Latino High School Graduation Rate Drops; Hispanics in Texas, New York Likely to Graduate Than Those in Florida, Minnesota, Nevada

Despite more Latino children attending elementary schools, fewer Hispanic students are graduating from high school, according to the latest U.S. Department of Education numbers.

In a preliminary data report issued by the education department last week, Hispanic students were shown as being less likely to receive high school diplomas than their white and Asian counterparts in 48 states.

Maine, which boasts an 87 percent graduation rate among Latino youths, and Hawaii at 79 percent in the same category, where the only two states where Latinos were more likely to graduate than whites, the data shows.

The education department said that its latest findings were tallied through a new measure that they dubbed as more accurate.

"By using this new measure, states will be more honest in holding schools accountable and ensuring that students succeed," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. "Ultimately, these data will help states target support to ensure more students graduate on time, college and career ready."

"The varying methods formerly used by states to report graduation rates made comparisons between states unreliable, while the new, common metric can be used by states, districts and schools to promote greater accountability and to develop strategies that will reduce dropout rates and increase graduation rates in schools nationwide," the department said in a statement.

However, while the November report marked the first time that nationwide schools could use the new measure for graduation rates, Idaho, Kentucky, and Oklahoma did not meet the deadline for data submission, according to ABC News Univision, which made the data for the entire nation "technically incomplete." Puerto Rico also was not included.

Of the states measures, Minnesota had the lowest graduation rate turnout among Hispanic students in 2010-11 at only a 51 percent graduation rate for Latinos. Nevada was the second-worst in this category with only 53 percent of its Latino students graduating high school, the District of Columbia third-lowest at 55 percent, Utah at 57 percent and only 58 percent of Hispanic high-schoolers were graduating from both Florida and Oklahoma.

Maine's 87 percent graduation rate among Latinos in high school led all 50 states while Texas and Tennessee came in second at 82 percent, Illinois ranking third with 81 percent and both South Dakota and Georgia finishing fourth-best with 79 percent.

Roughly 69 percent of Latino high school children in New York are likely to graduate, according to the department's data, as compared to 70 percent of Californias' Hispanic high school graduates.

One key factor that helped Texas's Latino student graduation rates spike upwards appear to be the policies Texas has adopted towards assisting them. 

As ABC News Univision noted, Texas was also the first state to allow undocumented students to go to college with in-state tuition rates after they've graduated from high school.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a former presidential candidate, has defended the law in the past.

"If you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no reason than they've been brought there, by no fault of their own, I don't think you have a heart," he told the Huffington Post last year. "I still support it greatly."