The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics and the U.S. Department of Education released a new report, Winning the Future: Improving Education for the Latino Community.

The report shows that Hispanic success in education and in the labor market is of immediate and long-term importance to America’s economy, according to the White House Blog. It also shows that Hispanics have the lowest education attainment level overall of any U.S. group. Hispanics also are by far the largest minority group in today’s American public education system, numbering more than 12.4 million in the country’s elementary, middle and high schools. Overall, nearly 22% (or slightly more than 1 in 5) of all pre-K through 12th grade students enrolled in America’s public schools are Hispanic, according to the blog.

Hispanic students face persistent obstacles to educational attainment. Less than half are enrolled in any early learning program. Only about half earn their high school diploma on time; those who do complete high school are only half as likely as their peers to be prepared for college and only 4% have completed graduate or professional degree programs.

Senior Obama Administration officials met with dozens of educators and community leaders recently to exchange ideas and outline strategies to meet President Obama’s goal for the nation to have the world’s best-educated workforce by 2020, according to the blog.