Giving Compass' Take:

• Matt Krupnick at The Hechinger Report writes about a plan to help Hispanics get ready for college and raise high school graduation rates.

• The share of California Hispanic 19-year-olds with a high school diploma has increased from 74 percent to 86 percent since 2006. How can policymakers and educators continue this trend?

• Here's an article on bringing transparency to high school graduation options. 

Miguel Hernandez spoke neither Spanish nor English when he arrived in California from a small Mexican mountain village four years ago.

Like many indigenous residents of remote towns in the state of Oaxaca, Hernandez grew up speaking a Zapotecan dialect rather than Spanish. That meant he had to overcome even more obstacles than other Mexican immigrants, unable to communicate with most of his classmates and teachers at North Hollywood High School.

“I wanted to cry,” said Hernandez, 18. But he learned Spanish and then English, staying after school for tutoring and moving on to honors and Advanced Placement classes.

Now he is about to become the first person in his family to go to college.

Hernandez, who plans to enter California State University at Northridge in the fall to study computer science, is part of a big increase in California in the proportion of Hispanics who graduate from high school, reflecting an effort to get more of them to go on to higher educations.

Read the full article about high school graduation by Matt Krupnick at The Hechinger Report.