» Education Achievement Gap

More than 20 percent of America’s public school students are Hispanic. In New Mexico, and America’s two largest states, California and Texas, the figure is closer to 50 percent. And there’s a serious gap between Latinos’ successes in school, including their high school graduation and college-going rates, compared to their non-Hispanic peers. The difference is what educators call the “achievement gap,” and closing it is a challenge facing the country.

Top Stories About Achievement Gap

Education Legacy, Oct. 11, 2009

The Journal kicked off its 10-month series on the Achievement Gap — the education gap between Anglo and Hispanic students that has vexed our state and country for decades — on Oct. 11, 2009, with a package of stories entitled Education Legacy. The final stories are scheduled this fall.

On this page, we have listed all of the stories produced as part of the ambitious project.

Contributors to this occasional series include:

• Lead writer Martin Salazar, the youngest of six Hispanic children born to a mother and father who never had the benefit of a high school education. A native of Las Vegas, N.M., he is a graduate of the University of New Mexico. After several years covering education for the Journal, he recently was promoted to assistant city editor.

• Columnist Joline Gutierrez Krueger, a Chicago native who grew up in Albuquerque. She attended a private Catholic school here and graduated from Albuquerque High and later the University of New Mexico.
• Reporter Juan Carlos Rodriguez, who grew up in Olympia, Wash., and earned a bachelor’s degree from Evergreen State College and a master’s in journalism from Northwestern University. He covers social services, including the Children, Youth and Families Department, and is a general assignment reporter.

• Reporter Andrea Schoellkopf, who has covered education for more than 15 years, has two children in the Albuquerque Public Schools system. She graduated from New Mexico State University.

• Reporter Elaine Briseño, was born in Artesia, N.M., and graduated from Cibola High in 1990. She was raised primarily by a single mother who was the first in her family to graduate from college. Briseño earned her bachelor’s degree from UNM. She has a son who attends middle school at Rio Rancho Public Schools.