Calexico Defies Odds on Dropout Rate : Education: The border town has a far better record than the rest of the state of keeping Latino students in school. Officials give credit to bilingual programs.

Year after year, the nearly all-Latino schools in this small town, hard against the Mexican border, are offering convincing proof that statistics don’t always tell the whole story.

While educators nationwide wrestle with the vexing problem of how to lower alarmingly high dropout rates for minorities--particularly Latinos--Calexico in south-central Imperial County has been quietly defying the odds on student achievement.

For five years running--from 1986 through last year--Calexico High School has had the lowest dropout rate of any predominantly Latino school in California, state figures show.

In 1990, the dropout rate at Calexico High stood at a relatively low 11%--nine percentage points below the statewide dropout rate of 20.2%, according to figures released last week by the state Department of Education.

Calexico’s achievements stand in sharp contrast to state and national statistics that show Latinos fairing poorly at nearly every rung of the educational ladder--their dropout rate disproportionately high.

The most recent dropout figures put the statewide dropout rate among Latinos at 29.2%--down from the previous year’s 35.1% but still more than double the 14.4% rate for Anglos. The dropout figures are based on the number of students who entered the 10th grade but left high school without a diploma or its equivalent before the end of the 12th grade.

In Calexico, not only are dropout rates low, the rate of students continuing their education after graduation is high. Two-thirds of the 1990 Calexico High graduates went on to either a community college or a four-year university, figures show.

“It’s obvious they are doing the right thing in Calexico,” said Jeannemarie Solak, an evaluation consultant with the state education department. “The students in Calexico are making it against all odds.”

By comparison, in Los Angeles, where the school system is more than 86% minority, the dropout rate among Latinos who would have been in the Class of ’90 was 43.6%, according to James Fulton, manager of the state’s Educational Demographics Unit.

Much of the credit for Calexico’s success is given to the district’s extensive bilingual program--built around the premise that students learn best in their native tongue.

Also, Calexico educators and state officials note that because Calexico is a homogenous community that is isolated and somewhat distant from urban distractions, the students don’t feel the same kind of pressure experienced by their counterparts in other school districts.

Said Fred Tempest, the No. 2 man at the education department: “Calexico is a shining light among school districts with predominantly Latino student bodies in the state.”

Calexico, population 18,500, has the pace and feel of a Mexican pueblo. Conversations in Spanish are more prevalent than English along its streets.

The average family in town earns less than $10,000 a year. But that’s not unusual for Imperial County, which has the lowest per-capita income of any California county.

Ninety-five percent of the students in the Calexico Unified School District--which has nine schools and 6,500 students--start elementary school knowing only Spanish.

Calexico High School, where 98% of the 2,074 students are Latino, has the largest percentage of Latinos of any medium-to-large high school in the state, according to Department of Education figures.

“Calexico is a very unusual, progressive school district,” said Miguel Navarrette, 54, bilingual consultant in the department’s Office of Compliance. “That border town has a special population: 98% Hispanic students in the schools, (and) five principals are Hispanic.

“All the teachers at Calexico understand the culture of the people. They speak and understand Spanish. . . . I work the entire state. I wish other districts were like that. If they were, my job would be easier.”

Tempest noted that Calexico has a higher percentage of bilingual credentialed teachers than in any other school district in the state.

Dennis Parker is manager of the Office of Instructional Strategies at the department and has worked as a state consultant to the Calexico schools from 1981 to 1986. He sees two main reasons Calexico’s bilingual program succeeds where others fail.

“First, they have more instruction in Spanish than other bilingual programs. As high as 80% in the early grades,” Parker said. “After they become fluent in English, they still receive instruction in Spanish 15% to 20% of the day in their classes.

“Second, English is introduced gradually, and to make it more comprehensible they use more pictures, more hands-on activities. They follow a strict criteria when transitioning from one language to another.”

By the time students reach high school, 62% have only limited proficiency in English--the largest percentage of any district in the state, said Solak, the state evaluation consultant.

Such a high percentage may prompt some concerns that the students, particularly graduating seniors, would have difficulty in college, where English proficiency is a must.

Roberto Moreno, 44, a product of the Calexico schools and now assistant superintendent, sees no problem.

“When I enrolled at UCLA in 1964 there were only 70 Chicano students at the 27,000-student campus, and 12 of us were from Calexico High School,” recalled Moreno. In a University of California study of high schools whose enrollment was 50% or more minority, he said, “Calexico’s high school was in the top quarter in sending students to the UC system. All the other schools were urban schools within 50 miles of a UC campus. We were the only rural school.”

Solak noted that 75% of the Calexico seniors have three or more years of math, 90% have four years of English and a third of the student body is enrolled in advanced science classes.

And Moreno added that 25% to 30% of Calexico High School graduates have gone on to earn bachelor’s degrees in recent years--exceptionally high for a predominantly Latino school, he said.

“In 1989, for example, 13 of our graduates went to UCLA. Twelve are making it, a typical pattern. Our kids make it,” Moreno said.

Calexico has a largely migrant population; nearly half of its residents are farm laborers who follow the crops much of the year. Many leave their children with other family members when school starts. About 500 to 600 schoolchildren accompany their parents to farms throughout the state and in Arizona and Texas; they arrive back in school by early October and leave again in April or May.

Moreno said during the past 20 years the district has developed effective programs--funded largely with federal dollars--for the children of migrant workers.

These efforts, including special language arts instruction, parent education and extensive tracking of the traveling students--help offset the difficulties students of migrant parents often face, Moreno said.

Because so many students in the district are children of low-income migrant workers and speak limited English, the district qualifies for various financial assistance programs totaling more than $3 million last year, one of the largest amounts in the state for a district of this size, Tempest said.

But dollars alone do not account for Calexico’s success.

Residents, students, teachers and administrators point to a kind of educational verve that they feel has helped boost their small district beyond the dismal statistics associated with other largely Latino schools.

“You won’t find the unity of an entire Hispanic community so fired up about the pursuit of education anywhere else in California as you do in this town,” said Chuck Acosta, president of the 4,000-member California Assn. of Bilingual Educators. “It’s a matter of parental involvement, dedicated and talented teachers and school administrators providing a model bilingual education program.”

Said Superintendent of Schools Gerald Dadey, 61: “Calexico is poor, but it is closely knit. Here a large number of residents live in low-cost housing, but they have a positive attitude about life and are extremely optimistic. . . .”

Senior Class President George Gonzalez, 18, one of many students whose parents were born in Mexico, attributes the high school’s success to the fact that “we’re all the same. We grew up together. Our parents are on the same economic level . . . (and) are very supportive. They want us to have the education they never had. The teachers and the school administrators are just great.”

Almost everyone in Calexico can talk at length about the small district’s accomplishments. But the district’s fame has spread.

Calexico schools have been honored for successful bilingual programs by the state board of education and the California Assn. of Bilingual Educators.

And Calexico has attracted attention from other educators hoping to duplicate its success.

“Our staff people are constantly called upon to do presentations up and down the state,” said Moreno, the assistant superintendent. “We get visitors all the time from other school districts to observe our methods.”

Parker, of the Department of Education, said the type of bilingual program that has proven to be so successful in Calexico is being implemented in several districts throughout the state.

“And I’m confident it will work in other schools as it has in Calexico,” he said.

Added Navarrette, also of the department: “If you know your kids . . . there is no reason why you can’t have the same successful achievement results as the kids in Calexico.”