According to research conducted by ACT and Excelenica in Education, “83 percent of Hispanic students aspire to earn a postsecondary degree, just under a fourth are academically prepared to reach that goal…”
What’s the Root Problem Underlying Unpreparedness: Lack of Pedagogy
According to research conducted by ACT and Excelenica in Education, “83 percent of Hispanic students aspire to earn a postsecondary degree, just under a fourth are academically prepared to reach that goal…” In this report, of which a summary can be read here, the statistics regarding Hispanic students’ underperformance is made particularly relevant and concerning by the fact that “the number of Hispanics in the U.S. has grown dramatically in the past few years. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates Hispanics represented 17 percent (53 million) of the U.S. population in 2012 and are projected to represent 31 percent of the population by 2060.”
This lack of preparedness, coupled with the growing Hispanic population, demands our societal attention and concern. OjoOido.com is a Latino e-learning website that delivers a blended multimedia curriculum—“By Latinos, For Latinos”—to develop core study habits and skills for Latino youth. OjoOido’s Founder & CEO, Joseph N. Velasquez, believes that one of the most powerful ways to reduce the Latino high school dropout rate, increase college attendance and improve college graduation rates, is by targeting a root problem: the minimal or complete absence of academic study strategies for the vast majority of Latino youth. This is the pedagogy that is missing and this is what is necessary to address unpreparedness. OjoOido addresses the failure to provide the Latino student population access to comprehensive and culturally relevant technical academic skills coaching and training.
Recognition
The first strategy of academic achievement is to recognize that you are responsible for your own learning. Most Latino students want to be a part of a different and better world, but often they do not know how. Study strategies are rarely taught or for that matter discussed by teachers, especially at the middle school and high school level. Teachers must be content driven and normally expect students to devise their own approach to negotiating the academic workload or depend on parents for this direction. OjoOido inculcates what it means to be an independent learner and the value this has in later life as a lifelong learner to insure that Latino youth achieve. OjoOido’s pragmatic and systematic study habits and skills pedagogy builds competent, confident, motivated and self-reliant students.
Motivation
All students must first understand the role motivation plays, how good you are at setting goals, managing your time and reflecting, in order to obtain academic success because it is those activities that will reveal to the student how she or he currently stands with regard to independent learning. It is in understanding the importance of these issues and implementing them which determines one’s attitude to his or her work in middle school, high school, college and later. By the teaching and implementation of study strategies, OjoOido trains Latino students to succeed far beyond what they currently perceive is possible and provide Latino parents the support needed to proactively prepare their children to become engaged and competitive public school students.
Relevance
Developing the core academic habits and skills that are required to successfully develop the next generation of Latino talent is a prerequisite to creating a reliable and skilled workforce. It is imperative that Latino students be equipped with at least a basic understanding of critical thinking and strategic planning so they can take command of their thinking to enable them to reason well through the problems and issues they will face in the classroom and in their personal lives. Teaching this to our Latino students at an early age will help them succeed in school, in their chosen careers, and as citizens.
The best way to predict your future is to create it! OjoOido.com prepares Latino students for a successful college experience by teaching & coaching students to develop conscious, deliberate control over the mechanisms of their own learning. Join us!
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