Latinos Lag in College Completion, Report Says
Only 16 percent of Latino adults have an associate's degree or higher — compared to 33 percent of the total working-aged population in Texas, according to a report by Excelencia in Education, a Washington D.C-based non-profit organization focused on boosting Latino success in higher education. The national average is 38 percent.
The gloomy statistics were unveiled at a press conference in San Antonio this morning attended by state Rep. Joaquin Castro and representatives of higher education organizations.
"While some in Austin hope to slash education in the name of so-called fiscal responsibility," Castro said in a statement, "the partners ...
Comments (6)
Erin Anderson
The number one key to academic and job success for Hispanics is English proficiency.
But recent reports are that many college degrees are going to waste or are not providing any advantage in the job market. So college completion rates alone do not predict economic success. An inability to speak the language is a much larger barrier than lack of a college degree.
Rick Chafey via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Compulsory universal attendance causes the failure of promising students while alienating struggling students. We REALLY need to question the one-size-fits-all attitude the public schools have adopted. Private schools, of course, are not hobbled by this failed dictum.
Mike Openshaw via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Equality of result is not the goal; equality of opportunity is. And that does NOT entitle any specific group to redistribution of wealth above and beyond what is already done.
Mary Lynn VanZandt Neill via Texas Tribune on Facebook
No,private schools CAN BE hobbled by snobbery,one-upmanship,favoritism,favorites,seating charts,taking roll,COME-ON! It's what we DO with our education that counts,and if you need to do so,go to night classes,a class per day~just DO it.
B L
Clearly, massive immigration of millions more Latinos will be just the ticket for our ailing economy.
Baltazar Acevedo
Many of these agencies and quick fix outfits are out of focus with the core issues related to higher enrollment, participation and graduation in higher education. They posit that the issues of Hispanic success in higher education is insulated within the context of post-secondary education institutions; it is not. As a professor of research and educational leadership, I can attest to the fact that what we get in terms of students, in higher education, is reflective of what has or has not happened in public schools. I started my career as an elementary and high school teacher and I know that the focus is out of sync with reality.
We need to redirect our efforts at ameliorating the shortfalls within public education and its diverse constituencies; the families and taxpayers. I teach in the graduate school at the University of Texas Pan American and I can state unequivocally that the students in my graduate classes are excellent; they are the survivors and the 6% that made it from kindergarten to a level of graduate training. I am always bemused that organizations are out there extolling their expertise in providing solutions to educational problems when few of its membership has been responsible for student success in a stand alone classroom. I do not trust anyone from D.C. or Austin who comes down to let us know that they are here to help us. I know, I was one of them, and left when I realized that the end game was the survival of the body politic and not of the constituent.
What we need, I believe, is more universities and community colleges engaged in expanding the capacity of its feeder public school districts. Professors, including me, should be evident in both teaching as adjuncts in the public schools or undertaking community development roles to close the social, economic, isolation and other related gaps that impede the participation of families and communities in expanding their assets to be productive citizens. The myth of P-16 has to be deleted by actualizing a sustainable collaborative directed agenda and committing ourselves to a shared vision. There is only one Texas and we, Hispanics, are going to be part of the solution or all of us, regarding of ethnicity, social class, religion orientation, or political persuasion will suffer.
Reports and more reports do little to ameliorate the situation of our Hispanic participation in education: period, punto fino. What is needed is a commitment by Hispanics to be for ourselves and quit waiting for any level of government to step in and save our future; politicians do not have the courage to take on any issues or present solutions that impair their chances for re-election.
En el servicio de la Raza, me quedo.
El Yaqui
Baltazar Acevedo y Arispe, Jr., Ph.D.