Whereas immigrant and native-born Latino parents hope their children will continue their schooling beyond high school and finish with a post-secondary degree, parents and students are ill-equipped to navigate the complexities of college.

Latino parents, both native born and immigrants, have great aspirations for their children. But given the low rates of post-secondary education among low-income Latino parents, especially immigrants, many cannot provide their children with meaningful guidance.

Key Findings

• Knowledge about how to advance to college is low among Latino parents, particularly among parents with lower income and educational backgrounds and first-generation immigrants. Counselors, teachers, and college representatives may help to mitigate these deficits.
• Many Latino students are the first in their families to attend college and may have poorly developed goals or may not be adept at navigating the pathways between coursework and career success; hence they may be overwhelmed with the choices that confront them in college.
• Parents’ language barriers make learning about college an additional challenge.
  Many lower income Latino parents are not well informed about the difference between community colleges and four-year institutions.
• Family priorities may trump dedicated time or space for study and may require the student to contribute to family income through a job or by providing other home-related services (e.g., child care for a sibling). Parents may not understand what is required to be successful in college, and going away to college is often not supported, especially for girls.

Recommendations
Organizations should develop and continuously improve practice guides for engaging Latino parents and students on why and how to plan for post-secondary education, especially in the STEM fields with emphasis on HT/IT.