Report shows widening gap between Latino and White students who graduate college

At first, Los Angeles area resident Melissa Becerra Amador didn’t know if she would go to college. But through her peers and mentors, she started to realize the value of having a degree.

Now, the Cal State Northridge graduate is pursuing a master’s degree in education. Amador believes that representation in higher education helps her and other students feel a sense of belonging.

But a new report shows that, across the U.S., the gap between Latino and White, non-Hispanic students who complete their college degree has widened over the last four years, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic and resulting economic hardships.

The analysis was done through Excelencia in Education, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit whose mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education.

While more Latinos students are enrolled in schools overall, graduation rates have seen “little progress” over the last few years, researchers said.

This year’s Latino College Completion study, conducted every few years, looks at national and state student enrollment in higher education institutions from the 2021-22 school year, and degree completion data from the school year prior, 2020 to 2021. It draws on data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS.

Nationwide, just 30% of Latino adults earned an associate degree or higher, compared with 53% of White, non-Hispanic, 39% of Black and 66% of Asian adults, the report said.

In California, just 22% of Latino adults age 25 and up earned an associate degree or higher, versus 56% of White, non-Hispanic adults.

Until 2018, U.S. Latinos had been earning college degrees at an accelerated rate for about ten years, researchers from Excelencia in Education said.

Latino students were overall more likely to drop out of school when compared with their White peers, the report found. Nationwide, at two-year institutions, 45% of Latino students were no longer enrolled at any school after three years, compared to 38% of White, non-Hispanic students in 2021. At four-year institutions, 31% of Latino students were no longer enrolled at any school after six years, compared to 20% of White, non-Hispanic students in 2021.

Other key takeaways from the 2023 Latino College Completion analysis include:

• In California, 24% of Latino adults (ages 18 to 34) were enrolled in higher education, compared to 25% of White non-Latinos.
• In California, 22% of Latino adults (25 and older) had earned an associate degree or higher, compared to 56% of White non-Latino adults.
• Nationally, 1 in 4 students in K-12 and 1 in 5 students enrolled in higher education are Latino.
• Cal State Northridge and Cal State Fullerton are among the U.S.’s top five institutions awarding bachelor’s degrees to Latino students.

Cal State Northridge is also the top California college enrolling Latinos, according to the analysis. It is also among the top five institutions in the state awarding bachelor’s degrees, alongside Cal State Fullerton, Cal State LA, East Los Angeles College and Cal State Long Beach, respectively.

Cal State San Bernardino came in at No. 11 in Latino student enrollment, and 9th in awarding baccalaureate degrees in the state.

Alan Mercado, who graduated at Cal State Fullerton in spring 2023, said he was “shocked” to learn of students getting into colleges but not completing their degrees.

“My whole higher education experience was within that bubble of Cal State Fullerton, and I did see a lot of peers that were Latino, and I did see a lot of peers that graduated with a bachelor’s,” Mercado said.

At a July 18 media briefing, Excelencia in Education CEO and co-founder Deborah Santiago said that conducting studies like these create “opportunities for investment and action… to make sure we reach the goals we have as a country, to make sure this population is well-educated and can be the doctors and lawyers and nurses and professionals that we need, along with with our service population and overall.”

“There is an explicit data-based approach to this that complements those who believe in equity and social justice and the value of a quality education, that the numbers are also another tool of paying attention to the fact that this is a population that’s ready to go to college,” Santiago said.

Jose Barrera, the state director for the California League of United Latin American Citizens, said that external factors — such as a school’s lack of support groups, funding, and scholarship opportunities — can greatly affect retention rates for Latino students.

“Part of it can be because of the pandemic, and obtaining a higher degree has become increasingly more inaccessible for communities that are more vulnerable,” said Barrera.

“Having faculty and staff that look like the student population helps with the retention because they are essentially a strong resource that can help them navigate the system.”

Santiago said that students “need to feel like they belong,” so bringing more Latino faculty to institutions gives them role models to follow. She added that offering college orientations in Spanish to Latino parents is also helpful, because “if they know what’s expected, they are more likely to be a partner in the success of that student to get a degree.”

Amador, the CSUN graduate, agreed. During undergrad, she took classes about Mexican American and Chicano history, saying there’s “so much more history than what we (learn) in our K-12 education.”

She credits her college experience — and master’s degree in progress at UCLA — for putting her on the path to a career in education, where she now feels more represented.

“Being able to see Latina folks being educators or being professors and talking about our history and community — it was inspiring for me.”

Source: Orange County Register