Dr. Rosa Maria Abreo and Dr. Kimberly S. Barker, NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL, 30(3) 2013

NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL
VOLUME 30, NUMBER 3, 2013

THE ROLE OF THE UNIVERSITY IN
PROMOTING CULTURAL COMPETENCE
AMONG PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS: A
TEXAS-ARIZONA PERSPECTIVE DROP-
OUT PREVENTION IN LATINO YOUTH
Rosa Maria Abreo, Ph.D.
Concordia University
Kimberly S. Barker, Ed.D.
Texas A&M University-San Antonio
ABSTRACT

Culture has a strong impact on learning by students that come from minority
cultures. In this article the authors argue that the learner’s cultural
background is important to academic success. They concur with Lal (2003)
that cultural values, perceptions, and goals that shape the learner, will be
catapulted in the learning process. They further contend that despite public
acknowledgement of important differences among learners, pedagogy that most
students experience a uniform and cookie cutter approach to instruction. Amid
the current controversy stemming from nativist policies and sentiments, the
authors contend that the moral imperative to educate all children remains
unchanged to school administrators and other educators who must the address
the problem in an era of diminishing resources. Ultimately, it is what happens
in the individual classroom that will determine future dropout rates. The
authors address the role of higher education teacher preparation as a linchpin
for success.

Introduction

More than 50 years ago, Nathaniel Cantor observed that ―the
public elementary and high schools, and colleges, generally project
what they consider to be the proper way of learning which is uniform
69

70NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL

for all students‖ (1946/1972, p.102). In 2010, much in this regard
remains the same. Schools continue to function as though all students
are the same; they are taught with the same curriculum, no
differentiation of instruction, following the same scope and sequence,
employing the same tests to measure success. In a standardized school
environment, good for accountability administration, diversity takes a
back seat. This ignores the reality postulated by Balsam & Tomie
(1985) that the context in which someone grows and develops has an
important impact on learning. These beliefs, principles, and theories
need to be revisited frequently by educational practitioners and policy
makers alike.

The Dropout Dilemma-A National Perspective

Accountability measures in public schools throughout the
United States have painted a portrait of student success. High-stakes
testing pinpoints those students who are proficient at content areas
such as math, reading, writing, social studies, and science.
Unfortunately, the faces of many minority children are missing from
the portrait of success in public schools. Considered ―at-risk‖ for
dropping out and not graduating from high school, non-white students
complete public school at a rate well below that of white students.
Despite decades of attempts to remedy this educational attainment gap,
the problem remains. Minority at-risk students have a difficult time
successfully traversing through the American public school system.

The educational attainment gap between minority students and
white students has been explored exhaustively. Initiatives in teacher
training, tutoring, mentoring, interventions, and retention are some of
the methods employed in public schools to increase learning success
for minority at-risk students. The success of these interventions
attempts is varied and localized. While some increase in achievement
has been obtained, wide-spread gains have not been visible. Despite
the decades of efforts made, the educational attainment gap persists

___________________________________________________ ABREO & BARKER71

(Gandara, 2010). With dropout rates among minority students at an
unacceptably high level, educators must continue to explore reasons
why the educational system is failing so many of its students.

Despite a variety of reform efforts and intervention programs
implemented over the past several decades, public schools have
changed very little. Family structure and society have experienced
tremendous upheaval (Cuban, 2003; Glatthorn & Jailall, 2000).
Vygotsky (1987) noted that learning and social interaction are
intricately woven together and cannot be separated. Wink and Putney
(2002) observed: ―Vygotsky believed that our life experiences affect
and influence our development. Our use of language determines our
learning; and our learning determines our use of language. None of
this takes place in a vacuum‖ (p. 60). This is to say that culture has a
profound impact on learning. The cultural values, perceptions, and
goals that shape the learner, if accessed, can be used to catapult the
learning process (Lal, 2003).Collis (1999) and McLoughlin and Oliver
(2000) noted the importance of considering the cultural backgrounds
of learners in designing computer based learning experiences as well.
The consequences of disregarding the cultural connection are serious.
Students who do not identify with schools and their teachers lose
interest and motivation (Valenzuela, 1999). While on the other hand,
culturally relevant teaching can promote student success among
minority students (DeCuir-Gunby, Taliaferro, & Greenfield, 2010).

