Taking Stock: Higher Education and Latinos

Check out the full report Taking Stock" by Excelencia in Education.

-Patricia

National Institute for Latino Policy
New Report

> Leaders in the current federal administration as well as key foundations focused on higher education have recognized the importance of an educated workforce and have articulated goals to increase our nation's collective degree completion. The projected population growth of Latinos, their current educational attainment levels, and their relative youth all signal the need to pay more attention to this group in higher education. A review of the data clearly shows that the nation's success in reaching its degree completion goals will rely on its ability to accelerate the degree completion of Latinos.
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> Excelencia in Education's mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. This brief takes what we know from national data and combines it with what we hear from elected officials, service providers, and Latino students and puts this information together to articulate what we can do to address critical policy issues affecting Latino students in the current higher education context.
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> What we know: The general profile of Latinos in education emphasizes a minority of the population yet drives the majority of public policy for Latinos. Policymakers seeking to improve Latino higher educational outcomes should consider positioning issues and developing strategies to accelerate Latino student success based on a more representative profile of Latino students.
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> What we hear: Listening to the stake holders in higher education yielded the following points:
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> * The economic downturn presented challenges to maintaining access and success for elected officials, service providers, and students.
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> *Elected officials seemed more focused on persistence in college while service providers were more focused on college access.
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> *Both Latino students and elected officials noted that spending more money in higher education did not necessarily mean getting more for the investment.
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> * Elected officials shared that improving accountability for the public's investment in higher education must be balanced with providing access to a quality education.
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> * Students did not consider accountability measures such as graduation rates or college rankings as factors influencing their college choice.
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> * Many Latino students valued higher education and balanced work and family responsibilities to get their education.
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> * Service providers considered programs tailored to serve Latinos the most effective in engaging Latino students.
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> What we can do: Suggested steps to accelerate Latino student success include the following:
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> * Develop a media campaign emphasizing the societal and economic benefits for raising the degree completion rate overall, and for Latinos specifically.
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> * Create a national acceleration plan specifically tailored to improve the success of Hispanic students in higher education and track degree completion goals and measures of progress.
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> * Focus on the strategic alignment of educational support efforts from the state to community level to increase accountability and effectiveness.
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> * Replicate or expand institutional practices that are improving Hispanic student success.
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> * Increase both support to and the accountability of institutions enrolling large numbers of Latino students to improve academic quality, retention, and degree completion.