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Latinos' postsecondary educational attainment has not keptpace with their growing representation in the U.S. population. Howcan Latino educational attainment be advanced? This monograph presents relevant contemporary research, focusingon the role of institutional contexts. Drawing particularly onresearch grounded in Latino students' perspectives, itidentifies key challenges Latino students face and discuss variousapproaches to address these challenges. Because so many Latinostudents are enrolled in federally designated Hispanic-ServingInstitutions (HSIs), it also specifically explores HSIs' rolein promoting Latinos' higher education access and equity. Asa conclusion, it offers recommendations for institutional, state,and federal policies that can foster supportive contexts. This is Volume 39 Issue 1 of the Jossey-Bass publicationASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph in theseries is the definitive analysis of a tough higher educationproblem, based on thorough research of pertinent literature andinstitutional experiences. Topics are identified by a nationalsurvey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned towrite the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of eachmanuscript before publication.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
Contents
Executive Summary
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Postsecondary Attainment
Economic Implications of Low Educational Attainment
Organization of This Monograph
Demographic, Social, and Cultural Background
A Demographic Dividend?
Ethnic Subgroups
Cultural and Social Influences
Summary
Classic and Contemporary Theories of Latino Identity Development
Ethnic and Racial Identity Development in College Students
Supporting Latino Students in Identity Development
Summary
Challenges to Latino Student Success
Casting Success Within a Broader Societal Context
Role of Resources
Summary
Mainstream Approaches to Latino Student Success
Academic Capital
Financial Capital
Cultural Capital
Social Capital
Summary
Culturally Responsive Approaches to Latino Student Success
Family Concerns
Assumptions About Latinos’ Background and Potential
Campus Racial/Ethnic Climate
Conclusion
The Role of Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Access and Equity
Historical Background and Funding of HSIs
Students in HSIs
Faculty and Administrators at HSIs
Emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Challenges for HSIs
Summary
Conclusion and Implications
Role of Demographics and Social and Cultural Factors
Developing Culturally Responsive Research, Policy, and Practice
Institutionalizing Strategies to Serve Latino Students
Teaching and Learning in the Classroom
Role of Finances
Collaborative Research
Role of State Legislators and Policymakers
Role of Federal Representatives and Agencies
Final Thoughts
References
Name Index
Subject Index
About the Authors
Latinos in Higher Education and Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Creating Conditions for Success
Anne-Marie Nuñez, Richard E. Hoover, Kellie Pickett, A. Christine Stuart-Carruthers, and Maria Vázquez
ASHE Higher Education Report: Volume 39, Number 1
Kelly Ward, Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel, Series Editors
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Executive Summary
Latinos have become the largest population of color in the United States and in U.S. higher education. Yet, their low postsecondary educational attainment rates suggest that P–20 U.S. education is not serving them as well as it could. Because Latinos’ share of the U.S. population is expected to increase to as much as one-third of the population by 2050, it is imperative for this nation’s economic and social well-being to advance Latinos’ postsecondary educational attainment. Higher education plays a critical role in this endeavor. This monograph discusses what is known about Latino students’ experiences in higher education and the implications of this knowledge for developing research, policy, and practice to advance Latinos’ educational attainment rates.
Here, we extend other recent work on Latino postsecondary attainment to focus on how higher education institutional contexts can hinder or enhance Latinos’ postsecondary success. To that end, we place special emphasis on what higher education institutional agents—including faculty, administrators, and other personnel—can do to foster Latino student success. Further, we also place additional emphasis on the role of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in this endeavor.
After laying out the scope of the problem in the first chapter, we discuss Latinos’ key demographic, social, and cultural background characteristics in the second chapter, including the dimensions of ethnicity, family roles, language, religion, immigration status, and neighborhood composition. In the third chapter, we continue with a discussion of theoretical perspectives about how Latino college students develop their racial/ethnic identities. Here, we review some classic and more contemporary theories about racial/ethnic identity development in general and Latino identity development in particular.
In the fourth chapter we identify key challenges that Latino college students face in navigating higher education. We draw on a framework of multiple capitals to address limited access to various kinds of resources, but also incorporate recent research on Latino students’ and families’ college experiences to identify culturally oriented challenges, several of which are situated in broader exclusionary policy contexts. These multiple capitals include (a) academic, (b) financial, (c) cultural, and (d) social capital, and culturally oriented challenges include (e) family concerns, (f) assumptions about Latino students’ background and potential, and (g) campus climate. Identifying these multiple capitals and culturally oriented challenges sets the stage for discussing traditional and culturally responsive approaches to promoting success.
