Degree-Completion Gap Widens for Latino Students

A new analysis by Excelencia in Education, an organization dedicated to Latino student success, found degree-completion rates among Latino students have stagnated in recent years while white students’ graduation rates have risen, creating a widening gap.

The analysis drew on 2021 data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS. It found that the share of Latino students at two-year institutions who graduated within three years, 33 percent, was five percentage points lower than the three-year graduation rate of their white counterparts, which was 38 percent. The gap was only two percentage points in 2018. The six-year graduation rate for Latino students at four-year universities, 52 percent, was 13 percentage points lower than that of white students, 65 percent, compared to a 12-percentage-point difference in 2018. Meanwhile, 30 percent of Latino adults hold an associate degree or higher, compared to 52 percent of white adults, 39 percent of Black adults and 66 percent of Asian adults.  

Deborah Santiago, lead researcher on the analysis and CEO of Excelencia in Education, said Latino degree-completion rates have been increasing over the last decade, but in “2020 and 2021, we saw kind of a flatlining, as it were, of that progress—and while we know Latinos are increasingly becoming more and more of the college-enrolled population … to not see that graduation and completion increase along with the enrollment increase is an area of attention for work.”

Latino students were also more likely to no longer be enrolled at any institution at the time they would typically graduate compared to their white peers. At four-year universities, 31 percent of Hispanic students weren’t enrolled after six years, compared to 20 percent of white students, the analysis found. Almost half, 45 percent, of Latino students at two-year institutions were no longer enrolled after three years, compared to 38 percent of white students.

“More students were no longer enrolled than had graduated” at two-year institutions, Santiago said. The graduation rate for Latino students at two-year institutions was 33 percent, the latest IPEDS data show.

The analysis also included lists of institutions that were the top five for enrollments, associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees among Latinos. These institutions were largely concentrated in Texas and Florida with a couple of top bachelor’s degree producers in California, and all but one were public institutions.

Santiago said many of these colleges and universities are a part of the Presidents for Latino Student Success Network, a group of college and university leaders working with Excelencia to improve outcomes for Latino students.