The high school drop-out rate for Hispanic students is among the highest in the nation, but President Obama is aiming to turn this around by signing an executive order today at the White House.
Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education, says the order, called the “White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics,” will focus on four key areas.
These include enabling communities to share best practices, strengthening public-private partnerships, establishing an inter-agency working group tasked with addressing retention issues, and ensuring federal programs meet the needs of Hispanic students of all ages.
“For the last decade, Hispanic students have been the biggest minority group in our public schools. They represent almost almost 25 percent of our nation’s students. To improve our country’s education system, we have to improve outcomes for all students, but particularly Hispanic students,” Duncan said. “Hispanic students often face the greatest challenges in the education system. Overall, only 75 percent of our high school freshmen will graduate four years later. For Hispanic students, this is true for only about half, about 50 percent of students. And for those who are lucky enough to graduate and go on to college, many are unable to finish because they’re ill-prepared or face financial challenges. … These facts are both economically unsustainable and morally unacceptable.”
To watch the live webcast of the event at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT visit the White House’s site here.
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