When asked about their college expectations and plans during their 11th-grade year, nearly 45 percent of students in the fall 2009 high school cohort were very sure they would pursue a bachelor’s degree. Yet, even as rising secondary completion rates have increased the share of students knocking on the door of higher education, longstanding racial and ethnic disparities in secondary attainment remain. As persons of color come to comprise the majority of high school students, understanding and addressing the unique challenges facing students of color will be essential for achieving national higher education goals. Given how many secondary completers enter higher education, trends in the racial and ethnic composition of high school students will likewise inform the demographic composition of American undergraduate and graduate students in the years to come.
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Postsecondary Plans, by Race and Ethnicity
When asked about their college expectations and plans during their 11th-grade year, nearly 45 percent of students in the fall 2009 high school cohort were very sure they would pursue a bachelor’s degree. Asian students were the most likely to report they were very sure they would pursue a bachelor’s degree (54.0 percent), followed by White students (47.2 percent), Black or African American students (45.5 percent), students of more than one race (45.1 percent), Hispanic or Latino students (37.4 percent), and American Indian or Alaska Native students (35.9 percent).