The Historical Context

The American school system has long been invested in the
belief that all students should have the opportunity for success. The
first U.S. Department of Education was created in 1867 to assist states
that were establishing school systems for the first time and to collect
information concerning educational matters (U.S. Department of
Education, 2005). In 1892 a National Council of Education met to
discuss and map a standardized core curriculum for high schools that
would prepare students for college, life, and work (Boyer, 1983). This


Committee of Ten called for all students, college bound or not, to be
educated the same, which was a novel concept for the time. It was
assumed that to be ready for college was the primary purpose of the
high school. This ideology created an American school system that
helped Americanize new immigrants and ―stood as a symbol of hope‖
for bettering oneself (Boyer, 1983, p. 50). Education was no longer to
be limited to the privileged or the social elites. These early foundations
of standardized education found different manifestations over the next
century that included two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold
War, and the Civil Rights Movement.

It was the Cold War that fueled the first comprehensive Federal
legislation targeting education. Boyer explained:

…it took Sputnik to push school improvement to the top of the
national agenda. The National Defense Education Act of 1958
provided funds for the improvement of science, mathematics,
and foreign-language teaching. It was subsequently broadened
to include support for the humanities and social sciences as
well. Rigor became the catchword of the day. (p. 54)

As the United States traversed the tumultuous times of the
1960s and 1970s, the Department of Education enforced the civil
rights of students, applying several different laws including Title VI of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments
of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Every
person was deemed entitled to a free and appropriate education. In
theory noperson could be denied equal protection under these laws.
The emphasis turned toward proving procedural due process for any
child referred for evaluation and placement(Byer & Johnson, 2005).

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
provided programs such as Title I to help address the needs of poor
and disadvantaged students. The Department of Education was
elevated to a cabinet level agency in 1980, with the Secretary of

___________________________________________________ ABREO & BARKER73

Education overseeing the nation‘s educational challenges and working
to improve education for all students (U.S. Department of Education,
2005).

It was during the late 1970s and the 1980s that growing public
demand for improvement in public education culminated in the
National Commission on Excellence in Education‘s (NCEE) 1983
report, A Nation at Risk (Angus & Mirel, 1999). It was a scathing
indictment of the inadequacies and inequalities of the public school
system. Angus and Mirel (1999) note that ―A Nation at Risk
reanimated the idea that equality of educational opportunity meant that
all students should have access to the same high quality programs, in
other words, that ‗identical‘ education was indeed the true definition
of equal education‖ (p. 167). For the next decade, A Nation at Risk
was the source of much debate, a variety of reform efforts, more
rigorous high school graduation requirements, and a push to increase
excellence in schools. States were left to make decisions as to how to
improve education for their students.

As statistics indicated that minorities and disadvantaged
students continued to be trapped in an achievement gap despite
reform, one of the most sweeping federal policies was launched in an
effort to assure all students receive quality educational experiences.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) uses accountability and
assessment tools to require states by law to address the achievement
gap (U.S. Department of Education, 2004).

School Funding As Long-term Failed Panacea:
A Nation Still At Risk

The Elementary and Secondary School Act of 1965 was the
largest source of monies coming to states to bridge the gap between
minorities whose language was other than English. The trend
continues, funds coming to states and districts, and the dropout rates


continue to be the same. The academic gap that exists between
monolingual and minorities is still evident. So what have all these
monies accomplished? The U.S. Census Bureau (2010) reported that
dropouts face an increasingly bleak career prospects. A high school
dropout earns an average of $9,000 a year less than a high school
graduate. With more than half a million young people dropping out of
high school each year nationwide, the dropout dilemma is real and no
amount of monies will remedy the situation unless a closer look is
taken into the classroom and the teachers in them.

Figure 1. Averaged freshman graduation rate: 2007-2008 school year.

