The University of Oregon issued a press release on a recent article on perceived barriers among Mexican American and white high school students that I co-authored with Danielle Torres, Susana Salgado, and Marina Valdez ( http://www.uoregon.edu/newsstory.php?a=2.08.07-Aspirations-McWhirter.html ).  

A major news outlet did a follow up interview on this press release, and an edited version of that follow up appeared in papers around the country. There is a serious misquote in the article and the information is arranged in a manner that supports the misquote. A mandatory correction will appear in those newspapers that carried the faulty edited article.

I have spent my career conducting research that is intended to help illuminate the structural and systemic inequities experienced by Mexican American and other marginalized groups in an effort to inform educational and counseling practice. The faulty version of the article presents my work in a way that contradicts what I have found in my research; it appears to pathologize and blame Mexican American families for poorer educational outcomes among Latino youth. If you have read an article about this research that quotes me as saying “Cultural issues are the problem”, please consult the UO press release and the actual article ( http://jca.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/15/1/119 ) for an accurate representation of this work.

Counseling Psychology College of Education 5251 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-5251 541.346.5501