Latino students make up the fastest growing K–12 population in the United States. School and business leaders and education advocates are looking for new ways to ensure these students have the academic skills they need to enter and succeed in college.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court nomination of federal appeals court judge Sonia Sotomayor might seem an obvious indicator that Latinos have "arrived"—that talent, a good education, and hard work can propel a poor kid from the housing projects into one of the most esteemed intellectual positions in U.S. society. However, the reality is that Latino students are among the least likely of any minority group to finish college or even to graduate from high school.