Texas falls slightly below the national average for dropouts in
grades nine through eleven (See Figure 1).The states with the largest
growth in populations are Texas, California, Florida, Georgia,
Arizona, North Carolina, Virginia, Washington, Nevada, and Colorado
(U.S. Census Bureau, 2010). The tremendous growth in migrant
populations in these states intensifies and complicates the dilemma of
the dropout problem on a national scale, particularly with growing
nativist sentiments and policies in Arizona and elsewhere. In states

___________________________________________________ ABREO & BARKER75

where the dropout problem is severe among migrant children,
programs that have been proven to work (Texas Education Agency,
2008) promises hope for transforming the system and improving
graduation rates, calling for strategies that are closely tied to results at
improving high school graduation rates.

Short-term, isolated programs have been instituted over the last
50 years but without significant impact. Year after year new programs
emerge with promises of improved drop-out rates as millions of
dollars continue to be pumped into programs that show few positive
results. The lack of impact reveals that costly new band-aid
prescriptions for the age-old problem of student alienation and
dropping out of school is not likely. Money is spent and careers are
made, while the status quo remains. The real challenge facing school
administrators and public policy makers is to be honest and truthful
about the real problem in the schools. Until problems are first
addressed in the classroom, no amount of money or no new program
will prove over time to be successful in reducing the number or rate of
dropouts among Latino students.

Figure 1 also reveals that in the 12th grade the Texas‘ annual
dropout rate exceeded the national average.The Latino population
dropout rate exceeds the overall numbers of the state. Latinos continue
to drop out of school. The academic achievement gap between Latinos
and other groups continues to widen. Fifty years of research, funding,
and practice have been fruitless. This phenomenon will continue
because it is not money that fixes problems. It is caring, committed,
and skilled teachers that will make a difference. The education of pre-
service teachers coming into the field of education and preparing them
with the proper tools is what will make caring, committed, and skilled
teachers. Teaching teachers to understand diversity, using it as a tool
for improving instruction is critical. Understanding how minority
populations learn should be central to lesson planning and delivery of
instruction. Teacher preparation and on-going staff development are


keys to achieving such high levels of cultural competence. Additional
grade-by-grade breakdowns by ethnicity are provided in Table 1.

Table 1

Students, Dropouts, and Annual Dropout Rate, by Student Group and
Grade, Texas Public Schools, 2007-08 (Source: Texas Education
Agency)

7th Grade Student Dropout Dropout Annual Annual
# % # % Dropout
%
African
50,594 14.5 198 26.9 0.4
American
Asian/Pacific
<11,745 –a – – 0.2
Islander
Hispanic 161,115 46.1 385 52.2 0.2
Native
<1,305 – – – 0.2
American
White 124,415 35.6 131 17.8 0.1
Economically
disadvantaged 184,122 52.7 370 50.2 0.2

State 349,153 100 737 100 0.2

___________________________________________________ ABREO & BARKER77

8h Grade Student Dropout Dropout Annual Annual
# % # % Dropout
%
African 50,034 14.6 277 22.1 0.6
American
Asian/Pacific
<11,520 – – – 0.2
Islander
Hispanic 153,930 45.0 741 59.2 0.5
Native <1,230 – – – 0.2
American
White 125,434 36.7 212 16.9 0.2
Economically
172,610 50.5 684 54.7 0.4
disadvantaged
State 342,129 100 1,251 100 0.4

9th Grade Student Dropout Dropout Annual Annual
# % # % Dropout
%
African 64,250 15.5 2,746 23.1 4.3
American
Asian/Pacific
12,593 3.0 110 0.9 0.9
Islander
Hispanic 194,068 46.9 7,309 61.6 3.8
Native 1,533 0.4 33 0.3 2.2
American
White 140,950 34.1 1,665 14.0 1.2
Economically
202,323 48.9 5,981 50.4 3.0
disadvantaged
State 413,394 100 11,863 100 2.9

