Latino Issues In Higher Education

The Latino population in the United States is one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the country and in 2014 a new record of Latino population was set of 55.4 million, an increase of 1.2 million of the year prior (Krogstad and Lopez, 2015). Since the population of Latinos increased so did the rate of Latinos attending college. One of the major problems we have related to higher education in America is that the Latino male community possesses the lowest high school graduation rate and also the lowest college enrollment of any subgroup (Sáenz and Ponjuán, 2012). Latino males endure many different challenges before heading off to college and while attending college such as being home sick, not fitting in, being discriminated against, experiencing

This shows that Latino males are falling behind on the scale in attending higher education compared to other ethnic groups. Even though the number of Latinos in general that are attending college is constant and rising, the presence of Latino males compared to females is still very low. To make it even worse, Latino males have the lowest enrollment and completion rates of any subgroup. Latina females are on the rise in higher education while Latino males are having trouble to stay on the map. This confuses me because how could it be that Latinos in general are growing in population at universities yet the presence of Latino males is quite low. Comparing Latinos with Latinas, Latinas are succeeding in pursuing a higher education and attaining higher success rates than Latino males. Although in general Latino males are having difficulties in college, here at California State University San Marcos the story is quite different. This university is ranked among the top 20 colleges for Hispanic students to succeed in. Ever since 2010, CSUSM has been known as a Hispanic Serving Institution because it contains at least a 25 percent student population of Hispanic students and in 2014 the Hispanic population grew up to nearly almost 40 percent

In 2009, almost 45 percent of Latina females under five years old were enrolled in school while only 39 percent of Latino males were enrolled. When third grade comes around boys tend to be more than a year behind than girls in writing and reading skills. This shows that there is a serious problem within the education system because it isn’t right for males to be that far behind of what school districts want the kids to be taught. It gets even worse, boys that are colored are at a higher chance of experiencing great differences in consequences and punishments such as suspension and expulsion (Sáenz and Ponjuán, 2012). It saddens me to know that we live in the year 2015 and we still see people experience racism and inequality just because the color of his or her