Faced with dismal high school and college graduation rates for Chicana and Chicano students, educators, policy-makers, community leaders and other stakeholders must do more to increase the number of Chicanos attaining high school, college and graduate degrees, according to a UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center report.

Out of 100 Chicana and Chicano students who start elementary school, only 46 graduate from high school, eight receive a bachelor's degree and only two earn a graduate or professional degree, according to statistics based on 2000 U.S. Census Bureau and other educational data sources. Less than one Chicana and Chicano of the 100 earns a doctorate.

In contrast, of every 100 white elementary school students, 84 graduate from high school, 26 graduate with a bachelor's degree and 10 earn a professional degree, researchers said. Compared with other major racial and ethnic groups, Chicanas and Chicanos, who are the fastest growing segment of the student population in California and all major cities west of the Mississippi, have the lowest educational attainment of any group.

"Education is a crucial determinant for success in our society," said co-author Daniel Solórzano, a UCLA professor of education and the center's associate director. "What we see happening for Chicanos and Chicanas, however, is that they drop, or are pushed, out of the educational pipeline in higher numbers than any other group. While it is easy to blame the students, the responsibilities reside in the educational system itself."

Solórzano and Tara J. Yosso, an assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a visiting scholar at the UCLA center, identified several conditions that impede the flow of Chicanas and Chicanos through what researchers termed "the educational pipeline."

"The educational system is clearly failing Chicana and Chicano students at every level," Yosso said. "We can no longer ignore these blatant inequalities. It is of extreme importance to address these issues now."

The researchers recommended focusing on three critical transition points: priming Chicana and Chicano K-12 students for college, community college students for transfer, and university undergraduates for graduate school.

Researchers cited various reasons for the disparities at each educational level. In urban, suburban and rural communities across the United States, Chicana and Chicano students usually attend racially segregated, overcrowded schools. Within poorly maintained facilities, students are often enrolled in classes where undertrained, undercredentialed faculty attempt to teach with minimal resources. Far too many Chicanas and Chicanos continue to be "tracked" into remedial or vocational programs. Rather than addressing structural inequities along the K-12 pipeline, schools continue to rely on standardized curriculum and high-stakes assessments, which yield statistically unreliable, inappropriate measures of student knowledge.

According to the researchers, the community college transfer function also is failing. In California, 40 percent of Latinos who enroll in community colleges aspire to transfer to a four year college or university. However, less than 10 percent of these students reach their goal of transferring to a four-year college.

"This is a tremendous talent loss to the state of California and the nation," Yosso said.

Once at a four-year university, Chicana and Chicano college students tend to experience higher levels of stress than other undergraduate students. They generally balance schoolwork with off-campus employment, which limits the students' time to speak with professors during office hours, ask an academic counselor for guidance, or participate in academic enrichment, tutoring or research programs.

The report further notes that Chicana and Chicano students often describe graduate school as a place where they feel invisible. Most graduate programs tend to be racially exclusive with predominately white students, faculty and curricula that omit Chicano histories and perspectives.

Solórzano and Yasso also made specific recommendations such as:
. Increase access to academic enrichment at K-12 levels including GATE and honors and AP classes.
. Make basic college entrance requirements the "default" curriculum accessible to all high school students.
. Decrease the overreliance on high-stakes, inappropriate testing and assessment.
. Train bilingual, multicultural educators to challenge cultural-deficit thinking and to acknowledge the cultural wealth of Chicana and Chicano student, their families, and communities.
. Reach out to parents as educational partners including making them aware of their rights to opt out of vocational programs and inappropriate standardized testing and opt in to English Language Learner support and academic enrichment programs.

As a first step in addressing these educational disparities, the UCLA center will host "The
Latina/o Education Summit - Falling Through the Cracks: Critical Transitions in the Latina/o Educational Pipeline" on March 24 on the UCLA campus. Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, who also is past president of the Los Angeles Unified School District board, will give the keynote address at the event.

"What makes this conference unique is that it brings together stakeholders in looking at the entire educational pipeline, not just one segment," said Carlos Haro, the center's assistant director and one of the conference organizers. "Our goal is to facilitate a more comprehensive dialogue about public education, especially in a city where nearly three-quarters of the students are Latino."

The event also will bring together policy-makers, educators, researchers and students. More information can be found at http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/center/events/default.htm.

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