Latinos are making major strides in college completion although they continue to trail Whites, African-Americans and Asian Americans in several key areas, a new report says.
During the past decade, the number of Hispanics with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased by 80 percent to 3.8 million, says Excelencia in Education, based in Washington, D.C. However, only 21 percent of Latino adults have an associate degree or higher, compared to 57 percent of Asian Americans, 44 percent of Whites and 30 percent of African-Americans.
“Latino college completion is increasing, but gaps remain,” said Deborah Santiago, Excelencia’s vice president of policy and research.
In Finding Your Workforce: The Top 25 Institutions Graduating Latinos in Key Sectors, 2009-10, the report also focused on a specific school year to examine college success trends.
For example, Latinos needed to earn 240,000 degrees in 2010 to stay on course to help meet President Obama’s college completion goals, Santiago said. That year, Latinos far exceeded that goal, with 360,000 earning degrees.
However, Latino students were heavily concentrated at a small number of colleges and universities. For example, 30 percent graduated from one of the top 25 institutions producing Latino graduates. Most of these were Hispanic-serving institutions with high rates of Latino enrollment, she said.
“We need to celebrate the progress and know that more needs to be done,” Santiago said.
