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LinkedInMore Hispanic high school graduates enrolling in college
This milestone is the result of a long-term increase in Hispanic college-going that accelerated with the onset of the recession in 2008. The rate among white high school graduates, by contrast, has declined slightly since 2008.
The positive trends in Hispanic educational indicators also extend to high school. The most recent available data show that in 2011 only 14 percent of Hispanic 16- to 24-year-olds were high school dropouts, half the level in 2000 (28%).
Despite the narrowing of some of these long-standing educational attainment gaps, Hispanics continue to lag whites in a number of key higher education measures. Young Hispanic college students are less likely than their white counterparts to enroll in a four-year college (56% versus 72%), they are less likely to attend a selective college, less likely to be enrolled in college full time, and less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree.
It is possible that the rise in high school completion and college enrollment by Latino youths has been driven, at least in part, by their declining fortunes in the job market. Since the onset of the recession at the end of 2007, unemployment among Latinos ages 16 to 24 has gone up by seven percentage points, compared with a five percentage point rise among white youths. With jobs harder to find, more Latino youths may have chosen to stay in school longer.
Another factor, however, could be the importance that Latino families place on a college education. According to a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center survey, 88% of Latinos ages 16 and older agreed that a college degree is necessary to get ahead in life today (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). By contrast, a separate 2009 survey of all Americans ages 16 and older found that fewer (74%) said the same (Pew Research Social & Demographic Trends, 2009).
Young Hispanics are much less likely to drop out of high school than they were in 2000. In October 2012 there were 134,000 Hispanic recent high school dropouts. By definition these were Hispanic 16- to 24-year-olds who reported not being enrolled in school in October 2012 but were enrolled a year earlier and did not have a high school diploma. This compares with 101,000 recent Hispanic high school dropouts in October 2000. Although the absolute number of Hispanic recent high school dropouts has risen, there are many more Hispanic students enrolled in school in October 2012 compared with October 2000.
Evidence also suggests that Hispanic students are increasingly likely to graduate from high school (in this instance “graduate” refers to those who obtain a regular high school diploma and does not include students obtaining a GED). A recent comprehensive investigation of high school graduation rates finds that 78% of Hispanics graduated from high school in 2010, an increase from 64% in 2000
Source: Published originally on Pew Research Hispanic Center, as Hispanic High School Graduates Pass Whites in Rate of College Enrollment by Richard Fry and Paul Taylor, May 9, 2013.
