The U.S. Latino population has surpassed 62 million and is projected to represent close to 29% of the entire U. S. population by 2060. Despite being the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, Latinos hold the fewest college degrees compared to their peers. Current research illustrates that to address the lag in rates of degree…

The purpose of this study was to examine the factors that influence the completion of PhD degrees and identify obstacles to completion at a Hispanic Serving Institution. Low completion rates are a national and global problem predicted to generate a critical shortage of professionals needed by society. The researcher utilized a phenomenological…

The number of Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) have more than tripled in the U.S. between 2000 and 2020. In 2000, there were 229 HSIs. By 2020, there were 569 HSIs and 333 emerging HSIs, for a total of 902. Although HSIs make up only 18% of all U.S. colleges and universities, they enroll 67% of the Latino students. This paper examined the…

The purpose of this study is to explore the parental factors that impact Hispanics' post-secondary education completion. This is an important social issue as prior literature has indicated that educated parents have a strong influence on their children's abilities, knowledge, and values. For this study, 20 in-depth, semi-structured interviews of…

Scholarship on Latinx communities has consistently underscored the role that families play in college students' educational aspirations and success. Forms of familial empowerment are particularly beneficial as Latinx college students encounter environments and individuals that do not account for their cultural knowledges. A subset of this…

For the U.S. to regain the top ranking in the world for college degree attainment, Latinos will need to earn 6.2 million degrees by 2030. To reach the degree attainment goal by 2030, the U.S. can: close the degree completion gap by accelerating Latino completion while increasing for all students and scale up programs and initiatives that work for…

Over the last several decades, nontraditional students have increasingly enrolled in postsecondary institutions (Ellis, 2019). This diverse population has altered perceptions of the traditional college student. Nontraditional students drive higher education institutions to reexamine their mission, purpose, sources of support, and delivery…

The present study illustrates how select data can be organized to guide researchers to HSIs proficient at graduating Hispanics with STEM bachelor's degrees to investigate best practices that less proficient HSIs can adopt for program improvement. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education…

In this article, we (re)imagine quantitative approaches in educational research to (re)evaluate our experiences as Chicana/Latina feminists, which are always inextricably both raced and gendered. Using a Chicana feminist epistemology in education, a framework that explicitly challenges the perceived objectivity and universal foundations of…

Background/Context: Since 2005, critical race theory (CRT) scholars have crafted educational pipelines that compare educational attainment across racial groups in the United States. These visual models offer concise pictorial narratives about the discrepancies that fall along racial lines, particularly the underperformance of Chicana/o/x students…

California Community Colleges (CCC) are the largest post-secondary higher education systems in the nation, with an enrollment of over 2 million at a given year. They are also the most affordable and accessible for students after completing K-12 education. With California having the largest Latinx residents (39%), they overwhelmingly makeup 45% of…

As the Hispanic/Latin* population in the United States experiences rapid growth, a concerning decline in college completion rates among these students demands further investigation. This study aims to establish an understanding of historical disparities that pervade the provision of advanced education and experiences, which consequently impact…

Black and Latinx four-year college graduation rates remain low, per the research, which corresponds to 45.9 percent for Blacks and 55 percent for Latinx, but when compared to White and Asian four-year college students, these rates are 71.7 percent for Asians, and 67.2 percent for Whites (Shapiro et al., 2017). This descriptive qualitative research…

Co-enrollment, defined as simultaneous enrollment at more than one postsecondary institution, has become increasingly prevalent among college student attendance patterns. This descriptive study analyzes the characteristics and experiences of a nationally representative sample of co-enrolled Latinx community college students from the Beginning…

When compared to Blacks, Asians, and Whites, Latinxs have lower rates of educational attainment at every level from secondary education to advanced postsecondary degrees (Ryan and Bauman 2016). This study focuses on Latinx first generation college students and uses Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) theory to illuminate the ways this…