The reality is many of us end up taking care of family members, sisters, brothers while our parents are working long hours or going to school. Language barriers, immigration status and a racially hostile school environment compound the usual stresses of high school where teachers and administrators play into racist assumptions about Latina students setting up low expectations for them. In the report, one college graduate said:

At one point when I told a teacher I was heading away to college, he said he gave me two years before I was married and pregnant.

These comments aren’t rare. And for college-tracked Chicana/Latinas like myself in school, the expectations are on unfair terms. Another interviewee remembers::

I did well in high school. . . . I think that for that reason staff at the high school treated me as if I was better than my other Latina peers. Instead of feeling good, it felt unfair because I knew the staff expected less of me (as a Latina) and that was the reason for their better treatment . . . . I went through high school knowing I wasn’t having the same experience as my peers (they were tracked, left to linger without getting any real support for improvement). I was the “token” Latina achiever and thereby treated more like my white peers.

The report recommends policy changes to help Latinas graduate high school and go on to college. These include improved early education programs for Latinos, better guidance around prerequisites for college, better support Latinas who are pregnant to continue with school and make FAFSA less confusing so it doesn’t discourage our families from applying!

Click here to download the report and read the rest of the recommendations.