MIAMI— A report released last week by the Pew Hispanic Center found that one in 10 Hispanic students who drop out of high school go on to earn a General Equivalency Development degree.
Educators and students say limited outreach, immigration and pressure to work may be to blame.
Using data from the Census Bureau, researchers found that fewer Hispanic students earn a GED credential than White or Black dropouts. Black students earned a GED at a rate of two in 10. For White students, the rate is three in 10.
The nonpartisan research organization says the lower rate among Hispanics is notable because they also have higher dropout rates: 41 percent of Latinos ages 20 or older do not have a regular high school degree, compared with 23 percent of Blacks and 14 percent of Whites.
Richard Fry, a senior research associate at the center, said some of the Hispanics who did not finish high school are immigrants who may not have had any educational training in the United States. For these students, it takes time to learn and access information about earning a U.S. educational credential.
According to the report, the longer foreign-born Latinos without a high school degree are in the United States, the more likely they are to earn a GED.
But Fry said a puzzle still remains: Hispanics born in the United States who drop out of high school are also unlikely to have a GED. The report found that only 21 percent earn the credential.
