Posts Tagged: dropout
5 facts about Latinos and education
Hispanics cited education as a top issue in 2014, ranking alongside the economy and above health care and immigration in importance, a Pew Research Center survey found.
Economic factors remain an obstacle for enrollment, however. In a 2014 National Journal poll, 66% of Hispanics who got a job or entered the military directly after high school cited the need to help support their family as a reason for not enrolling in college, compared with 39% of whites.
Here are five facts about Latinos and education:
- Over the past decade, the Hispanic high school dropout rate has dropped dramatically. The rate has reached a record low, dropping from 32% in 2000 to 14% in 2013 among those ages 18 to 24 years old. Over the same time period, this has helped lower the U.S. national dropout rate from 12% to 7% – also a record low. However, the Hispanic dropout rate remains higher than it is among blacks (8%), whites (5%) and Asians (4%).
- Hispanics are making big inroads in college enrollment. The number of Hispanics ages 18 to 24 enrolled in a two- or four-year college has more than tripled since 1993. In 2013, 2.2 million Hispanics were enrolled in college, up from 728,000 in 1993 – a 201% increase. By comparison, college enrollment increased by 78% among blacks and 14% among whites over the same time period. Today, Hispanics are the largest minority group on U.S. college campuses.
- Even though more Hispanics are getting a postsecondary education than ever before, Hispanics still lag other groups in obtaining a four-year degree. In 2013, among Hispanics ages 25 to 29, just 15% of Hispanics have a bachelor's degree or higher. By comparison, among the same age group, about 40% of whites have a bachelor's degree or higher (as do 20% of blacks and 60% of Asians). This gap is due in part to the fact that Hispanics are less likely than some other groups to enroll in a four-year college, attend an academically selective college and enroll full-time.
- Another reason Hispanics lag in bachelor's degrees is that nearly half who go to college attend a public two-year school, the highest share of any race or ethnicity. By comparison, among college-goers, 30% of whites, 32% of Asians and 34% of blacks go to a community college.
- Hispanics are significantly less likely than other groups to have student debt. About 22% of young Hispanic households (those headed by someone younger than 40) have education loans. The share is nearly twice as high among young white households (42%) and young black households (40%). This is because, despite growing college enrollment, young Hispanics are not as likely to go to college as some other groups. And among those who do, Hispanics are more likely than others to attend community colleges, which generally have lower tuition than four-year schools.
Source: Pew Research Center, 5 facts about Latinos and education, by Jens Manuel Krogstad, May 26, 2015.
Need to increase Latino college completion
America cannot become the world leader in college degrees by 2020, or have the globally competitive workforce of the future, without a tactical plan for increasing Latino college completion, this according to the report, “Roadmap for Ensuring America's Future.”
Latinos will have to earn 5.5 million degrees to close race and ethnic equity gaps.Latino educational attainment is currently lower than that of other groups (only 19 percent of Latino adults have earned an associate or higher degree); and, many economically competitive jobs in the U.S. will soon require education beyond a high school degree. Between 2005 and 2022, the number of Hispanic public high school graduates in the United States is projected to increase by 88 percent, while the number of white high school graduates is expected to decline by 15 percent. And in 2008, only 19 percent of Hispanics ages 25 years and up had earned a postsecondary degree, compared with 29 percent of black young adults and 39 percent of white ones.
To increase Latino degree attainment, the report recommends a range of policy recommendations for communities, colleges, and state and federal officials. Communities especially need to develop partnerships between school districts and higher education institutions to align high school and college curriculums, courses, and assessments to smooth and propel students’ transitions to college.
And it recommends that higher education institutions search for ways to be more flexible in accommodating working students. Latino undergraduates had the highest average work-study aid award of any racial or ethnic group in 2007-8, according to the report. It offers a policy example from the Puerto Rico-based Universidad del Sagrado Corazón (University of the Sacred Heart), which offers main courses online as a backup system for students in good academic standing with unexpected work schedule changes.
Another much-debated recommendation is to allow Latinos who are not American citizens but have graduated from a U.S. high school to access higher education in the same way a state resident would -- not as a foreign or international student.The report also includes a profile of the Latino student demographic. The vast majority of Latinos are non-immigrants (in 2007, close to 90 percent of K-12 Latino students were U.S.-born); the majority are high school graduates (studies suggest between 21 and 40 percent of Latinos drop out), and most speak English (in 2007-8, more than 80 percent of Latino school-age children spoke English with no difficulty).
Other findings: 37 percent of Latino high school graduates aged 18 to 24 attended college, compared to 49 percent of white high school graduates. And in 2007, about 50 percent of Latinos enrolled in college were the first in their families to go to college, compared with 28 percent of white students.
Source: Excelencia In Education, “’Roadmap' for Latino College Success,” March 10, 2011.