EDUCATION REPORT - New Reports Look at Education for Hispani

EDUCATION REPORT - New Reports Look at Education for Hispanics in the U.S.
By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, November 10, 2005

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education Report.

The United¹ States government says Hispanics are now the largest minority group in the country. Hispanics are people of Spanish ancestry². Latino is another name for those with roots in Spanish-speaking countries.

The Hispanic population in the United States has increased by almost six million since the last national population count in two thousand. More than forty-one million Latinos live in the United States. That is fourteen percent of the population.

 
Hispanic Student
One important concern among American educators is improving the school performance of Latinos. One organization that carries out research on such issues³ is the Pew Hispanic Center. On November first, the Pew Hispanic Center released⁴ three reports about Hispanics and the United States education system.

In the first study, the organization found great differences among the educational environments of Latinos, blacks and whites. It says Hispanic teenagers are more likely than others to attend public schools with the most students, the most low-income students and the fewest teachers.

The study says fifty-five percent of Latinos attend the nation's largest high schools. And it notes that studies have shown that large schools are linked to low student performance and higher dropout⁵ rates.

The second report examines the importance of schooling⁶ outside the United States. It says eight percent of the nation's teenagers are foreign-born. But foreign-born teens⁷ make up nearly twenty-five percent of those who never finish high school.

And nearly forty percent of foreign-born teens are recent arrivals⁸ who did not finish their educations before they came to the United States. The report says young people in this situation are not likely to finish their educations once they come to the United States.

The third report found that an increasing number of young Hispanics in the United States are going to college. But it also found an increasing difference between the numbers of Hispanics and whites in colleges around the nation.

Internet users⁹ can get more information about the reports from the Pew Hispanic Center at its Web¹⁰ site, pewhispanic dot o-r-g. Pew is spelled P-E-W.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. We cannot answer questions privately¹¹, but we might answer them on our program. I'm Steve Ember.

1 united   

adj.和谐的；团结的；联合的，统一的

参考例句：

• The whole nation is closely united.全国人民紧密团结。
• The two men were united by community of interests.共同的利益使两个人结合在一起。

2 ancestry   

n.祖先，家世

参考例句：

• Their ancestry settled the land in 1856.他们的祖辈1856年在这块土地上定居下来。
• He is an American of French ancestry.他是法国血统的美国人。

3 issues   

（水等的）流出( issue的名词复数 )； 出口； 放出； （特别重要或大众关注的）问题

参考例句：

• Let's start with the more easily addressable issues. 我们先从较容易处理的问题着手。
• Employment and taxation are the bread-and-butter issues of politics. 就业和征税是很重要的政治问题。

4 released   

v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他，这倒容易。

5 dropout   

n.退学的学生；退学；退出者

参考例句：

• There is a high dropout rate from some college courses.有些大学课程的退出率很高。
• In the long haul,she'll regret having been a school dropout.她终归会后悔不该中途辍学。

6 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

7 teens   

n.13至19岁的年龄；青少年

参考例句：

• His son is in his teens.他的儿子十几岁。
• She's not yet out of her teens.她还不到二十岁。

8 arrivals   

n.到达( arrival的名词复数 )；抵达；到达者；（新技术、新思想的）引进

参考例句：

• Arrivals continue to be abundant. 到货仍然源源不断。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There were two new arrivals, fidgeting around, waiting to ask questions. 有两个新来的人坐立不安地等着提问。 来自辞典例句

9 users   

用户，使用者( user的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The new software will prove a boon to Internet users. 这种新软件将会对互联网用户大有益处。
• Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。

10 web   

n.网，蛛丝，蹼，织物，圈套，卷筒纸；vi.生蹼，形成网；vt.织蜘蛛网于，使落入圈套

参考例句：

• The spider weaves a web.蜘蛛织网。
• You mean the World Wide Web?你是说国际互联网？

11 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。