In the fifth chapter, we focus on mainstream approaches, and in the sixth chapter, we focus on culturally responsive approaches to creating conditions for Latino student success. While this is admittedly a somewhat artificial distinction, the fifth chapter focuses on approaches that tend to work for all students and are also beneficial to Latino students, while the sixth chapter emphasizes culturally responsive approaches that speak in particular to Latino students’ and families’ cultural background. Both chapters include specific examples of programs that incorporate these approaches. Programs, however, cannot necessarily reach all Latino students. Therefore, we conclude the sixth chapter by addressing what institutional agents and leaders can do to create conditions for Latino student success.
Much of what has been learned so far about serving Latino students has been informed by the efforts taking place in HSIs. HSIs are those institutions designated by the federal government as having at least 25% Hispanic student enrollment. In the seventh chapter, we discuss the history, characteristics, and development of HSIs and address the current state of knowledge on how HSIs shape Latinos’ college access and success. In the final chapter, we conclude with recommendations for future research, policy, and practice that are directed at different levels of stakeholders.
Foreword
The growth of the Latino population in the United States is certainly having an effect on all aspects of society. The effect of demographic shift, documented in the U.S. Census, is being felt in communities across the country—from places like California, Texas, and Florida, with large populations of Latinos, to communities in the Midwest with smaller but steadily increasing numbers of Latinos. On a national level, the role of Latino voters was certainly felt in the last presidential election and issues relative to the needs of the Latino population in the United States seem to finally be receiving more public attention. Consider, for example, the DREAM (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors) Act, which is a bipartisan federal legislative act that would provide undocumented youths with a path to earn citizenship if they complete a college degree or military service. While there is not universal agreement on the act (some say it does not go far enough, and others think that it goes too far), it certainly represents a shift in U.S. policy discussions about Latinos and has a direct effect on colleges and universities. Meanwhile, several states (including Alabama and Arizona) have passed statewide legislation about illegal immigration that is having negative effects on the Latino community, while other states are enacting policies that make it easier for immigrants (legal or otherwise) to attend higher education (for example, Kansas allows anyone who graduates from a Kansas high school, regardless of immigration status, to receive in-state tuition). Even the Supreme Court is weighing in on these issues as they decide the affirmative action admission case of Fisher vs. University of Texas. Their decision, due out in May, will surely have an effect on issues of college access for Latino students in the United States.
Indeed, the education system is greatly influenced by the growth of the Latino population in the United States. There is daily discussion in public schools and among policymakers about the best ways to serve Latino youth in both the K–12 and higher education systems. There is agreement that as a system we are not yet serving this population as well as we could. How to better meet the needs of Latino students, however, is open for debate. In the higher education arena, Latinos are gaining greater access to community colleges than to 4-year institutions, and their college completion rates lag behind other racial/ethnic groups. There is a lot of diversity within the Latino population—differences in language, differences in culture, differences by generation in the United States, differences by countries of origin, and differences in reasons for immigrating, to name only a few. Many volumes and articles written about this population do not recognize the differences within the categories. This monograph, however, is sensitive to the diversity within the Latino population. It recognizes that the Latino experience in higher education is not a singular story; rather, it is a tale of differences.
The present monograph by Anne-Marie Núñez, Richard Hoover, Kellie Pickett, A. Christine Stuart-Carruthers, and Maria Vázquez not only recognizes within-group differences but also looks at the issues facing Latino students from a range of perspectives. In particular, it contextualizes those issues in light of research that looks at the individual student as well as at the systems of education that are seeking to serve this student population. One of the major strengths of this monograph is that it looks at Latino college students through a number of different lenses—each lens offering a unique perspective.
The monograph paints a demographic portrait of who has access to higher education, where the access points are, where the leaks are in the educational pipeline, and who succeeds. It also looks at Latinos from the perspective of identity development theory—explaining in more in-depth ways who Latino students are and what they need from a college or university setting. Moving away from a focus on the individual, the monograph then explores institutional type differences, focusing on the role of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in serving the needs of Latino students. From there, the monograph explores different types of programs within a range of institutional types that are designed to best meet the needs of this population. Taken all together, these various lenses paint a very clear picture of the ways that higher education serves and fails to serve this important constituency.
This monograph about Latinos in higher education focuses on explaining theory, research, and practice relative to Latino students in a way that is insightful and useful. Student affairs and academic affairs administrators along with faculty who work with Latino students will find this volume useful. Researchers, graduate students, federal and state policymakers, and institutional leaders in both K–12 and higher education contexts will also find this volume to be helpful in framing the needs of Latino students as well as finding means to better serve this group of students. It offers a comprehensive overview of theory and practice—and leaves the reader with ideas of how to improve the situation facing Latino students rather than just accepting that the present system isn’t working as well as it could.
