Title: More Hispanics are going to college and graduating, but disparity persists | PBS NewsHour
Headings: More Hispanics are going to college and graduating, but disparity persists
More Hispanics are going to college and graduating, but disparity persists
As the Hispanic student population grows, “you’re going to go from invisibility to pushback, to ultimately an acceptance.”

Content: A weak academic foundation limits many Hispanics’ options for college. Nearly two-thirds end up in overcrowded and underfunded community colleges or second-tier public universities, while only 15 percent attend one of the 500 most selective colleges, where graduation rates are the highest, according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. Hispanic students are also disproportionately low-income and the first in their families to seek higher educations, characteristics that make them more likely to drop out. A sign on the Salem State University campus was hung in response to racist graffiti. Photo by Gretchen Ertl for The Hechinger Report
“We’re determined to get all our students across the finish line in the same amount of time, but we’re not all at the same starting line,” said Andrew Hamilton, associate dean for student success at the University of Houston. Cultural expectations can create additional hurdles. Hispanic men, socialized to be providers, may feel pressure to drop out and work to support their families. Women, raised to be caregivers, can find themselves “caught between two sets of demands”: their families’ and their professors’, said Jennifer Morton, an assistant professor of philosophy at the City College of New York, who grew up in Peru. READ MORE: