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The Inter-Cohort Reproduction of Mexican American Dropouts

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Abstract

The Mexican American population has the highest dropout rate in the country. This paper examines the inter-cohort reproduction of dropouts hypothesis and a series of other hypotheses in the analysis of the dropout rates of native-born Mexican Americans. The paper also offers an overview of existing problems related to the measurement of dropouts. Data from the 2000 5% Public Use Microdata Sample based on 524 Public Use Microdata Areas are used in the analysis. The results show an association between inter-cohort dropout rates—areas with higher dropout rates among the native-born Mexican American 41–49 age cohort had higher dropout rates among the native-born Mexican American 16–24 age cohort. The results also support other hypotheses, but not as strongly as the inter-cohort reproduction of dropouts hypothesis. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the results for the formation of policies and programs to reduce the dropout rate of Mexican American youth along with a discussion of the limitations of the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Public Policy, University of Texas at San Antonio, 501 W. César E. Chávez Blvd., San Antonio, TX, 78207, USA

    Rogelio Saenz

  2. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, Galveston, TX, USA

    Carlos Siordia

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  1. Rogelio Saenz
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  2. Carlos Siordia
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Correspondence to Rogelio Saenz.

Appendix

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Table 4 Correlations among independent, control, and dependent variables used in the analysis
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Saenz, R., Siordia, C. The Inter-Cohort Reproduction of Mexican American Dropouts. Race Soc Probl 4, 68–81 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-012-9062-x

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