Friday, March 29, 2024

Hispanic Pew Center Releases Report on Hispanics, High School Dropouts and the GED

According to the Hispanic Pew Center, one in ten Hispanic high school drop-outs has a General Educational Development credential (GED).

A GED is regarded as the best way many high school dropouts can attend college, vocational training and participate in military service.

The Pew Hispanic Center conducted an analysis of newly-available educational attainment data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey.

Two-in-ten black high school drop-outs and three-in-ten white high school drop-outs has a GED.

The fact that not many Hispanic high school drop-outs do not have a GED is notable because Hispanics have a higher dropout rate than blacks and whites. 41% of Hispanics in the U.S. do not have a regular high school diploma, compared to 23% of blacks and 14% of whites.

52% of foreign-born Latino adults are high school drop-outs, compared with 25% of the native born.

Among Hispanic drop-outs, 21% of the native born have a GED, compared with just 5% of the foreign born.

This Pew Hispanic Center report also gives analysis on the labor market based on the consequences of Hispanic drop-outs or those that lack a GED.

Key findings include:

  • As of 2008, Hispanic adults with a GED had a higher unemployment rate than Hispanic adults with a high school diploma – 9% versus 7%.
  • However, Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a GED had about the same mean annual

To view the complete report click here.