Neatly summarizing the 2014 Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) conference is a no easy task. Academics from across the nation met at the Hilton in Washington, D.C., from Wednesday to Saturday last week to discuss solutions and findings relevant to almost every imaginable topic relating to the world of higher education.
When it comes to questions of minority-serving institutions, ASHE does not miss that mark. At a panel focusing on Hispanic-serving institutions, panelists looked to the past and future of the institutions that are predominantly serving one of the fastest growing demographics in the nation.
HSIs, which are defined as institutions serving a more than student body that is 25 percent Hispanic or more, were only federally recognized in 1992. Since then, the number of HSIs has almost doubled, and is projected to continue to grow. Back in 1991-92, there were 189 HSIs. There were 370 in 2012-13.
“There’s a narrative out that HSIs underperform other institutions with respect to Latinos, that they’re not serving Latinos very well because on the whole they don’t have high graduation rates for Latinos,” said Dr. Anne-Marie Nuñez, an associate professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of Texas San Antonio.
The graduation rate of first-time, full-time Latino freshmen was 41 percent in 6 years, compared to the 50 percent graduation rate for the national average, according to IPEDs and NCES data for 2011-12.
Yet that data, which looks at full-time, first-time students, may not represent the full spectrum of the Hispanic postsecondary experience. Nuñez said that simply looking at graduation rates misses other metrics of success.
