NISOD Session Highlights Latino Student Success Imperative

Improving student completion rates at community colleges goes hand in hand with improving educational outcomes for Latinos, Excelencia in Education President Sarita Brown said Monday at the 34^th annual convention of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) in Austin, Texas.

"You can't reach this goal without a tactical plan for Latinos," said Brown. Founded in 2005, Excelencia is a research-based organization dedicated to improving education for the nation's fastest-growing population. It emphasizes Latinos as an "asset" and "human capital" the nation can ill afford to ignore.

"We are a major proportion of your student body, our workforce and of this country's civic leadership. Those are arguments that Excelencia makes every day," said Brown during a panel titled "Examples of Excelencia: Meeting the Latino College Completion Challenge."