With Latinos graduating from high school in numbers that will keep increasing for years, the head of a higher education group that released a new report on the trend says colleges need to step up efforts to accommodate the nation's largest minority.

"In general, colleges are still not prepared," said David Longanecker, executive director of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.

Its report, "Knocking at the College Door," is compiled with data from the nation's leading test-makers, the U.S. census and other sources. It is released every five years and is used by local school districts, states and higher education to track enrollment trends.

"We know there is a relationship between race and income and academic preparedness," Longanecker said. "But we don't have the support services in place to enhance the success that we need."

Although Latinos enroll in college at almost the same rate as non-Latino students, they often bring special circumstances to school, said Richard Fry, a senior research associate with the Pew Hispanic Trust.

Latinos are less likely to attend college full-time and are more likely to work so they can provide financial support to dependents, Fry said.

That trend has been reflected at Modesto Junior College, said MJC spokeswoman Linda Hoile, although not only among Latino students.

"More and more students, of all races, are having to work part time and juggle school and family obligations," she said.

The commission's study also shows that the total number of Latino students is increasing in public high schools nationwide. It projects that white students will represent a minority of graduates from Western high schools by 2013-14.

The study projects that Latinos will account for 21 percent of the country's public high school graduates in 2008, up from 17 percent in 2002.

At MJC, there has been a steady increase in Latino enrollment since the late 1990s.

In 2003, Latino students made up 30 percent of the student body, compared with 29 percent in 2002, 28 percent in 2001, 27 percent in 2000, and 26 percent in 1999, Hoile said.

"In order to help these students receive degrees -- particularly bachelor's degrees, but also associate's degrees and vocational credentials -- you have to help them negotiate their work lives, their family lives, as well as their academic lives," Fry said.

At MJC, officials have long made an effort to encourage the area's Latino high school students to attend college, Hoile said.

In March, MJC will host its 20th annual Hispanic Educational Conference. The conference is a gathering of Latino professionals from various walks of life who counsel graduating high school students on career and educational decisions.

"We have been specifically reaching out to the Hispanic population in our area, trying to encourage high school seniors to prepare themselves for college," Hoile said. "They need to know that college is accessible, and they need to be encouraged to stay in school."

T. Jaime Chahin, a scholar at the Tomas Rivera Center at Trinity University in San Antonio, said that some schools, especially in the Southwest, are making progress in integrating Latino culture into campus life.

But he said schools across the country need to do a better job of recruiting and retaining Latino faculty members who can serve as role models for Latino undergraduates.

The process of pushing Latinos toward college degrees needs to begin at the elementary school level, he added.

Latinos should feel "that college is not a novelty but is something that is expected, even for first-generation students who have never been exposed to these kinds of opportunities," said Chahin, also a professor at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.

On the Net:

Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education: www.wiche.edu.