Dozens of organizations around the country share the goal of improving Latino college student success, but there’s been little progress in closing the educational-attainment gap.
Latinos significantly lag behind Whites, Blacks and Asians/Pacific Islanders in degree completion. The majority of Latinos in America—87 percent—say a college education is extremely important, according to a poll last spring sponsored by The Associated Press, Univision Communications, The Nielsen Company and Stanford University. Yet, Census data show that only 13 percent of Hispanics have a bachelor’s degree or higher as compared with 20 percent of Blacks, 53 percent of Asians and 33 percent of non-Hispanic Whites.
Although the number of Latinos attending and completing college has risen, those increases are not commensurate with increases in the population of Hispanics, who represent 15.8 percent of the U.S. population.
The desire to close the gap is there, but what has been missing, one education advocate believes, are vehicles for collective action.
“We’ve talked a lot about it, but when you actually look at the progress in capturing this human potential … there needs to be much more,” says Sarita E. Brown, president of Excelencia in Education, a Washington, D.C.-based education policy think tank focused on Hispanic issues.
“There are many ways that organizations can more effectively collaborate. Organizations with similar missions and purpose can be more efficient and effective at connecting and producing results,” Brown adds.
Excelencia this month launches a new initiative that brings the leadership of various higher education advocacy, philanthropy, public policy and federal agencies together to work on ways of increasing the number of Latinos earning a college degree. The campaign, which launched Sept. 8, follows a policy forum of the same name, “Ensuring America’s Future by Increasing Latino College Completion,” last spring that brought 80 professionals together in Washington.
