very distinct cultures existed at the high schools that students attended compared to their middle school. While the middle school provided a supportive network, the high schools students attended did not provide similar support. As a result of the supportive environment, students developed feasible aspirations that their high school was unable to maintain. Additionally, students encountered many deficit views of “Mexican kids” by teachers. While some teachers were encouraging to students individually, they often made comments that portrayed the larger Latino male population negatively. Similar to their middle school experience, soccer remained the main form of engagement during high school, increasing the reliance on athletics to engage students. Students who were not able to make the soccer team in high school, did not find another form of engagement and deviated from their academic plans. During middle school, students who played soccer were central to the school culture however in high school soccer took a backseat to revenue-generating sports of football and basketball, pushing even those students who were in soccer to marginalized positions.

Author

• Eligio Martinez, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona