85% Win High School Diploma : Aid Plans Help Migrant Students to Better Future

Children of migrant farm workers showed noteworthy success after enrolling in programs meant to get them high school diplomas or at least a year of college, a national study found.

An evaluation of high school equivalency and migrant college assistance programs revealed participants generally earned better incomes and jobs than before they started, according to a study by Gary Riley, an assistant dean at Fresno State University.

“By any conventional measure of success, the programs are among the most effective of all federally and state sponsored compensatory educational activities,” the report said.

The study noted migrant students generally had performed in the lowest quarter of all poor people, but the special programs changed that poor performance for many students.

Education a Luxury

Education was a luxury in the families of 2,300 students who responded to a survey that was part of Riley’s study. Only about one in six had a parent with a high school diploma, and only half had a sibling with one.

Nearly 60% of the students grew up in a home where English was a secondary language.

“The dominant home language was Spanish for most students, but others reported growing up having first learned a Native American dialect, an Eastern European language or a French-American dialect,” the report said.

The mean family size of 8.67 was reported in the high school group and 7.28 for the college group. Three-fourths of the students reported family income under $10,000 a year.

85% Completion Rate

Despite what the study called the group’s “predictors of educational failure,” 85% of the high school equivalency students who enrolled from 1980 to 1984 completed the program.

More than 92% who received financial aid and counseling in the college program completed at least their freshman year, and more than two-thirds remained in school.

Fifty-six percent of the students in the college program since 1980 have earned their bachelor’s degrees compared to 38% for the nation’s first-time college freshman, the report noted.

However, one in every five students who enrolled in the programs lacked basic math and language skills to achieve their objectives.

‘Success Noteworthy’

“Considering the scope and magnitude of disadvantages brought to education by those who are eligible to participate. . . , these records of success are noteworthy,” the study concluded.

Students were primarily motivated to improve their education by prospects for better jobs and pay.

“Findings indicate that those who complete their educational objectives also achieve higher levels of career and income status,” the report said.

Income was based on levels of educational achievement with the highest pay earned by people with college degrees.

“Career development must be systematically related to higher educational development for it is through educational advancement that agricultural migrant students overcome socioeconomic and career barriers,” the study stressed.