Hidden Needs of Latina@ Students (2015)

Undergraduate: Osvelia Valverde

Faculty Advisor: Patrick Akos
Department: Psychology & Neuroscience

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Latina/o students are constantly faced with challenges throughout their K-12 experience and score consistently and attend higher education at lower levels than their non-Hispanic peers. Many of these students are not classified as ELL, yet there are barriers that they face which the schools are consistently not addressing. In this paper, I will address the various factors that non-ELL Latina/o students face and best practices that should be implemented by the various schools to provide an environment that is supportive to these specific needs.
I will address the various barriers which include low expectations/biases from teachers, lack of positive cultural representation, home environment, underrepresentation of positive role models, socioeconomic barriers, preventing parental involvement, notions of intelligence, and forms of caring teachers.