by Christie Turner, MARGARET Fund Fellow,
and Megan Tackney, Program Associate,
National Women's Law Center

Last week, NWLC and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) released a report highlighting the dropout crisis for Latinas. Forty-one percent of Latina students do not graduate with their class in four years—if they graduate at all. Our report examines the factors that lead so many Latinas to abandon their dreams, and makes a number of recommendations for addressing those barriers.

We surveyed over 300 young Latinas for our report to find out more about the challenges they face on a daily basis. And although our survey was qualitative in nature, it was clear that those students who participated in sports and activities were more engaged in school. In fact, only about 8 percent of the students we surveyed who said they did participate in sports or other activities reported that they had considered dropping out of school. On the other hand, about 37 percent of those who said they did not participate in any sports or activities had considered dropping out. These connections make sense when you think about it: participating in activities can help you build relationships with your school and your peers. Not to mention that playing sports can help adolescent girls develop healthy habits and build self-confidence.

Unfortunately, Latinas tend to have lower levels of participation in sports than other girls, according to a recent study by the Women’s Sports Foundation. These lower participation rates may be due to a number of factors – as we found in our report, many girls felt the need to get a job after school to help support their families, and many said they couldn’t participate in sports because they had to rush home after school to take care of younger siblings. Schools and policymakers can do more to support these students and ensure that they reap the same benefits as everyone else. To learn more about what you can do to make sure that Latina voices are heard, check out www.nwlc.org/listening.