Hispanic children attending school in Georgia are less likely than anywhere else in the country to graduate on time with a diploma, a new study released Tuesday suggests.
Two out of three Hispanic children in Georgia's class of 1998 didn't earn a diploma with their colleagues, according to the report by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, which studied national graduation rates. The four states with the lowest Hispanic graduation rates are in the Southeast, home to a Hispanic population boom during the past decade, according to the research.

Among individual school systems, the Cleveland schools had the lowest graduation rate among Hispanic students, followed by metro Atlanta's DeKalb, Gwinnett and Cobb counties, the study says. For all students, the institute found that 57 percent of Georgia's class of 1998 graduated that year with a regular diploma, the lowest figure in the country. The national graduation rate was 74 percent.

Similar research earlier this year suggested barely 50 percent of Georgia high school students were graduating within four years.

State school Superintendent Linda Schrenko has vehemently criticized such figures, arguing they do not track students who earn diplomas later, transfer out of the state or earn GED equivalency degrees.

However, Jay Greene, the institute's senior fellow who conducted the study, said GEDs tend to inflate high school graduation statistics.

Greene's research suggests most of the states with high Hispanic dropout rates saw a big jump in Hispanic population during the 1990s. Census 2000 figures show the Hispanic population grew 300 percent in Georgia during the past decade.

Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina, three states that also saw big gains in Hispanic residents, likewise had low Latino graduation rates. In many cases, Hispanics were moving into areas where diversity meant African-Americans and white people attending school together. Now schools are seeing lots of Hispanics and Asians.

Educators say many of the Hispanic students are leaving to take jobs.

"Part of why there is big growth in the Latino population is there have been economic booms," Greene said. "You find higher Latino dropout rates where there are attractive alternatives to schools. It's kind of a long-term bad decision for most of those students. But there is something else attractive that puts cash right in their pocket."

Most Georgia Hispanics are year-round residents, but some are with transient families that leave the state and are not tracked by education researchers.

Gladys Ibanez, Atlanta director of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said graduation rates might be improved if schools could recruit more staffers who are both bilingual and bicultural, something heavily Hispanic districts like the one in Dalton have been trying to do. Besides working with students, such staffers often have an easier time communicating to parents the importance of finishing school.

"Whatever you can do to make a student feel like they belong, they are going to be more connected to the school," Ibanez said. "If they like school and they see the benefits and rewards of an education, they'll stick with it. Maybe they don't see the rewards."

Beth Arnow, coordinator of the English for Speakers of Other Languages program in Gwinnett County, said she suspects the high dropout rates for Hispanics can be linked partly to high poverty rates. She said Hispanic kids coming from middle- and upper-income families probably graduate at much higher rates, something that's true for all children.

Educators in systems seeing major growth in Hispanic enrollment, such as in Dalton, say many of the children are coming to the United States from rural areas where they and their parents have received limited schooling.

In Gwinnett County, besides ESOL services, the system is trying to tackle the problem by offering summer and after-school programs to try to help students catch up.

The system also has Spanish-speaking teachers on special assignment assessing children in hopes of getting them into the right classes, and is talking with Hispanic parents about the importance of having their kids stay in school and of staying in one place.

With some non-English-speaking children, Arnow said, children have to deal with new school material, a new language and a new culture. "I think kids can deal with one or the other," she said.

In addition, schools have a hard time recruiting minority teachers who can serve as role models to young Hispanic children.

"Many schools nationwide are struggling with the issue of diversity," she said.

GRAPHIC: Graphic: WORST HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATES FOR HISPANICS (Map of country scores graduation rates for Hispanics. The following are highlighted:) R.I. .......51% N.C. .......38% Ga. ........32% Ala. .......33% Ark. .......48% Tenn. ......38% Neb. .......50% Colo. ......47% Nev. .......40% Ore. .......43% Source: Manhattan Istitute for Policy Research / CHUCK BLEVINS / Staff