[quote=Eugene] Well, there are hispanics and there are hispanics. [/quote]
This is correct on many levels. Look at the API trend lines in the Los Angeles Unified to illustrate this point.
One of the problems facing LAUSD is some of the hispanic culture there place a limited value on higher education. Specifically, many families expect the kids to go to work ( usually for family business) after the 8th grade.
This coupled with the number of kids who are english learners often haven’t had the necessary foundation education. ie. the 3 r’s. This affects these numbers greatly.
English is weighted almost 50% up to grade 8 in the API tests while it drops to about 30% weighting in the 9-12grades.
As Eugene suggests, it is important to look the elementary feeder school scores carefully.
I would say to do a site visit for any school you are considering and meet the admin, teachers to gain more information that doesn’t appear in the empirical data.