History and Culture

History and Culture

Hispanics race and gender issues

From past time, the Hispanic population has increased to almost 5 times in the last 10 years. It is considered if the population increases at this rate then it is expected that it will become America largest minority group by 2020. Hispanics in US represent considerable diversity in terms of race, age, country, origin and the nature of their economic status. They also vary according to the timings of immigration. The major difference of Hispanics and non Hispanics include their communication style and socialization practices which vary with the sub groups. Since Hispanics are considered as the fastest growing ethnic group in US, little is known about their culture in comparison with the American school culture which can produce positive results for the Hispanic children.

Hispanics are rapidly becoming a substantial majority of the nation's disadvantaged student population. For example, Georges Vernez and Richard Krop of the Rand Corporation have projected that, by 2015, Hispanics will constitute about 59% of the under-18 population with no parents with a high school degree (Epstein, 1992). They also project that, among the entire under-18 population, about 11% will be from homes in which no parent has completed high school, while about 30% of all Hispanics in this age group will be in that position. Complicating the situation further is the fact that most Hispanic youngsters with no parents with a high school degree are from immigrant families. This means that a substantial share of these low-socioeconomic-status (SES) youngsters has parents who do not speak English fluently also who are not fully literate in Spanish. Costas (1991) have projected that, by 2015, about 79% of Hispanics under age 18 with no parents who have completed high school will be from immigrant families. Indeed, both they and García (2001) have projected that, by 2015, they will make up nearly half of individuals under age 18 in the U.S. without parents with a high school diploma. The period from birth through the end of the primary grades is extremely important educationally. The academic performance patterns that most children will have throughout their academic careers are established by the end of the primary grades. This also is the case for groups that are differences in academic achievement among racial and ethnic groups are substantial by the end of the primary grades and change little in size thereafter. Moreover, these differences in achievement at the end of the primary grades are presaged by differences in various measures of school readiness at the start of kindergarten and have antecedents prior to the start of traditional preschool. Learning more about how the need for improvements in early childhood education for Hispanics varies by region of the country. It is also increasingly significant owing to regional variations in Hispanic presence. Currently over four-fifths of the Hispanic population lives in just nine states: California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Arizona, New Jersey, New Mexico, and Colorado (Vivian, 1993).

However, the fastest growing Hispanic population growth is ...