Growing Latinx Enrollment, Not Enough Support

More Latinx Californians than ever are graduating from high school and enrolling in higher education institutions, but these students still lack the support they need to attend college, transfer and earn degrees at rates on par with their white peers, according to a new report by the Campaign for College Opportunity, a California-based advocacy and research organization focused on expanding college access and completion.

“Our systems were created in a time when folks like us, Latinx individuals, were not meant to be in the system,” said Gerardo Chavez, president of the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, in an online panel about the report. “Our system was created in a time where Black and brown people were marginalized, were discriminated against. We were not given a fair shot for our education, to get out of the stigma of being Black and brown in the United States.”

The report, released Tuesday, examines trends in college access and completion for Latinx students in the state across public education systems. It found that 87 percent of Latinx 19-year-olds in the state earned a high school diploma or equivalent, up from 73 percent a decade ago. Latinx students made up 43 percent of in-state undergraduates in public institutions in the 2018-19 academic year, with more than 1.39 million Latinx students enrolled in California’s colleges and universities.

“More Latinx students are being prepared for college and more are going to college,” said Audrey Dow, senior vice president at the Campaign for College Opportunity. “I think that speaks to the fact that Latinx students understand the value of a college degree and are working hard to earn that credential.”

The vast majority, 90 percent, of Latinx undergraduates were enrolled in the state’s public higher education systems—the University of California, California State University or the California Community Colleges—with 72 percent enrolled at one of the state’s 116 community colleges.

Latinx students remain underrepresented within the UC system, according to the report.

Preliminary UC system admissions data for fall 2021 show an 8 percent increase in Latinx admissions compared to the previous fall, but the system’s student body was 25 percent Latinx in fall 2020. Latinx residents make up 39 percent of California residents, the largest ethnic group in the state.

The report found some gains in student outcomes. Four-year graduation rates for Latinx students were highest at UC campuses compared to other systems. More than half of Latino men and nearly two-thirds of Latina women who enrolled in fall 2016 graduated within four years. Meanwhile, four-year graduation rates doubled over the last five years for Latinx students enrolling in CSU institutions.

However, the data showed equity gaps in graduation rates persist, especially for Latino men in the state.

At CSU institutions, 18 percent of Latino male freshmen and 29 percent of Latina female freshmen who enrolled full-time graduated within four years, compared to 36 percent of white men and 52 percent of white women.

Latino male freshmen who enrolled full-time in the UC system in fall 2016 had a four-year graduation rate 17 percentage points below that of white men, and Latinas in the system had a four-year graduation rate 14 percentage points below that of white women.

“We know that a lot of that is because of the demands on Latino men to work and support their families,” Dow said. “There’s a real concern that the effects of the pandemic will only widen the gaps that we see for Latino men in college access, in college completion, which I think has some real consequences on the state … I think if we don’t work intentionally to support the re-enrollment of Latinx men and support Latinx men in college with very targeted social supports as well as academic supports, we’re really risking creating an underclass of Latinx men in the state of California.”

Meanwhile, only 2 percent of Latinx students at California Community Colleges transferred within two years, while 16 percent transferred within four years and less than a third transferred after six years. Among white students, 3 percent transferred in two years, 29 percent transferred in four years and 46 percent transferred after six years.

Deborah Santiago, co-founder and CEO of Excelencia in Education, an organization focused on Latinx student success, said because so many Latinx students are concentrated in community colleges—in part because only 44 percent of Latinx students completed high school courses required for admission to universities in the state—policies that ensure smooth transfer are especially important.

“Community college has to prepare them academically, get them an associate degree and then transfer them, and that’s more onus on community college,” she said. “I think we know community colleges don’t get the same amount of invested resources as four-year institutions.”

The report also highlighted disparities in college access and degree attainment for older Latinx residents.

The percentage of Latinx Californians between the ages of 25 and 64 who attended college increased over the last decade, from 28 percent to 40 percent, but older adult Latinx learners still have the lowest college attendance level of any ethnic group in California. In comparison, 78 percent of white adult learners in California went to college. Half of Latinx adults who attended college in the state never earned a degree.

“That’s a tremendous waste of talent,” Dow said. “These are individuals who have set foot on our campuses … that for some reason fell out of the pipeline and weren’t supported to get that degree.”

She believes institution leaders must “really evaluate their policies and practices” in response to the data.

The report suggests there’s a dearth of Latinx faculty members across systems relative to the number of Latinx students they serve. In the 2018-19 academic year, 16 percent of community college faculty members and 9 percent of CSU faculty members were Latinx. The UC had the lowest Latinx student-to-faculty ratio, with 90 Latinx students for every Latinx professor.

“Often people just assume that because we’re an increasing majority that we’re well represented in the teachers and faculty and decision-making and leadership roles,” Santiago said. “I think that’s a barrier, because that’s not accurate.”

The report proposes a number of recommendations for institutions to boost Latinx student success in in California, including hiring more Latinx faculty and bolstering current efforts to enroll more Latinx students to UC campuses and increase Latinx graduation rates at the CSU system. It also recommends state policy makers dedicate additional state funding to increase enrollment of Latinx students at the CSU and UC systems and strengthen and expand existing transfer pathways between the community colleges and CSU campuses and provide further support to Hispanic-serving institutions in the state.

Chavez emphasized the importance of intentional supports for Latino men and the need for diverse faculty members and student leaders.

“In a world where you have to be … competitive in the workforce, a lot of our Latino men, Latino students, are facing, either do I enter the workforce or do I continue my education, and if I continue my education, how am I going to pay for my meals? How am I going to pay for rent?” he said. “Those are the things that we’re seeing in our system.”