Ensuring America's future: benchmarking Latino college completion to meet national goals: 2010 to 2020

In 2009, President Obama set an ambitious goal for the [United States] US to become the top ranked country in the world in college degree attainment by 2020. While all groups will have to increase college degree attainment to meet President Obama's college completion goals, increasing Latino educational attainment is crucial because their educational attainment is lower than other groups (only 19 per cent of Latino adults have earned an associate or higher) and the Latino population is rapidly expanding. By 2020, Latinos are projected to represent about 20 per cent of the 18-64 year-old US population, compared to 15 per cent in 2008; by 2020 Latinos are projected to represent close to 25 per cent of the US 18-29 year-old population, up from 18 per cent in 2008. This benchmarking guide provides a clear framework and public baseline for tracking our nation's college degree completion goal disaggregated by race/ethnicity. The framework includes two sets of metrics using existing data: 1) projections of degree completion needs, and 2) analysis of current equity gaps in degree completion. The guide also includes contextual information about Latinos in the educational pipeline and the equity gap between Latinos and whites in achievement by state.

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