So, A. (1987). High-achieving disadvantaged students: A study of low SES hispanic language minority youth. Urban Education, 77(1), 19-35.

OVERVIEW

Many have noted that adolescents from low socioeconomic status (SES), ethnic minority, and language minority groups generally perform poorly in school and experience higher dropout rates. However, some such youth are much more successful than their peers. Several theories attempt to explain why these students overcome such obstacles, but none has endeavored to seek relationships between these theories or compared each one’s effect on the students who excel in a society that doesn’t seem to support them in that effort.

Three hypotheses have been developed regarding these academically successful young people: the middle-class reference group hypothesis, the Anglo reference group hypothesis, and the Hispanic reference group hypothesis. The first hypothesis suggests that young, disadvantaged people should strive to enter the middle class and should adopt middle class values and lifestyles in order to succeed in school. The second presents the idea that a young Hispanic’s success is limited by their attachment to the Hispanic culture and Spanish language. Accordingly, Hispanic students should aim to assimilate into the Anglo culture and speak only English. The third hypotheses suggests the opposite of the second: Hispanic students should preserve their heritage and continue to speak Spanish in order to maintain their ethnic identity. This would also support their self-esteem and help to minimize tension between the two different cultures. In this study, the three hypotheses are studied together to find which most accurately predicts success among Hispanic students.

DESIGN

The High School and Beyond survey was used and the areas of educational achievement, middle class reference group identification, and Hispanic reference group identification were analyzed. The questions used to analyze the Hispanic reference group were also used to study the Anglo reference group hypothesis, since indirectly they either support or refute it. The survey was given to 58,000 high school sophomores and seniors. These students also took achievement tests. The vast majority of participants were Hispanic, because of the purpose of the study. The students scoring highest were analyzed on their levels of adopting middle class lifestyles and values and their levels of preserving the Hispanic culture and language.

FINDINGS

• The middle class reference group has a positive impact on educational achievement, supporting the middle-class reference group hypothesis.
• The Hispanic reference group also positively affects educational achievement; this supports the Hispanic reference group hypothesis and questions the Anglo reference group hypothesis.
• The middle class reference group affected educational achievement four times more than the Hispanic reference group, but the two factors were found to be positively correlated; this means that both may impact achievement in the same people. In this way, the Hispanic reference group has an indirect effect on the middle class reference group. Considering the factors of direct and indirect effects, the middle class reference group has more than twice the effect of the Hispanic reference group on achievement, but both do positively impact student achievement.

CONCLUSIONS

• Both the middle class reference group hypothesis and the Hispanic reference group hypothesis are affirmed by this study.
• A new hypothesis can be introduced, the Hispanic middle-class reference group hypothesis, which states that "a high-achieving disadvantaged student is one who identifies with his or her own ethnic group while at the same time aspiring to middle-class values" (p. 30).
• "[This finding] suggests the need to strengthen both the ethnic programs that are sensitive to cultural identification and the general academic programs that increase the orientation toward the middle-class reference group" (p. 30).
• It is possible that high-achieving Hispanic students maintain these reference groups for different reasons: "They may identify with the minority ethnic group for sentimental reasons, such as greater comfort in speaking Spanish with parents; however, they may be oriented to middle-class values for instrumental reasons, such as educational achievement and future upward mobility" (p. 31).

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1. How can your youth group affirm your students’ ethnic backgrounds?
2. How would you encourage youth to adopt "middle-class" values and lifestyle? What are "middle class" values and lifestyles?
3. What should you do when the "middle-class" ways are contrary to the culture of your students’ the ethnic groups?

IMPLICATIONS

• This study is important because it focuses on success stories that may encourage other young people to achieve their potential. Little research is done on disadvantaged people who succeed; such study is useful to discover what helps young Hispanics adapt to the two worlds in which they live.
• According to the findings of this research, adult leaders should seek ways to encourage adolescents to set, value, and confidently strive for their educational goals. Parents’, and particularly mothers’, aspirations strongly influence their children, so it is important that non-parent leaders model this goal orientation.
• Parents, teachers, and youth leaders should develop ways to affirm adolescents’ native culture and should provide opportunities for them to be involved in customs and maintain the language of their heritage. According to this study, this practice will encourage their achievement in school; this will, in turn, increase their chances for success in society and boost their self-esteem.