Bryan Llenas of FOX News Latino reports.

Less than 3 out of 10 Latino high school seniors who took the SAT exams in 2012 are ready for college, the college board announced in a new report Monday [September 24].

Of the 272,633 Latino students who took the standardized test, only 23 percent met the SAT benchmark score of 1550, which shows a “level of academic preparedness associated with a high likelihood of college success.”

To put it another way, according to the college board, more than 7 out of 10 Latinos who took the SAT are not adequately academically prepared for college success.

College board research suggests a 1550 score out of 2400 indicates a 65 percent likelihood of achieving a B- average or higher during the first year of college.

The 23 percent of Latinos ready for college is dramatically lower than the general population. Of the more than 1.6 million total high school seniors, the most ever, that took the SAT in 2012, 43 percent were deemed college ready based on their SAT scores.

“When less than half of kids who want to go to college are prepared to do so, that system is failing,” said College Board President Gaston Caperton in a statement released with the data. “We must make education a national priority and deliver rigor to more students.”