The Dropout Dilemma-Arizona

The Native American Communities have also been facing the


same dilemma in their students dropping out of high schools. The
Arizona dropout rate has reached unacceptable levels. Many students
are not graduating from high school. Most of these are from
economically and socially disadvantaged minority communities.
Figure 3 provides recent grade-by-grade breakdowns of the alarming
lack of student success in Arizona. Though the ―drop-out rates‖ do not
seem high at any specific grade, the cumulative effect is extraordinary.
Furthermore, every number, every statistic, is a child – every number
is a life that will touch many, many more lives when they age out of
schooling, enter the labor force, and have a family. The impact of
school failure on one child will be passed from generation to
generation until the cycle is broken.
Table 2
Arizona High School Dropout Rates 2007-08

STATE BY GRADE

Number of Number of
Grade Students Dropouts Dropout Rate

All Grades 525474 18779 3.6

7 88499 1028 1.2

8 88232 1138 1.3

9 91343 2542 2.8

10 88160 3306 3.8

11 82034 4133 5

12 87206 6632 7.6
Source: Arizona Minority Education Policy Analysis Center, 2008-09

___________________________________________________ ABREO & BARKER79

The Cultural Connection

The standardization of our educational systems has forced the
efforts of many schools either to reduce or remove traces of cultural
connectedness in the curriculum. For example, art programs, music,
and cultural literature have been eliminated in favor of instruction that
concentrates more on state exams. The dilemma is that lack of identity
of students creates a lack of connectedness within the classroom.
Teachers often fail to look beyond the surface features of a culture to
get to know the culture bearers of a community and becoming familiar
with aspects of the local language and culture (Barnhardt, 2010).
Teachers, therefore, must be more aware than ever about how their
personal views can hurt children and must seek to avoid cultural
judgments of their students.

Students need to feel a core sense of connectedness in order to
feel they belong. Any adult willing to allow these students to talk
about their culture and their experiences can achieve tremendous
results in this manner. Feeling alienated, students who do not
experience this kind of respect and acknowledgement of their culture
disengage from the teaching and learning process. Without the feeling
of connectedness the cycle of alienation and dropping out begins.
Students that have not experienced a sense of belonging in the schools
fail to grasp its relevance to their lives. When the content of
curriculum is devoid of their cultural story and identity, students are
deprived of an opportunity to know more about their rich cultural
heritage. When this happens, an enormous opportunity to engage
Latino students is lost. When honoring and valuing these children and
celebrating their diversity occurs, teachers play major role in
interrupting the recurrent cycle of that leads to alienation, dropping out
of school, and ultimately, poverty.


Building Cultural Identity

Noddings (2003), writing on caring, created a different view on
the ethics and purpose of education. Relationship is seen as the basis
of ethics and the core value that makes teaching effective. Noddings
further explained that the aim of education should be to allow caring to
flourish and the relationship between the teacher and learner is vital.
Teacher as ―giver‖ and ―nurturer‖ is central. Schooling needs to be
about education building relationships. There is strong ethical and
moral imperative to identify and assist students that are at risk of
dropping out. The research about caring, nurturing teachers, strongly
suggests how an educator can make a difference in the lives of
students. The need to seek acceptance is part of culture and human
condition to belong, to be loved and to love. So what is so difficult
about including caring, nurturing teachers, recruiting the best possible
who care and can help build and discover the talent in the students
who come from minority cultures. In doing so, this will and can have
a tremendous impact on lowering the dropout rate.

Valenzuela‘s (2005) research concludes that the gap of caring
between teachers and students creates animosity between the school
and the students, leading to high drop-out rates and lower academic
standards. Students in this type of environment learn to give up –
―learned helplessness‖ leads students to anger and despair. They feel
that teachers ―don‘t care about.‖ Many simply give up.

