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With a fast growing Hispanic population in the U.S., poor Hispanic graduation rates could have huge consequences in the future of our nation. A new study called “Rising to the Challenge: Raising Hispanic Graduation Rates as a National Priority” shows that many of our 4-year colleges are graduating less than half of their Hispanic students.

Colleges and universities across the board graduate 51 percent of their Hispanic students versus 59 percent of their white peers.

When the study’s researchers examined graduation rates among similarly selective colleges and universities, they found considerable variation in Hispanic graduation rates, indicating that though student background is important, institutional practices also play a role.

“This data shows quite clearly that colleges and universities cannot place all of the blame on students for failing to graduate,” said Andrew P. Kelly of the American Enterprise Institute. “Colleges struggling to graduate their Hispanic students should learn from the successes of leaders like Whittier College, which has successfully closed the gap between its Hispanic and white students.”

So what can colleges to do to help retain Hispanic students? The student found that rates tend to improve with “an increased institutional focus on graduating all students, better consumer information, and reformed government funding that focuses on performance instead of enrollment.”

The low rates can’t be ignored. HispanicTips.com, reporting on this study, writes that “education beyond high school is critical for both a strong economy and the financial security of American families. Employees with higher education are more productive and earn more money than those who only graduated from high school.”

Read the full article here.

It’s a sad day when an international presidential address, lauded for its poignancy and timely comments, is rendered unintelligible by an interpreter. This is what happened last week when Mexican president Felipe Calderon visited the White House and intended to express his disapproval of Arizona’s new immigration law.

The translation was so bad that the White House chose to ignore the official transcript provided. The Mexican delegate blamed their own translator.

For example, here’s how Calderon’s comments on the tough new immigration law in Arizona were rendered by his translator during the opening ceremony:

“We can do so with a community that will promote a dignified life and an orderly way for both our countries, who are, some of them, still living here in the shadows with such laws as the Arizona law that is placing our people to face discrimination.”

And here’s how those same comments appeared in the official transcript issued later Wednesday:

“I know that we share the interest in promoting dignified, legal and orderly living conditions to all migrant workers. Many of them, despite their significant contribution to the economy and to the society of the United States, still live in the shadows and, occasionally, as in Arizona, they even face discrimination.”

It seemed most unfortunate that the poor interpretation should happen just when the U.S. and Mexico are attempting to strengthen their neighborly ties to work together on controversial issues like immigration reform and drug trafficking.

Read the full story here in the Washington Post.

Should names of the likes of Cesar Chavez and other Hispanic historical figures be erased from the history books? Some people in Texas seem to think so, and so the State Board of Education will put the question to a vote.

The online magazine Latina Lista takes a strong stance against this in an editorial titled “Latino leadership needed to counter TX State Board of Education’s attempt to write minorities out of history.”

The article cites a new study from the Southern Education Foundation that reports that for the first time in history, more that half of students in the 15 Southern states are children of color—African-American, Hispanic and Native American. Latina Lista sees this as a blatant reason not to cut minority leaders out of the textbooks.

These SBOE board members, along with their appointees, who adhere to the perspective that it is repugnant to teach children about the historical contributions of Latinos and African Americans show they are no better, and given recent quotes attributed to some who were involved in setting the Social Studies standards, are essentially rewriting U.S. history to conform to their distorted views of how they wish to see the United States.

Click here to read the full (heated) opinion.

The census form will be published in Spanish and English for the first time, reports the AP. Many communities are counting on resources from Uncle Sam to fund local projects, and federal aid will be based on the 2010 census. Every person counted matters.

As we’ve seen before, both documented and undocumented residents (and other hard-to-reach populations) are wary of the count, and distrustful of the government after seeing immigration raids and deportations. But community outreach groups are doing everything they can to get all residents recognized.

One of those ways is publishing and distributing the census forms in Spanish.

“If the government is reaching out to you in a language you understand, it helps build trust,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “I think the community has become really sensitive to political developments, and the census is the next step in this movement that we’re seeing of civic engagement in the Latino community.”

The forms will be automatically mailed to households in areas where more than a fifth of the population is reported to speak Spanish as a primary language. Other languages are available upon request. The AP reports,

Latino advocates hope the bilingual forms will help show their strength in numbers to underscore their growing political influence and garner more in federal funds that are determined by population.

