Educational arrears: Addressing the underenrollment of Hispanics in Illinois higher education

Nationally and in Illinois, underenrollment is one of the greatest challenges facing Hispanics in education. Characterized by the extremely low rates of participation in postsecondary education, despite the unprecedented increases in the numbers of college-age Hispanics, underenrollment exists at all levels of American education, beginning early with the higher rates of delayed education at the elementary educational level. In Illinois, reports describing staggering Hispanic high school dropout rates in excess of 60% caused creation of the Illinois General Assembly State Task Force on Hispanic Student Dropouts, which issued its report in March 1985. Recommendations for policy changes are drawn from analysis of the published and unpublished testimony heard by the Task Force, as well as data from a variety of other sources. These recommendations should assist educational decision makers to devise solutions that will be comprehensive, and attend to both the qualitative and distributive dimensions of the problem.