Recommendations for Universities:Toward Greater
Cultural Competence Among Pre-Service Teachers

To achieve greater teaching success, to stem the growing tide
of school drop-outs at all ages, pre-service teachers and teachers alike
should be prepared and supported by universities in the following
ways:

___________________________________________________ ABREO & BARKER81

1. It is each individual teacher that influences whether a child
will drop out of school or whether he or she will persist,
remaining in the educational pipeline through completion
of the high school diploma and ultimately the college
degree. The training, recruitment, selection, and induction
of teachers into the teaching profession should be done
with this in mind. There should be a strong sense of
urgency and mindfulness of this very fact. Teacher
development and team building in schools should be based
partly on how well the school, the team, and the individual
is doing regarding culturally competent teaching.
2. The pre-service teacher should be taught and mentored by a
successful practicing teacher who knows how to teach
children, who knows what to teach them, and who
passionately loves the children they teach. Universities
should develop and keep a track record for each of its
teacher graduates. How are the former students doing as
teachers? How are their students doing? Attaining a degree
in teaching should include a component of demonstrating
maturity and passion for teaching students who are
different. A follow-up tracking system needs to be
developed that identifies cultural competence and
compassion of the teacher as well as other measures of
student competencies.
3. Institutions of higher learning should seek to balance their
teaching faculty by including the most experienced
professors who have previously successfully taught in the
public or private school ―trenches‖ more than 3 years.
These professors should spend time in the field with their
former students to learn about new challenges and to find
ways to support them in meeting new challenges either
through research, collaboration, or professional
development.
4. Institutions of higher learning should consider hiring
visiting faculty members who have distinguished


themselves as teachers; especially those that have taught
more than 6 years in an area that they will be teaching at
the university level.
5. Mentorship programs of adults mentoring children should
be encouraged and promoted. Schools can provide
environments which foster the growth of volunteer mentors
within the schools and at the same time offer
training/development in order to understand the student and
their stage of development. University faculty should
become an integral part of such programs. Education
majors, both undergraduate and graduate level should be
required to serve in mentoring roles to young children.
Research shows that at-risk youth perform much better in
school and in life when a caring adult has taken an interest
in their lives and their academic success.
6. Universities should offer courses and training within their
classes to enhance the knowledge and understanding of
students that come from diversified cultures. This will help
foster the building of relationships within the school
community that enhance student success. The cultural
differences and the belief systems of students must be
examined and understood in current and historical contexts.
This enhanced perspective can help guide culturally
relevant connectedness in the classroom.
7. To this end, every LEP (Limited English Proficiency) and
migrant student needs to feel a sense of belonging and feel
capable of learning in a safe environment of acceptance
notwithstanding the national mood regarding immigration.
The lack of multicultural curriculum components within
many of the districts and the universities makes it
imperative to access the need for the inclusion of
diversified cultural training in order to promote teacher
understanding of the deeper cultural roots of the students
within the classroom.

___________________________________________________ ABREO & BARKER83

Conclusion

As the dropout problem remains unacceptably high among
minority populations, there is an urgency to explore possible solutions
to this critical problem that exists throughout the United States,
particularly in Arizona and Texas. This dilemma will be further
exacerbated by the tensions arising over illegal immigration and public
policy related to enforcement of immigration laws. Whatever the
status of the parents, the children must continue to be served and
educated for the good of American society as well as for the
individuals. Because of the hostility and fear, many children will be
even more at risk. This dilemma is also one faced by growing numbers
of states.

Too many years have passed and millions of dollars have been
spent, yet we as a nation have not begun to make a dent in this national
problem. Unless educators and policy makers look outside the box for
viable solutions to minority education issues, the continuing practice
of allowing ineffective educational spending will not promote the
success of Latino children and those of other cultures. Until
universities learn how to produce caring and nurturing teachers,
nothing will change. Until parents take responsibility for the
education at home of their children, the problem will continue. The
role of the school must remain to educate those who enter through the
doors, but the responsibility lies in all of the stakeholders. The
diversity of this country makes it imperative to improve the
educational experience and retain more minority students. In keeping
with its traditional role over the past century, universities must step up
and take the lead in developing a generation of culturally competent
educators. This should be the end in sight—to create a new generation
of teachers that is both able and willing to celebrate the uniqueness in
each child and inspire that child to continue learning for the rest of his
or her lifetime.


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Dr. Rosa Maria Abreo and Dr. Kimberly S. Barker, NATIONAL FORUM OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND SUPERVISION JOURNAL, 30(3) 2013

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