One in every four students in the United States is Latin , yet approximately half of Latin students fail to complete a high school diploma within four years. By 2020, Latin s will comprise approximately 50% of the population of the United States, which will lead to the "Latinization" of K-12 schools. Despite being such a large part of the U.S. population, only 13% of Latin s graduate college (Irizarry & Donaldson, 2012).;In Oregon, the graduation rate for the 2015-2016 four-year cohort was 73.8%; for Latin s, the graduation rate was 67.4% (Oregon Department of Education, 2017). In 2015-2016, the River County School District had a graduation rate of 70.8% for the overall four-year cohort, but only 59.4% of the Latin students within that four-year cohort. Oregon mirrors the United States in that Latin s continue to make up a growing percentage of the overall population in Oregon. Every day that Oregon public schools struggle to provide a high school education with high expectations for Latin students is another day of jeopardizing the future of Oregon.;This qualitative action research aimed to explore the development of critical consciousness in Latin ninth grade students at a comprehensive high school through a CRT and LatCrit lens. This study intended to change ninth grade, first-generation, U.S. born high school students' position in their own education process, to empower students to consider their own educational point of view, to analyze their own and their peers' points of view, and to organize opportunities to share their point of view with teachers and school district leaders in order to advocate for their educational needs and rights and to liberate themselves from marginalizing experiences in high school. The intention of this critical action research is to empower students to identify and advocate for their own academic success.
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