HOUSTON (AP) _ The state’s Hispanic students are falling behind educationally, with high school graduation rates lower than average and college enrollment lagging that of black and white students.
Hispanics are the fast-growing ethnic group in Texas.
Only 68 percent of Hispanics graduate from high school within four years, 10 points below the overall rate.
And just 42.5 percent of those who graduated in 2007 enrolled in college or technical training the following fall. Those rates are below figures for black and white students.
A state higher education commissioner, Raymund Paredes, tells the Houston Chronicle that the numbers have to improve to ensure the state has a well-educated work force.
Hispanic enrollment in college has grown faster than any other racial or ethnic group in the past five years, but the population has grown almost as quickly, wiping out much of the gains.