Now representing 58% of the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) population, Latinx students were the focus of the LBUSD Board of Education Dec. 2 meeting.
Instructional Supervisor Chris Brown said Latinx students have caught up with LBUSD’s other subgroups in terms of graduation rates, course completions for college admission, and proficiency tests in math and English since 2011.
Brown noted that 23% more Latinx students take Advanced-Placement courses in high school compared to 2011. 11% more graduated and 14% more completed “A-G” courses required for state-university admissions.
“The vast majority of our [Latinx] students have done a great job,” Brown said. “They’re working hard, they’re learning more than they ever have by all the traditional metrics, they’ve closed the gap in a lot of categories. Really positive news, but we have some things to work on.”
Among those concerns are absenteeism and national test-score performance.
In transitioning from middle school to high school, Latinx students start falling behind in attendance, Brown said. While attendance rates for Latinx students from kindergarten through middle school are about the same as everyone else, those rates change in high school.
Latinx students are less likely than other LBUSD students to be suspended in high school, but their “strong” attendance rate is 57% compared to 64% for all others, Brown said. Instead, their at-risk attendance rates are higher.
Dr. Erin Simon, director of student support services, said LBUSD has a system to reach out to parents in cases of chronic absenteeism. Board President Diana Craighead and Board Member Megan Kerr concurred that parent involvement is important.
“It isn’t just reliant on a teacher reaching out to a student,” Kerr said. “There is a system outside of the schools that works diligently on attendance and those chronic-absentee kids and their families to make sure they have the resources to get their kids to class.”
In terms of Latinx student test scores, 11th -grade PSAT (preliminary scholastic-aptitude test) scores in the top 50th percentile are 9% lower now than in 2011, Brown said.
He qualified that those PSAT scores are compared to national averages and that it’s possible LBUSD Latinx students are not growing in achievement as fast as all students nationally.
Increased A-G course completions through interacting with teachers may be a better measure of success than a one-time, high-stakes test, Brown said.
The board also discussed how the district could better prepare Latinx middle-school students to transition to high school where there is a stronger emphasis on grades.
Dr. Jay Camerino, assistant superintendent of high schools, said Latinx students need to foster self-belief to be successful in high school. Many students and parents are unaware of what students should do– such as take Algebra in 8th grade– to prepare for challenging high-school courses.
Latinx students can develop stronger motivation to take challenging courses so those classes don’t feel as foreign or high-stakes by the time they get to high school, Camerino said.
“It has to start from not just home but at school– from elementary on– to push themselves,” Camerino said.
Those students can also better understand the significance of grades in the first years of high school and how they impact students’ overall high-school grade-point average and future prospects, Camerino said.
Dr. Christopher Lund, assistant superintendent of middle and K-8 schools, said Latinx students who are English-language learners have lower self-belief coming out of 8th grade than 5th grade.
To foster self-efficacy, the older students need to learn how to manage their time, resources and assignments and believe in their own efforts.
Board Member Dr. Juan Benitez noted that Latinx students– representing a significant majority of LBUSD students at 58% -may not feel secure in the more pressured environment of high school.
“We clearly know which students from which backgrounds are more comfortable in those settings and are all doing well in the classes,” Benitez said.
Jon Meyer, outgoing board vice-president, added that there is an affective shift between middle school and high school that school officials should consider.
“Let’s get back to the idea that it’s the human being in the classroom– the adult, the teacher– and his or her connection with the students, that makes the most difference,” he said.
