THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503130054
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
The number of minority students enrolled at U.S. colleges and the number earning degrees continues to inch up, but still lags behind whites, according to a new study.
The report, being released today by the American Council on Education, brought gloomy predictions from educators worried that an increasingly minority American work force will lack needed training by 2000.
``The overall situation is so dismal, these small gains just do not go far enough,'' said Eduardo Padron, president of the Wolfson campus of the Miami-Dade Community College, the nation's largest community college system and one of the most heavily minority.
``When you look at the demographics for the next century, if we are unable to equip these people as professionals and technicians, we are going to be in a real bind,'' Padron said.
The number of minorities going to college rose slightly in 1993 - up 1.3 percent for blacks, 3.6 percent for Hispanics and 3.9 percent for Asian Americans over 1992.
But because blacks and Hispanics also make up a growing percentage of all young Americans, the proportion in college remained flat.
Just 33 percent of all 18-to-24-year-old black high school graduates and 36 percent of Hispanic graduates enrolled in college in 1993, compared with nearly 42 percent of whites, the study said.
The number of minorities earning bachelor's and associate degrees increased in 1993 - reflecting a spurt in enrollment in the late 1980s, and perhaps also more emphasis on keeping minorities in school, said ACE president Robert H. Atwell.
Hispanic students still drop out of high school more often than either blacks or whites, although their graduation rates are slowly improving.
About 61 percent of Hispanics ages 18-24 held a high school diploma in 1993, up 3 percent from the year before. About 75 percent of blacks had graduated and 83 percent of whites - essentially unchanged from the year before.
Girls continue to finish high school more often than boys - the gender gap was 5 percentage points for Hispanics, 3.9 percentage points for blacks and 3.2 percentage points for whites, the study said.
Hispanics who speak mostly English at home are more likely to stay in high school, the study noted. Schools and parents also can help by raising expectations, Padron said.
``We don't expect these kids to succeed, so we don't set high goals,'' he said.
At a time when Congress is considering scaling back federal student aid, the small minority student gains are especially troubling, other officials said. by CNB