Early in his administration, President Obama laid out an ambitious plan for the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020. But a recent study suggests that Hispanics, the nation’s fastest-growing ethnic group, may be falling behind academically in the nation’s most populous state.
“Latino College Completion: California” was released by Excelencia in Education, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, as part of its Roadmap for Ensuring America’s Future initiative. The Roadmap is a collaborative partnership among 60 members of the Increasing Latino College Completion initiative.
The report found that though the percentage of Hispanics with undergraduate degrees grew by 13 percent between 2006 and 2008, Hispanics still lag behind Whites in college completion rates.
From 2007 to 2008, the report finds, Hispanics in California had a graduation rate of 34.6 percent, compared to 47.4 percent of Whites.
Using another metric, the report found that among Hispanics, the completion rate per 100 full-time students was 13.7 percent, below the 14.5 percent needed relative to the adult population with no college degree.
The report suggests that increasing college completion among Hispanics is key to meeting the nation’s long-term educational goals, says Deborah Santiago, co-founder of Excelencia in Education.
“We see this as an opportunity because in our broader initiative, we say that the nation can’t meet our college goals without Latinos,” she says.
