Organizations Join Forces to Increase Latino College Completion Rates

Fifty national organizations, including ACT, are working together to increase Latino college completion between now and 2025.

They have joined Excelencia in Education’s national initiative, Ensuring America’s Future (EAF) by Increasing Latino College Completion. Excelencia in Education is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate higher education success for Latino students by providing data-driven analysis of their educational status, and by promoting education policies and institutional practices that support their academic achievement.

Charles Smith, ACT vice president and head of the Washington, DC office, represents ACT on a team that has been charged with drafting a policy road map to improve college completion among Latinos. Excelencia plans to unveil the policy document in March.

The organizations are lending their knowledge, data, and intelligence to help shape a policy strategy for reaching college completion goals as articulated by the Obama Administration, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Lumina Foundation for Education. The Obama Administration aims to re-establish the United States among the top-ranking nations for college degree attainment by 2020. The Gates Foundation’s goal is to double the number of young people who, by the time they are 26, have earned a postsecondary degree or certificate that has marketplace value. The Lumina Foundation’s plan is to increase the number of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials from 39 percent to 60 percent by 2025.

While all racial/ethnic groups must increase their achievement levels to reach these goals, Excelencia in Education and the other organizations are especially interested in Latinos because of their low rates of educational attainment and their rapidly expanding population in the United States. According to the U.S. Census, only 19 percent of Hispanics in the United States had earned an associate degree or higher in 2008. In comparison, 39 percent of whites, 28 percent of blacks, and 59 percent of Asians had earned an associate degree or higher. By 2020, Latinos are projected to represent about 20 percent of the 18- to 64-year-old U.S. population. The young Latino population is expected to grow even more rapidly. By 2020, Latinos are projected to represent close to 25 percent of the 18- to 29-year-old population.

Sarita Brown

“To meet the goals set by President Obama and the foundations, we must have a tactical plan for helping Latinos earn college degrees,” said Sarita Brown, president of Excelencia in Education. “We live in a knowledge-driven economy, and better skills are important for everyone. But, when we think of college degree attainment as a human capital issue, and we look at the demographics of the United States, we see the greatest opportunity is with Latino students. Twenty-three states currently have majority Latino populations in grades K–3, which tells us this is a population eager to participate in the educational system.”