Hispanics Struggle To Graduate: An Issue Of School Choice?

Career College Central summary:

According to a , only 56 percent of young Hispanic students go to four-year schools — while, for non-Hispanic whites, the same figure is 72 percent. For blacks and for Asian-Americans, those numbers stand at 66 and 79 percent, respectively. "Fact of the matter is, students who go to community college are much less likely to catch the prize," says Richard Fry, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center. "They will be less likely to complete, on average, if they start at a two-year college rather than a four-year school."
In 2012, after tracking a group of high school sophomores for a decade, the that those who had enrolled in four-year universities were more than twice as likely to have graduated with a bachelor's degree, compared with those who enrolled in two-year schools. And according to Fry's research, while 40 percent of whites will have attained a bachelor's degree by their late 20s, the same is true for only 16 percent of Hispanics.
Just what makes four-year programs so much more effective remains up for debate. And why Hispanic students so often diverge from this path is an even more complicated question. Last year, a tracked students from the state's top high schools and found that, even within this group, Hispanics were a lot more likely than others to enroll in community colleges. One of the major reasons may be cost. Average tuition at four-year schools is as it is at community colleges. And research shows that Latinos are more and, on average, This puts extra pressure on them to shift their focus from education to working.

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NPR