I haven’t had a chance to read this study (I just got this email today), but it looks interesting:

 

I thought you might be interested in an education paper I just completed for the Lexington Institute. Published in both English and Spanish in one volume, it lays out a powerful program of school choice strategies for closing the educational achievement gap between Latino children and their white peers.?

 

If present trends hold, only 11 out of every 100 Latino kindergartners in the United States will complete a bachelor's degree. For the two in five Latino eighth graders who score "below basic" on standardized tests, the odds against earning even a high school diploma are steep.

 

Many Latino families would benefit greatly from proven school choice measures. Yet most Latino advocacy groups and elected officials have stubbornly refused to consider school choice as a solution for closing these pernicious achievement gaps. 

As our report puts it, "The advantages of a system that provides real parental choice may represent the best chance to close the Latino learning gap in the United States."

Our paper describes several education reform strategies to help Latino students reach their potential:

·         New advances in virtual educational technology threaten to revolutionize online and hybrid classrooms.

·         Latino children attending charter schools in Chicago and voucher schools in Milwaukee are demonstrating impressive academic results.?

·         New scholarship programs for special-needs children can help the 8.5 percent of Latino families with children diagnosed with disabilities make marked improvements in scholastic achievement.

 

The full report is available here: http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/libertad-de-la-educacion-school-choice-solutions-for-closing-the-latino-achievement-gap?a=1&c=1136.

 

If you're interested in speaking with my co-author Lori Drummer or me about our study, please let me know.

Sincerely,

 

Don Soifer
Executive Vice President
Lexington Institute