There are a couple of other monographs in the series that overlap nicely with the topic and approach undertaken here. In particular, for those who find this topic appealing, I would recommend also reading Karen Arnold, Elissa Lu, and Kelli Armstrong’s The Ecology of College Readiness (2012); Amy Bergerson’s College Choice and Access to College: Moving Policy, Research, and Practice to the 21st Century (2009); Rachelle Winkle-Wagner’s Cultural Capital: The Promises and Pitfalls in Educational Research (2010); and Marybeth Walpole’s Economically and Educationally Challenged Students in Higher Education: Access to Outcomes (2007). There are also several recent monographs that, like this volume, focus on particular groups of students who may have concerns that overlap with Latino students. In particular, I recommend the most recent monograph by Eunyoung Kim and Jeannette Díaz, Immigrant Students and Higher Education (2013) and the monograph by Bryan Brayboy, Amy Fann, Angelina Castagno, and Jessica A. Solyom, Postsecondary Education for American Indian and Alaska Natives: Higher Education for Nation Building and Self-Determination (2012). In addition, this monograph’s coverage of HSIs builds on Marybeth Gasman, Valerie Lundy-Wagner, Tafaya Ransom, and Nelson Bowman’s Unearthing Promise and Potential: Our Nation’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (2010) to illustrate the role of minority-serving institutions in serving their designated student population. Each of these offers related but slightly different perspectives on the topic of students who have been historically disenfranchised by higher education. The Kim monograph has obvious overlaps with the topic of Latino students.
I am a firm believer that if we want to improve the higher education system, we need to look for models of success and look for programs, policies, and practices that achieve our goals. I commend this monograph on Latino students because it does this—while recognizing the diversity within the population and the complexity of the issues.
Lisa E. Wolf-Wendel
Series Editor
Acknowledgments
Writing this monograph has been an ambitious team effort, and we appreciate the support we have received along the way. First and foremost, we would like to thank Lisa Wolf-Wendel for her encouragement, guidance, and commitment to the topic of this monograph. Early in our developmental phase, Richard, Kellie, Christine, and Maria received some helpful suggestions from Ron Joekel, Brent Cejda, Rachelle Winkle-Wagner, and Richard Torraco. We very much appreciate their interest and assistance. As we wrote the monograph, we received some excellent assistance in editing from Cindy DeRyke, for which we are sincerely grateful.
Anne-Marie is very grateful to her colleagues at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), including Maricela Oliva, Elizabeth Murakami, Gloria Crisp, Amaury Nora, Laura Rendón, and David Young, for their insights and ongoing support of her work. She appreciates the opportunity to have worked with Brian Pusser and Estela Bensimon, as part of the University of Southern California Center for Urban Education and Western Interstate Commission of Higher Education (WICHE) Policy Fellows Program to frame some of the ideas in this monograph. In addition, she thanks Diane Elizondo for her careful editing and suggestions about the manuscript. Finally, all of the authors want to express their appreciation to this monograph’s peer reviewers for their candid and insightful feedback throughout the process.
IN REFERENCE TO LATINOS’ CURRENT AND FUTURE ascendance in the U.S. population, noted humanities scholar Arturo Madrid has said, “We [Latinos] are already your neighbors and fellow workers, and are or soon will be your in-laws” (Chafets, 2010). The 2010 U.S. Census counted 50.5 million Latinos, or 16% of the overall U.S. population; and Hispanics had already passed Blacks as the largest non-White population of color in 2000 (Passel, Cohn, & López, 2011). The Hispanic population increase accounted for 56% of the nation’s growth from 2000 to 2010 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Some estimates indicate that by the year 2050, at least 3 in 10 residents of the United States will be of Hispanic heritage (R. Sáenz, 2010; Pew Hispanic Center, 2008).
As of 2010, Latinos have also surpassed Blacks as the largest population of color enrolled in the U.S. postsecondary education system (Fry, 2011). Yet this increased enrollment is not proportional to the increased population growth of Latinos, and 2010 U.S. Census figures indicate that Latinos continue to lag behind other racial/ethnic groups in educational attainment. At this time, just one third (32%) of Latinos aged 18 to 24 compared with 38% of Blacks, 44% of Whites, and 62% of Asians in that age group were enrolled in any type of postsecondary education (Fry, 2011). Although this proportion has increased significantly, more than doubling from 13% since 1972 (Fry, 2011), it still has not kept up with the proportion of White students enrolling in higher education in general or in highly selective 4-year institutions (Posselt, Jaquette, Bielby, & Bastedo, 2012; St. John, 2003).
