Photo: Reports Reveal Minority Men Face Toughest Challenges When Trying to Advance their Education
According to two recent reports from the College Board and Advocacy & Policy Center, minority men of all backgrounds face educational barriers that minority women and white men do not often experience.
The New York Times>/em> stated:
According to the reports, 16 percent of Latino and 28 percent of African-American men ages 25 to 34 had obtained an associate’s degree or higher as of 2008, while the comparable figure for white men was 44 percent and for Asian men, 70 percent.
The report also stated that foreign-born men of these minority groups are more likely to drop out of school than those bore in the U.S., primarily in the case of Hispanic men. The dropout rate for Latino men is 20 percent, but it jumps to 34 percent for those that are foreign-born. It also stated that just 18 percent of Hispanics have at least an associates degree.
The researchers also pointed out that men of all cultural backgrounds reported experiencing similar challenges, such as stereotypes, pressure to support their communities or families, money problems or feelings of alienation from their campus. The also found that more than 50 percent of young men of color died, were incarcerated or were unemployed before the age of 24.
The second, smaller report sets a goal of raising the percentage of minority men ages 25 through 34 with an associate’s degree or higher from the current 42 percent to 55 percent by 2025.
The researchers wrote that “the goal cannot be accomplished without a strong emphasis on closig the college-completion gaps that exist for minorities in America.”
