“America cannot become the world leader in college degrees, nor will it have a globally competitive workforce in the future, if it does not focus on improving Latino college completion,” said Gonzalez. “The Roadmap for Ensuring America's Future is a critical tool that provides us with a clear path forward to achieve that future.”
"America's continued global leadership depends on producing an educated workforce prepared to compete in the jobs and economy of tomorrow," said Riley. "The data is compelling that national, state, local, and community leaders in education, public policy, and workforce development must put particular focus on Latino college completion. This Roadmap is an important step in that direction."
Sarita Brown and Deborah Santiago, co-founders of Excelencia in Education, presented findings and recommendations from the Roadmap. The Roadmap is the result of a collaborative effort led by Excelencia in Education and supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation for Education, and the Kresge Foundation.
The Roadmap includes a rigorous statistical analysis of completion to create benchmarks to measure America’s progress toward becoming the world leader in college degrees. Based on this research, Latinos will have to earn 5.5 million college degrees by 2020 for America to reach 51 percent degree attainment and become the world leader.
Research presented at the event also revealed that Latino students are more likely to be non-traditional students – enrolled part-time, later in life, and at two-year institutions – and they tend to enroll where they live, so state and institutional initiatives that focus on those students can make a big difference.
The Roadmap recommends that colleges and universities focus on policies that increase retention for working students in good standing, increase early college high schools and dual enrollment programs, and guarantee need-based aid for qualified students. For example, to increase student retention, the Universidad de Sagrado Corazón offers main courses online as a backup system for students in good academic standing with unexpected work schedule changes during a semester. The University of Texas-El Paso Promise Plan covers all tuition and mandatory fees for students with family incomes of $30,000 or less who are Texas residents, complete 30 credits a year, and earn a grade point average of 2.0 or higher. READ MORE
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