Graduation rates for Latinos remain low

Director of Special Student Recruitment & Retention Initiatives Gloria Inzunza-Franco said graduation rates for Latino students at Cal State Long Beach are not where she would like them to be.

In 2011, Latino students received 22.5 percent of the undergraduate degrees granted by the California State University system. At CSULB, Latino student received 23.9 percent of the undergraduate degrees granted.

 “Over the last five years, we have had about a one percent increase in enrollment rates for Latino students, but we don’t see the same increase in terms of graduation rates,” Inzunza-Franco said.

In 2011, CSULB had the third largest amount of Latino graduates in the CSU system, with 1,579 Latino students receiving their degrees. CSULB followed Cal State Fullerton and San Diego State University, who had 1,924 and 1,612 Latino graduates, respectively.

Inzunza-Franco said one of her concerns is that Latino students are not receiving the preparation they should be in their K-12 education.

“The level of college readiness is not where it needs to be,” she said.

Latino students have not been performing well in math and English placement testing. In 2010, the percentage of Latino students having to take both pre-baccalaureate math and English courses were almost four times higher than that of white students, with 31.9 percent compared to 8.2 percent.

“We have quite a few, I would say over 500 … incoming freshmen … that are admitted to the university who fall into that double and triple pre-baccalaureate categories,” Inzunza-Franco said.

Freshman Andrea Cabrera said she didn’t expect to be taking remedial
courses at CSULB.

“I did really well in both English and math when I was in high school,” Cabrera said. “So, of course I was shocked when I found out I hadn’t done well in the placement testing.”

Students who fail to successfully complete their pre-baccalaureate courses within their first year at CSULB cannot continue at the university until they do so.

“I won’t know until my finals if I will have to leave Long Beach State or not … but if I do, I will work my hardest to come back,” Cabrera said.

The Beach Learning Community, Learning Assistance Center and the Writers Lab are some of the resources that Inzunza-Franco recommends students take advantage of.

“The university does provide quite an extensive number of services,” she said. “But if students don’t utilize them then they are no better off.”

With rising tuition, Inzunza-Franco said low finances are a strong factor for Latino students to delay graduation.

“Students work, and their salaries aren’t going up,” she said. “There is a higher debt and not a higher income.”