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Hispanic high school students have the highest dropout rate of any student population group in Oregon. While it has steadily declined in the last five years, and is now at 9.1 percent, it is still much higher than the dropout rate of 3.6 percent for white students.

The Oregon Council for Hispanic Achievement is working to provide critical school retention services to help students stay in the public school system. The retention program is grounded in an understanding of the importance of acting right away. Investing in these students now will show a sound return in the future for them and their community.

Proyecto Adelante and Proyecto Conexion are two student retention programs that work intensively with students and families to provide support for academic success. On-site case managers establish relationships with students and parents, make home visits, and provide training and other services to keep students in school. Proyecto Adelante is currently working in selected Multnomah County schools focusing on increasing communication among students, parents, and schools.

A student is referred to Adelante when he or she hasn't attended school for several consecutive days. Counselors make a full assessment of the student's situation—academics, behavior, and home/family—to obtain a broad perspective of what has contributed to the nonattendance. Each student receives an Individual Service Plan, which connects them and their families with services and also focuses on academic improvement.

Older children often stay at home to take care of younger siblings, says Oscar Sweeten-Lopez, the student retention director, because families lack other child care. If the case worker realizes that this is one reason the student is not coming to school, he or she will try to find appropriate child care for the younger siblings.

Project Adelante also provides academic support and cultural enrichment activities. In one school, an after-school club provides two days a week of homework help and tutoring, and two days of project-based service learning activities.

The wide variety of services work to increase self-esteem and build on the strengths of the Hispanic students and their families, who may not have been respected or given opportunities to succeed in school in the past.

The project also works with individual schools to facilitate cultural awareness and strengthen projects that involve families. The Stories of My Families oral history project asks students to interview their family and builds an awareness of their culture and family background. Another pilot project has teachers and students create an activity book to reinforce certain concepts that families can do together at home.

The ultimate goal for Project Adelante is to build capacity within schools so they can take the lead in providing ser-vices. Indeed, some high schools in Portland have hired Latino advocates to provide support for parents and students.

According to Sweeten-Lopez, a successful program for retaining Latino children must include relationships with parents. Staff must show respect to children and their families. They must also have an understanding of cultural issues that contribute to student's non-attendance, such as older siblings caring for the younger ones.

Project Adelante staff members talk with teachers about cultural issues that can inhibit a trusting relationship with families. For example, to have successful family-teacher conferences with Latino families, they emphasize the importance of a preexisting personal relationship with the family. Sweeten-Lopez also suggests that school staff members talk with parents about how conferences and school communications work, prepare them for the cultural differences, and ask that they be flexible as the relationship develops.