But the question remains: will this effort help promote the census to under-served groups, or will distrust of the government by Hispanic residents continue to prevent communities from receiving the resources they need?

Read the full AP article here.

Every penny counts in this down economy, and every person does, too—the 2010 U.S. census will determine where money is allocated (from a pot of $400 billion in federal aid) based on community population counts. Undocumented immigrants and other hard-to-reach populations in the Chicago area and elsewhere have become the target of some creative census awareness outreach measures.

Telemundo, for example, has written in a main character on the Spanish-language soap “Mas sabe el diablo” (”The Devil Knows Best”) who’s a census worker.

Federal authorities have stepped up arrests of illegal immigrants, leading to worries that those residents will remain underground rather than report their presence to a federal census worker. Hence, the soap plot line, in which an unwed mother takes a census job and in the process educates her family — and immigrant viewers — about the government count.

“We’re going wherever the viewers are, even though you’re combining something that’s a little different with the steamy telenovela,” network spokeswoman Michelle Alban said.

Cook County, IL has already seen the hit from undercounting in the 2000 census: a consulting firm estimated that the county will have lost $200 million by the end of this decade. Researchers estimate that the states will lose about $12,000 in federal funds per uncounted person over the next decade.

Local community groups and churches are brainstorming about to reach out to underrepresented groups. At Rogers Park Community Council, members suggested census awareness T-shirts, street murals and multilingual mailers.

“This is not a joke,” Elizabeth Vitell, the council’s executive director, told fellow participants. “This is a chance to do something where we will see results in our communities for years to come.”

Read the full article in the Chicago Tribune here.

As the proceedings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s Senate confirmation for the United States Supreme Court continue to evolve, it is likely that these hearings will be remembered by the Senate’s questions and inquiries about a comment Sotomayor made to students at the UC Berkeley school of law in 2001.  The comment in question was with regard to a discrimination case, in which Judge Sotomayor stated:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would, more often than not, reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.”

This lone statement, rather than Judge Sotomayor’s actual record of over 25 years of Federal justice rulings and opinions, has been the most pervasive and recurring theme throughout the confirmation hearings. On multiple occasions, Judge Sotomayor has had to reaffirm to the Senate Judiciary Committee that her comment was not a reflection of her interpretation of the law, and that her personal life experience has never had an influence on any of her courtroom decisions.

However, since most news coverage and political commentary around the Sotomayor hearings have revolved around the “Wise Latina” comment, it is only natural then to extrapolate this subject, and search for relative facts and information that will provide added context into Sotomayor’s statement in 2001.

A recent article published in the Harvard Business Review by Sylvia Ann Hewlett entitled Sotomayor and the “Wise Latina” Vanguard, explores a report conducted in 2007 by the Center For Work-Life Policy that unveils the many accomplishments and challenges that highly qualified latinas face in the workplace. The results of the analysis provide added depth and insight into the “Wise Latina” comment that is currently at the forefront of much debate during the confirmation hearings.

“Heritage is a huge asset for Latinas, who are deeply imbued with a fierce work ethic and have a strong propensity for getting the job done. Survey participants evaluating Latina leaders’ value to corporations rated their work ethic 9.4 on a 10-point scale……Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy is grounded in a well-developed set of “cultural smarts” common among high-performing Hispanic women. On a 10-point scale, “respect for all generations” came in at 8.9 and “knowledge of one’s own tradition, history and language” scored 8.3. Feeding off their cultural fluency, Latina executives are excellent collaborators with an aptitude for community outreach, winning high marks for “empathetic” (8.7), “working towards the common good” (8.6) and “collaborative leadership” (8.3). Sotomayor’s passion for and dedication to public service coupled with her extensive involvement in non-profit organizations and community groups is certainly illustrative of this Latina quality.”

Based upon the conclusions of this independent study, Sotomayor’s comment in 2001 can actually be viewed as an added benefit to her already long and extensive resume. Observed through an alternative lens, perhaps the idea of a “Wise Latina” presiding judgement over an extremely diverse socioeconomic and multi-ethnic U.S. citizenry as a Supreme Court Justice isn’t such a bad thing after all.