By: Beckett P, Ariana R, Lia K, Iván G.

BACKGROUND

According to the United States Census Bureau, Latinos make up 18.9 percent of the population. With White Americans making up 57.8 percent of the population and Black or African Americans making up 12.1 percent, this being said, Latino Americans are the largest ethnic minority in the United States. The Postsecondary National Policy Institute found in 2020 that Latinos made up 21.8 percent of undergraduate college students in the United States. Although they make up about a fifth of the student population, Hispanics and Latinos are underrepresented in selective institutions of higher education. Hispanic and Latino students are much more likely than other ethnic groups to enroll in community college or a two year school instead. At a time where federal student debt is now higher than the country’s credit card debt, students with financial insecurity are looking at different alternatives, such as community colleges, in hopes of transferring or enrolling in college at a later date. On a more negative note, many Latino students are excluding the idea of higher education because of the financial issues that can be faced. Some Latino students claim that focusing on work, rather than trying to balance school, work, and other commitments, made it easier for them to save money.

According to Pew Research Center, 74 percent of 16-to 25-year-old young Latinos, said that their education needed to be cut short during or immediately after high school, due to financial and emotional pressures to support their families. About 50 percent of those respondents said that poor English skills were also a factor for cutting their education short, as well as 40 percent of respondents citing a dislike in school or the feeling that higher education will not be required for their preferred field of work. Hispanic and Latino students are at disadvantage from the very beginning of schooling, making it difficult for them to compete with their White counterparts.

ACADEMIC DISCUSSION OF THIS TOPIC

According to a national survey of Latinos by the Pew Hispanic Center, around 90 percent of young adult Latinos state that college education is important for a successful life. However, only around half of them say that they plan on getting a college degree. One big reason for this statistic is due to the high value they place on education and the financial pressures that come with it to support their family. Around ¾ of all 16-25 year olds who cut their education short either during or after high school say they did because they needed to help support their family. Many of them had to get a job which caused them to not have enough time to balance school and work. Latino schooling has had a reputation for high dropout rates and low college completion rates. Across all institutions, Latinos are the least likely to graduate. These problematic rates have decreased but there is still a persistent educational attainment gap that remains. The increase in wages in a field of work provided by a degree is only guaranteed upon completion/graduation. Overall, young Latino immigrants see education as important for a successful life but can struggle with financial commitments that limit their ability to pursue further education.

That survey also shows that there are two different gaps in the educational aspirations of younger generations. The first is between young adults ages 18-25 along with the general United States population of that same age group. Around 48 percent of that group expects to receive a college degree. The second group is between young Latino immigrants and those who are native born. Among young Latino immigrants aged 18-25, less than one in three plan to earn a bachelor’s degree, compared with 60 percent of native born young Latinos. Middle school students have a significant gap in math and reading skills compared to non-Latino students.

Many of the Latinos coming to the United States are adults with the mindset of working in order to provide for themselves and their families. But what happens to all the children that are brought from their respective countries? On August 12, 2015, President Barack Obama established the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, more commonly known as DACA. DACA has helped thousands of undocumented students, or DREAMers, continue their higher education and receive work permits to work in the U.S. legally without constant fear of deportation.

The application process can be lengthy and there are several requirements that have to be met before applying. According to Immigrants Rising, these requirements include:

• Being under the age of 31 before June 15, 2012
• Having entered the U.S. before the age of 16
• Continuously resided in the U.S. since June 15, 2007 up to present day
• Being physically present in the U.S. on June 15, 2012 and at the time of applying for DACA
• Currently enrolled in school (or have returned to school), graduated, obtained certificate of completion (e.g. GED) OR be an honorably discharged U.S. veteran
• Have not been convicted of a felony offense, a significant misdemeanor offense, or multiple misdemeanor offenses

Even though this policy has helped approximately 832,881 eligible undocumented young people, legal status continues to be a force that widens the gap (Higher Ed Immigration Portal). The process can be tedious since the danger of being a “present” figure in American society and not invisible, like many undocumented people tend to prefer, is a fear that contains Latinos from trying and pursuing higher education.