Agencies as diverse as the Pew Hispanic Center (Fry, 2002), President Obama’s administration (U.S. Department of Education, 2011), and the American Enterprise Institute (Kelly, Schneider, & Carey, 2010) agree that increasing Latino postsecondary educational attainment is essential to strengthening the economic and social well-being of the United States. Fortunately, in the past two decades, a significant body of research has emerged to inform the creation of conditions for Latino students to succeed in college. Drawing on this literature, this monograph examines (a) Latinos’ demographic and cultural backgrounds, (b) their postsecondary challenges, and (c) the conditions that affect their college success.
This monograph extends other critical work on Latino student postsecondary success (e.g., F. Contreras, 2011; Nora & Crisp, 2009; Oseguera, Locks, & Vega, 2009) by focusing on the role of higher education “institutional contexts” (Hurtado, Alvarez, Guillermo-Wann, Cuellar, & Arellano, 2012, p. 48) in promoting Latino student success. Accordingly, it emphasizes the role of higher education faculty, administrators, and staff in creating supportive educational conditions for Latino college students. In addition, it places greater emphasis than prior work on demographic and cultural characteristics of Latino students. Furthermore, whereas prior overviews of Latino college success have either overlooked or only glimpsed at the role of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in advancing Latino postsecondary attainment, we explore these institutional contexts in more detail because they enroll just over half of Latino students in higher education (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities [HACU], 2012).
In this monograph, we define success broadly as conditions and outcomes related to 2-year or 4-year postsecondary attainment. Success can encompass initial enrollment characteristics, academic performance, social sense of belonging, persistence, and degree completion. That is, success includes the “intermediate outcomes” as well as the longer-term outcomes related to degree attainment (Astin & Antonio, 2012). It is beyond the scope of this monograph to discuss 2-year and 4-year institutional contexts and outcomes in separate and fuller depth, so we have aimed to address themes that are applicable to both contexts.
Although the higher education institutional context will be our primary focus, we recognize the role of the broader (macro-level) “sociohistorical” and “policy contexts” in shaping the institutional context (Hurtado et al., 2012, p. 48). Research demonstrates that instantiations of anti–affirmative action, anti-bilingual education, and anti-immigrant policies have hindered the college access and success of Latino students (e.g., F. Contreras, 2011; Gándara & Contreras, 2009). These policy trends, along with the 2010 passage of a bill prohibiting teaching of Chicano studies in Arizona high schools, contribute to a sociohistorical “negative context of reception” (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001) in which Latinos can experience a “threat in the air” (Steele, 1997) of racial stereotyping. Experiencing “stereotype threat” (Steele, 1997) that can result from discriminatory and negative perceptions of Latinos’ capabilities and contributions has a negative association with Latino students’ postsecondary academic performance (Massey, Charles, Lundy, & Fischer, 2003).
Not surprisingly, the majority of Latinos report having witnessed racial discrimination, with the most common site being schools. Fully two thirds of Latinos report that discrimination against Latinos in schools is a major social problem (Pew Hispanic Center, 2010b). Thus, colleges and universities seeking to create conditions to support Latino student success must identify and address discrimination and racism in their institutions. Although situated within negative sociohistorical and policy contexts that can perpetuate discrimination and racism, colleges and universities also have an opportunity to improve their own institutional “climate for diversity” (Hurtado et al., 2012, p. 48). Accordingly, this monograph seeks to inform institutional leaders and personnel about how to take that opportunity to support Latino student success.
About half (51%) of first-time Latino college students, compared with 43% of all beginning college students, start their postsecondary education in community colleges, rather than 4-year institutions (American Association of Community Colleges [AACC], 2012). Community colleges appeal to Latinos for many reasons, including (a) lower cost, (b) less stringent admissions policies, (c) capacity to remain closer to families and communities of origin, and (d) flexibility of course scheduling to allow for other responsibilities such as family caretaking or employment (Arbona & Nora, 2007; Fry, 2004). However, Latinos’ transfer rates from community colleges to 4-year institutions are low, and beginning postsecondary education in a community college decreases the likelihood of bachelor’s degree completion (Arbona & Nora, 2007; Bowen, Chingos, & McPherson, 2009; Fry, 2004; Núñez & Elizondo, 2013).
