Enrollment and Retention

State higher education officials are developing a plan to address the lagging college attendance of Latinos and to close the gap within that group - where men are behind.

"Latino males are vanishing from our higher education ranks," said Victor Saenz, an assistant professor of education administration at the University of Texas. "Our culture has a certain motivation to work right away to contribute to the family."

According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's most recent "Closing the Gaps by 2015" report, Hispanics are the least likely group to attend college and are "well below" meeting improvement goals.