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 progress remains uneven. As the Hispanic population in the United States has exploded, so has the number of Hispanics pursuing higher education. Between 2000 and 2015, the college-going rate among Hispanic high school graduates grew from 22 to 37 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Hispanic undergraduate enrollment more than doubled, to 3 million. More than a quarter of young Hispanics — 28 percent — now have at least an associate degree, up from 15 percent in 2000. 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: