Illinois can do more to break down barriers that keep Latino college students from graduating

Graduation culminates many years of hard work and overcoming challenges. But for many Latino students in Illinois, their commencement is also a celebration of defying the odds and achieving their goals.

A series of errors and glitches with this year’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will likely hurt an entire generation of students hoping to enroll in college this fall. While these issues have been updated, these challenges will have a disproportionate effect on the decision-making and college enrollment of Latino students, who are often the first in their families to go to college, low-income, and whose parents may be undocumented.

According to the National College Attainment Network, as of mid-May, Illinois ranks third in the country, with 52% of high school seniors submitting the FAFSA. This reflects the fantastic efforts of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC), high school counselors and post-secondary staff across Illinois, and some universities extending their intent to enroll to June 1.

While FAFSA issues have improved, this is deeply concerning as only 20% of Illinois Latinos between the ages of 25 and 64 have earned bachelor’s degrees, the lowest rate among all racial and ethnic groups. This is an issue that impacts not just Latinos but all of Illinois. Between 2010 and 2020, the Latino population in Illinois grew from 2 million to 2.3 million. In other words, in a knowledge-based economy, this steadily growing segment of the population doesn’t have the necessary support to attain the tools — higher education — to participate in the workforce.

For the class of 2021, only 50% of Illinois Latino high school graduates enrolled in college.

However, among Latinos enrolled in college, many do not graduate. According to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Latino college completion rates in 2018 from community colleges were 25%, from public universities 51%, from private, nonprofit universities 59%, and from for-profit private colleges 32%.

To better understand educational attainment among Latinos — and to lay the foundation for future advocacy efforts to increase college access and completion — the Latino Policy Forum partnered with the Illinois Workforce and Education Research Collaborative and on the Illinois Latino College Landscape Study. In our report, published in 2023, we identified several critical factors that lead to college graduation, such as academic preparation, counseling support, and financial assistance.

Money, academics, language barriers can be fixed

But we also heard from Latino college students and graduates directly, many of whom shared that affordability was a major obstacle: "I worked almost full-time in college at a retail job to help my family financially at home. This time could have been used to work on my own educational goals."

Others shared that they didn’t feel prepared for college saying that once enrolled in college, they "realized [they were] ill-equipped to tackle college-level courses… [and] felt like [they were] always playing catch-up."

Another student identified the language barrier for their parents being a challenge saying, "I remember my school had one workshop where parents could come in if they had questions, but it was not bilingual. […] Obviously, the language barrier . . . impacted us a lot."

These are challenges we can fix. We encourage state leaders to invest more in our public higher education institutions to increase college affordability, urge high school districts to increase academic preparation for Latinos, including increased access to rigorous coursework, and call on colleges to increase support for students and families, including providing information in multiple languages and transition programs that help students better engage in college.

Addressing the challenges that Latino students face to attaining a college degree will lead to more students, of all races and ethnicities, reaching their graduation day. As Latino graduates walk across the stage, in front of their families, friends, professors and peers, it will be a celebration of a hard-earned achievement, but also of the village that helped make it possible.

Jennifer Juárez, Ph.D., is the director of higher education policy at the Latino Policy Forum, a non-profit organization that advocates for Latino equity in education, housing, and immigration in Illinois.

Rebecca Vonderlack-Navarro, Ph.D., is the vice president of education policy and research at the Latino Policy Forum.

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