One national study found that fewer than half (48%) of first-time beginning Latino community college students, compared with about half (51%) of Blacks, and two thirds of White (66%) or Asian students (69%) had either earned a postsecondary credential (e.g., certificate, associate’s degree, or bachelor’s degree) or were still enrolled in some kind of postsecondary education within 6 years of beginning college (Radford, Berkner, Wheeless, & Sheperd, 2010, p. 10). Although 51% of these Latino community college students had reported an intention to transfer when they began college (Núñez, Sparks, & Hernández, 2011), just 14% of them, compared with 30% of White and 34% of Asian students, had earned a bachelor’s degree or were still enrolled in a 4-year institution within 6 years (Radford et al., 2010, p. 10).
Even if Latino students enroll in 4-year institutions, their 6-year persistence rates are comparatively low. One national study of 6-year persistence rates found that Latino and Black students’ persistence rates (68% and 66%, respectively), lagged behind those of their White (79%) and Asian (86%) counterparts (Radford et al., 2010). Further, given Latinos’ low educational attainment levels, Latino college students are more likely than others to be the first in their families to go to college (Gándara & Contreras, 2009; Hurtado, Sáenz, Santos, & Cabrera, 2008). First-generation college-going students, regardless of race, are less likely to persist within 6 years than other students (Núñez & Cuccaro-Alamin, 1998). Moreover, Latino first-generation college-going students have lower college completion rates than first-generation students from other racial/ethnic backgrounds (McCarron & Inkelas, 2006).
As a result of their lower postsecondary attainment levels, Latinos remain concentrated in lower level occupations. About half as many Latinos (19%) as Whites (39%) are employed in the management, science, engineering, law, education, entertainment, the arts, and health care fields (Pew Hispanic Center, 2010b). Furthermore, according to the 2010 Census Supplementary Poverty Measure (SPM), Latinos experience the highest poverty rates of any racial/ethnic group: 28%, compared with 25% for Blacks, 17% for Asians, and 11% for Whites (M. H. López, 2011). Moreover, Hispanics have lower homeownership rates than average—48%, compared with 66% of the U.S. adult population as a whole (Pew Hispanic Center, 2011).
In addition, in the 2008 financial downturn and subsequent recession, Latinos appeared to suffer the most among any racial/ethnic groups in terms of unemployment and underemployment. According to one report, Latino household wealth fell by 66%, compared to a drop of 53% among Blacks and 16% among Whites, between 2005 and 2009 (Pew Hispanic Center, 2011). Concurrently, poverty rates among Latinos during this time increased more than any for other racial/ethnic group (Pew Hispanic Center, 2011).
These economic conditions, in addition to other factors that will be explored in further depth in this monograph, mean that Latinos face significant financial challenges in attending college. The desire for economic security can influence Latinos to be averse to taking out loans for their education and to work more than other groups during college (Dowd, 2008), which can pull them away from their studies (Nora, 2004). Other factors, like citizenship status, can compromise Latinos’ access to financial aid, or limit the amount and quality of knowledge that Latino students and families have about college and the financial aid application process. Unfortunately, in the face of Latino population increases, education funding for P–12 public schools and colleges and universities has declined in the past decades, limiting the potential of these institutions to boost Latino educational attainment (e.g, F. Contreras, 2011). Yet, earning a postsecondary credential, particularly a bachelor’s degree, remains a critical opportunity for many Latinos to attain increased economic and social mobility. Further, since an increasing proportion of working-age residents of the United States will be of Latino descent, it is in this country’s collective national interest to advance Latino education attainment.
This monograph addresses how colleges and universities can create conditions for Latino college student success. Our focus is undergraduate students, because Latinos are now the largest undergraduate population of color in both 2-year and 4-year institutions (Fry & López, 2012), and because there is limited research on Latino graduate students’ higher education experiences (Nora & Crisp, 2009). We begin with the assumption that interested stakeholders must understand the demographic, social, and cultural background factors of Latino students, and address these issues in the next chapter. On one hand, we emphasize the variation within the Latino population along these dimensions. On the other hand, we address social and cultural factors shared by many Latinos that can also shape educational experiences.
Subsequently, in the third chapter, we examine classic and more contemporary theories of Latino identity development. These theories provide conceptual tools to understand how Latino students develop racial/ethnic identity in ways that do not always align with more traditional forms of identity development, given historical emphases on Black/White racial categories in student development perspectives (V. Torres, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper, 2003). Reflecting the demographic variations discussed in the second chapter, these evolving theoretical lenses address how Latino students can hold multiple identity affiliations based on factors like race, ethnicity, national origin, and others.