Latino male dropout crisis focus of symposium

June 21, 2007

More than 40 local and national experts in the fields of at-risk education, educational policy, community outreach, and educational research will convene June 22-23 at ASU to address the Latino male dropout crisis at a forum sponsored by the Center for Community Development and Civil Rights.<separator></separator>The forum, “Preparing for College: Enrolling, Education, and Advancing Latinos,” will be an action-oriented gathering to help identify the essential components necessary for an actionable, scalable intervention program. It will take place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Phoenix.<separator></separator>Officials with the center have envisioned a program that addresses academic needs, as well as the social, economic and policy issues that affect the ability of Latino males to persist in the academic pipeline.<separator></separator>Raul Yzaguirre, ASU's presidential professor of practice and executive director of the Center for Community Development and Civil Rights, underscores the importance of addressing this important issue.<separator></separator>“The young Latino male dropout crisis, if unabated, has the potential to condemn a large segment of the Hispanic community into a permanent underclass,” Yzaguirre says. “This underclass will exhibit all the pathologies associated with urban decay: a culture where going to juvenile detention or incarceration is merely a rite of passage or a badge of honor, a preponderance of out-of-wedlock births, family disintegration, functional illiteracy, limited job skills, loss of pride and loss of hope. The long-term consequences are devastating.”<separator></separator>He adds that interventions that establish a college education as a realistic option for at-risk Hispanic youth who complete the requisite college preparatory courses can make a transformational difference.<separator></separator>The center is in the College of Public Programs at ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus.