| Several studies have documented the academic failure of Mexican-Americans, and the academic gap between them and Anglos in the United States. However, few studies had focused on investigating the causes and conditions under which some Mexican students do succeed. The purpose of this study was to examine the attributions of academic success given by third and fourth generation of potentially successful high school students and their families, and the socioeconomic and socio-cultural characteristics common to these students and their families. This was done by the qualitative interviewing of ten high school Mexican-American students, four seniors and six juniors, five females and five males. Thirteen of their parents and five educators were also interviewed. The study took place in a high school, located in central California. In addition to the interviews, the students' academic records and their grades were used to corroborate the students' history of academic success.The criteria applied for selecting the students was (a) to be third or beyond Mexican-American generation, (b) to have at least a 3.0 GPA while taking the UC system class requirements, and (c) to be willing to participate in the study.The results of the study showed that students who are succeeding come from homes filled with an atmosphere of love, care, appreciation, and respect for all members of the family, and that students credit their families and within their families, their mothers, for their success. The study also found that the Hispanic value of "familism" is seen in Hispanic households as an added value to their social capital that parents hold high educational aspirations for their children, but that these aspirations do not match the parents' knowledge of how to finance higher education that parents and, to some extent their children, hold strong ties to the Mexican-American community, and work intensively on keeping their Mexican-American culture alive that girls more than boys hold a strong identification with their mothers in the way they fulfill their roles and formulate their career aspirations and that these students seem to be able to navigate and feel comfortable in the worlds of academically inclined and less academically inclined friends. |
