Foreign-born Hispanics migrating to the United States tend to have higher drop-out rates than native-born Hispanics, a national researcher said.

Nationally, native-born Hispanics have drop-out rates twice as high as white students, but foreign-born students are about five times more likely to drop out, said Dr. Richard Fry, senior researcher with the Pew Hispanic Center.

“A good chunk of immigrant youths haven’t been in U.S. very long,” he said. “Many of them might have already left school in their country of origin and came to the U.S. for job opportunities.”

Jessica Castañeda, state coordinator and recruiter for the Tennessee Migrant Education Program, said one of the challenges that foreign-born students face is that Tennessee is an English-only state that does not allow bilingual education.

“It almost makes it impossible (to succeed) if a child comes too late, if they moved here when they were 16 or 17,” she said. “They may have done very well in school in their native language, but because they don’t have the language (skill) to pass the Gateway (exam) in English, they don’t stand a chance.”

Moving from other states also poses a problem for the students.

“They may have a credit from California that may not be valid here,” Ms. Castañeda said. “We need to have alternative ways they can make up credits, otherwise it’s really frustrating for them.”

Jorge Cisneros, a senior at Dalton High School, transferred from California before the semester ended last year because his father had found employment in Dalton, Ga.

“When I came here they told me that because I had lost all the credits from my last semester in California, I would have to graduate next year,” he said. “But I wanted to graduate with my friends, so I made up five classes in a semester and a half through the NovaNet program.”

NovaNet is a computer-based program designed to help students who need to make up credits, are struggling with particular classes or need more help with English.

Roberto Rojas, NovaNet director at Dalton High School, said educators have to motivate students and find ways to help them graduate.

“We fight an uphill battle (and) we lose a lot of students,” he said. “I try to help as many students as I can, but if the student is not going to make the commitment, there’s not much we can do. They need to want to help themselves.”