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: This growth has compelled colleges including Salem State, whose student body went from 5 to 14 percent Hispanic over the past decade, to pay more attention to lingering achievement gaps between their white and Hispanic students. In pockets across the country, institutions are adding Latino leadership programs, hiring more diverse faculty and expanding their cultural programming. To some extent, those efforts appear to be working. More than half of Hispanic students — 54 percent — now finish a bachelor’s degree within six years, up from 46 percent in 2002, the Education Department says. That’s the good news: More Hispanics are going to college, and their graduation rates are rising. Elycea Almodovar, a junior at Salem State University, right, walks on campus with her roommate, Sabrina Ornae, a junior. Almodovar was drawn to the school because of its diversity. Photo by Gretchen Ertl for The Hechinger Report
The bad news? This progress remains uneven.