RESEARCH METHOD

Before this project even began we all took a pre field work preparation online course to help us feel ready and confident about constructing these interviews. This was required prior to conducting our interviews in the field. Our geographic parameters were the Austin metropolitan area. Our subjects were to be two males and two females, of the Latinx, Chicanx, Hispanic, US-Mexican, and or Tejano community. Once we refined our list of interview questions as a class, we went out to find our research subjects for interviews. We had a demographic questionnaire that was to be filled out prior to the recorded interview, which included some general information like where they and their spouse are from, their first language, what they do for work, etc. There was also a written consent form, a copy for the interviewer and the interviewee, which allowed us permission to use their recordings to carry out our research. It is important to note that there was total anonymity of the subjects, as we had a numbering system to differentiate between them. After that was complete, we carried out 30-45 minute recorded interviews face to face, with the audio recorded via voice memos. Lapel microphones were used to capture the audio of the interview. After all interviews were complete, we used Microsoft Word 365 to automatically transcribe the audio with about 75 percent accuracy. We went through the text and edited any portions that the software did not get correct. The questions started out simple and further along the questions got more deep and personal. We enjoyed learning about each individual’s life story and what their opinions were regarding the border. In regards to immigration we noticed that a couple of our interviews shared a similar story. Their grandparents came over from Mexico for a better life and more economic opportunities, however they did not pursue further education that they had hoped for their own or their children’s future.

RESULTS

The data on Figures 1 through Figure 8 portray the sentiment analysis carried out for each participant.

The data on Figures 9 and Figure 10 indicate the ranking of results for TF-IDF in Spanish and English. The red dot indicates keyword from our research project.

PENDING

The data on Figures 11 and Figure 12 are visualizations of relationship between the themes focused in this study separated by language.

 

INTERPRETATION OF ANALYSIS

The TF_IDF analysis helps display how often a term appears in our transcribed audio, and how rare a term is. Term Frequency and Inverse Document Frequency show that our English interviews used the words “school” and “college” relatively frequently. In the Spanish interviews, the most significant frequently used terms were “universidad” and “educación.” By looking at these terms and their frequencies, we can see how present the topic of education was throughout our participants’ interviews. If we compare the interviews that were made in English and Spanish, we can see that the English interviews talk a lot more about education in their interviews while the ones in Spanish touch up on education but not as much. Both sets of interviews are optimistic about their families future in education and are hopeful about Latinos progressing in higher education, even if they weren’t able to do so.

Our topic modeling analysis helped to analyze clusters of topics/co-occuring words and understand any recurring themes present. In our Spanish interviews, words such as “escuela” and  “educación” were more negative, meaning that when those words were brought up, they were brought up in a negative way or connotation. In the English interviews, the words “school” and “college” were used commonly and in a positive way.

Understanding this topic is important because it shows us how education impacts the Latino community. Interviewing individuals who were part of the Latino group is important because we got to understand their upbringing and their story. As college students, we were able to get a view on the perspective of members of the community. This is significant because in order to solve a problem you have to understand where it comes from, who is affected, how they are affected, etc. The tools we used included sentiment analysis, TF_IDF, and topic modeling.  The sentiment analysis tool helps decode emotion expressed in the audio recording files of the interviews. This tool helped us understand in a quantifiable amount, how positively or negatively our interviewees felt about the interview. We can inspire other students to do this work by showing them our class results and website. We think it’s incredible that our class got certified to become researchers, then went out into the community to conduct interviews, to ultimately build the bridge of knowledge between academia and community. Reading text or theory based on the topic will not give you the same experience or results as going into the community firsthand. Deepening the connection between academia and community promotes the co-construction of knowledge, and can be useful to make genuine change in that community.

