(Washington D.C., Monday, June 24, 2019) – Today Excelencia in Education announced 20 finalists who hope to obtain the organization’s prestigious Seal of Excelencia, a voluntary certification for institutions of higher education that demonstrate excellence in serving Latino students.

Over the past five years, more Latino students are going to college than ever before.  Nationally and at the state level, Latino degree attainment is also increasing.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education, however, the proportion of Latinos who graduate within six years is still 10% lower than it is for their non-Latino White peers.

Latino labor force participation is expected to increase 3% every year, while participation is expected to decrease for non-Hispanic Whites.

To be recognized with the Seal, institutions must show they are making significant strides in serving their Latino students through an intentional, comprehensive, and systemic approach that accelerates Latino student success.

The colleges and universities ultimately selected as 2019 Seal recipients will be announced on June 20 in Washington, D.C.

Excelencia in Education is a non-profit organization founded in 2004. Our mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. To accomplish this mission, we link research, policy and practice. We work to build will for institutional policy change that can be scaled and used to develop networks of institutions and communities that recognize effective change is needed to serve more post-traditional students in higher education. Since our founding, we have worked closely with institutions of higher education to ensure the policy action of their leadership—and that of community and policy leaders as a whole—reflects the realities faced by today’s Latino students.