More Latino high school graduates are going on to college than their white peers, according to a new analysis from the Pew Hispanic Center.
Seven out of ten Latino graduates of the class of 2012 enrolled in college compared to a slightly lower percentage of white graduates.
Latinos also account for the largest share of growth on college campuses, according to a 2011 Pew study.
Pew researchers speculated that more Latinos could be going on to college instead of working because their job prospects have thinned since the onset of the recession in 2007.
A 2009 Pew survey also found that Latinos appear to value a college education more than the American population as a whole.
Latinos are also narrowing the education gap at the high school level. The percentage of Latino students who drop out of high school fell from 28 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2011, according to the Pew report.
Nevertheless, Latinos are still nearly three times as likely to drop out of high school as whites.
Latinos who do graduate are less likely than whites to enroll in a four-year college, less likely to enroll full time, and less likely to finish their bachelor’s degree.