Our findings are important because it showed us how education impacted a group of Latino individuals. A sentiment analysis can be beneficial because it can quantify text into how positive or negatively the interviewee viewed the interview and topic at hand. This can give us insight into how the larger community feels about a particular topic. As you look at our data you can see that the majority of each interview is optimistic, meaning that most of the words used throughout were positive. However, in regards to academics, we feel that a lot of the articles we read seemed to be more negative than positive. A lot of them talked about how there was a line between supporting their families and pursuing a further education. Many of them felt pressured to do both which caused a lot of stress for them, leading them to have to choose because doing both takes so much time. Academics showed a lot of statistical data regarding high school completion rates, college dropout rates, census data, etc. to show that factually Latinos have a harder time pursuing higher education than their white counterparts. Our interviews suggested that although our interviewees may have personally had a hard time pursuing education because of environmental or economic pressures, or wish they could go back and finish their education, etc, they were all very optimistic, hopeful, and appreciative of their education. This is reflected in certain surveys we read that showed that a lot of Hispanics and Latinos believe that education is very important, but might have different stressors or reasons they cannot continue higher education.

SIGNIFICANCE

It is important for people to understand and be informed on the topic of Latinos in education because of the importance of education in our society. Education is the basis of everything. A country with a good education rate enjoys a higher GDP, a low poverty line, a better workforce, and better development across multiple spectrums along with many other positive things. Education is one of, if not the only way to achieve socioeconomic mobility in this country. These are just the materialistic things that come with a higher education but there are also personal achievements within a person that a higher education contributes to. Latinos in the U.S. are growing in number and are not necessarily a minority anymore like in previous decades. The education rate of people of different backgrounds in the U.S should be looked at and encouraged that way diversity is not only seen in the people but also in the effects that the people have on American society as a whole.

As St. Edward’s students and members of the Austin community, it was very eye opening for us to take part in this study and conduct our interviews and research. Each one of us took a lot from our individual interviews by learning from the participants and their own experiences. Not only did we learn from the words of the interviewees but connecting their experiences to the topic of Latinos in education was also very meaningful and made us realize many things, especially as college students ourselves. Latinos in the U.S. are breaking barriers and are slowly but surely raising the numbers of Latinos that are able to obtain higher education. A common theme seen in many of the interviews is first generation Latinos in the U.S. not being able to continue their education because of the circumstances in which they emigrated to the U.S. but they are providing everything for their children to be able to get their education. This has allowed a growing number of first generation students, children of immigrants, to be able to go to college and install themselves in jobs that are of extreme importance in this country. It’s important for these studies to be made and for these tools to be used because they help impulse Latino students into going to college and establishing themselves in the U.S. These types of studies give us numbers and statistics that show the positive correlation between Latinos and education that has been seen in these past couple of years.

On a more personal level, these studies help us as college students value the opportunities we are receiving by going to college. At times, and in particular those of stress, we tend to forget that we are fortunate enough to be able to get a higher education and a shot at earning a degree. This is a luxury that not many people are able to obtain because of the circumstances surrounding their life, their family, and their story. The graphs that present our sentiment analysis show the perseverance and positive outlook on life that Latinos have in regards to their life here in the U.S. and subsequently their correlation to education. Being able to look at results like the ones we saw in our research gives us as researchers and the public we are presenting our information to a moral boost as the impacts are positive.

Works Cited

• Factsheets. PNPI. (2022, September 19). Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://pnpi.org/latino-students/
• Higher ed immigration portal. Presidents’ Alliance. (2022, October 20). Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www.higheredimmigrationportal.org/
• Icfdn. (2022, November 8). 4 barriers to education in Mexico. International Community Foundation. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://icfdn.org/barriers-quality-education-mexico/
• Lopez, M. H. (2020, September 18). Latinos and education: Explaining the attainment gap. Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2009/10/07/latinos-and-education-explaining-the-attainment-gap/
• Steps to apply for DACA for the first time. IMMIGRANTS RISING. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://immigrantsrising.org/resource/steps-to-apply-for-daca-for-the-first-time/
• U.S. Census Bureau quickfacts: United States. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2022, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/RHI725221
• UnidosUS. (2021, August 25). Following their dreams in an inequitable system: Latino students share their college experience. UnidosUS. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www.unidosus.org/publications/2078-following-their-dreams-in-an-inequitable-system-latino-students-share-their-college-experience/
• 26, N., & 24, N. (2018, February 14). Latinos are underrepresented in Higher Education. The Aggie. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://theaggie.org/2018/02/13/latinos-underrepresented-higher-education/