Latino was evident, as were their aspirations to attend college, attitudes consistent with findings in the Pew data.

Einstein student Alicia Esconto, who has ambitions of pursuing a communications degree, said simply, “I am expected to go to college.”

She said her father is a plumber who would have preferred that she set her sights on becoming a doctor or lawyer. “I don’t want you to have to work as hard as I have to work,” she recounted him saying. But she said that many of her peers have told her that “they’d rather work full-time than study full-time.”

Marilyn Molina left high school in her senior year. At 21, she has three young children, but with assistance from Youth Build, a youth and community development program, she was able to identify daycare resources, thus enabling her to study for her GED. She said she was sometimes unfairly stereotyped by schoolmates at her former school because of her tattoos – “What gang are you in?” -- and dismissed by educators there who said that Latinos were not going to amount to anything. Yet, regardless of her circumstances, she said, “My family has always expected me to do the best in whatever grade,” including college.

The Pew study did note a marked difference between foreign-born and U.S.-born Latinos. “Native-born Latinos ages 18 to 24 are more likely to say they are enrolled in school than foreign-born Latinos in the same age group – 40 percent versus 20 percent,” the report said.

The Pew survey showed other barriers contributing to the lag in Latino educational attainment. Respondents said parents of Hispanic students don’t play an active role; Hispanic students know less English; and too many teachers don’t know how to work with Hispanic students.

Symposium presenters, however, stressed that one must proceed with caution in evaluating the answers because the underlying dynamics with Latino families and cultures are often complex and nuanced. Parents may not play an active role because of their own inability to provide academic assistance if they are predominantly Spanish speakers. Also, they may be unfamiliar with a school’s institutional culture.

But for many Latinos, it is their feeling of duty toward family that could be holding them back. One student at Montgomery College, a two-year institution, who was working part-time, said her parents were anxious for her ...