Tag Archives: Hispanic students

Some hope for the future – Hispanic students and college

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Reference

Mellander, G. A. (2004, May 03). Targeting higher education: Hispanic students and college –

by the numbers. The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, 14, 9. Retrieved from            http://search.proquest.com/docview/219261871?accountid=41434

Mellander’s (2004) article “Targeting Higher Education; Hispanic Students and College – By the Numbers” goes into depth regarding the data of Hispanic students in institutions of higher learning, comparing graduation rates of Hispanics, Whites, and African-Americans attaining associate’s, bachelor’s or master’s degrees. Further, the article analyzes the types of degrees that Hispanics attain which predominately fall into the categories of education and public administration (Mellander, 2004, p. 1).

This article also mentions the need for better service of Hispanic students in higher education institutions. Mellander makes this conclusion through data, comparing the rising population percentage rate of Hispanic students versus their college graduation rates. The author also uses additional data-supported evidence from specific studies. For example, Mellander (2004) writes, “Hispanics as a group appreciate education. In 1999, 41 percent of Hispanics 17 years and older participated actively in adult education. That seems like a large percentage, but even there, Hispanics lag behind other racial/ethnic cohorts. For instance, among employed Hispanics in this age group, the percentage was 44 percent; for Whites-53 percent” (Mellander, p. 4). The positive implications of this study are tempered by the comparison.   Still, the comparison may be unnecessary at this point in education. Rather, the positives might instead be accentuated.

The strengths of this article center around the illumination of trends in graduation rates with regards to the rise in population rates of Hispanics. Also, the article does a nice job in describing the types of degrees Hispanics do attain when they graduate from college. This leads me to implications of this text. As stated, when Hispanics attain higher education degrees, the degrees themselves are, mostly, in education. This is both important and disconcerting. Firstly, this may be an oversimplification, but maybe a generation of Hispanics needs to become successful grade school and high school teacher and college professors who in turn inspire subsequent generations to become doctors, lawyers, and engineers. Again, that may be an oversimplification of a current problem that needs to be addressed today. Further programs need to become more prevalent that facilitate Hispanics to graduate with degrees other than education and public administration.

Organization

This article is well-organized with informative and easy to follow headings, leading me to find exactly what I was looking for quickly. For instance, its first sub-heading College Completion Rates elucidates that current trends in education indicate that Hispanics do attain college degrees at a lower rate than other races and ethnicities.

Contribution to Field

After doing some research on the author, I found that Gustavo Mellander writes multiple articles under the title of “Targeting Higher Education.” This particular one centers around the numbers of Hispanic students who graduate from college compared with other races and ethnicities. Also in this series, for example, are:

  • College presidents: minorities and women
  • 2013 – A year to be remembered
  • Hispanic trends

It’s led me to clearly see that with this article and all the others, Gustavo Mellander is someone who I’ll be reading a lot throughout my research. The prodigious Mellander has served as the dean or president of multiple universities and colleges in addition to his writing contributions.

Literature Review

I appreciated Mellander’s use of NCES (National Center for Educational Statistics) data. When reflecting upon a writer’s use of sources to support his or her claim, hard data to me always trumps anecdotal information. I probably should amend that, however. I learned from last week’s class that data is one thing, but the usage of multiple modes or types of data is just as or even more important. At the same time, Mellander’s article does not use additional sources to support his data. Quite simply, this piece, though effective, clear, and informative, is solely a summation of NCES reports. I do think the interpreter is important or even vital in all of this. Mellander may, given his experience in the field, pick out nuggets of salient data that other researchers and writers would not.

Data Collection

Another reason Mellander’s data hold gravitas and validity is that the statistics he’s using go back to the 1970s. It’s not as if he’s parlaying five-year trends on this topic. The author takes a long-view here, which allows the reader to gain a clear picture of what is going on with regards to the graduation rates of Hispanic students.

Analysis

Though Hispanic college graduation rates lag when compared to other races and ethnicities, this must and will change. I think this will be due to the sheer volume of the Hispanic population. Honestly, I think this population growth will create positive reverberations throughout entities like universities but also even larger institutions like politics and our state government. I hope that in Arizona, for instance, the population will increase so much that certain politicians who do not support education will be swept out of the higher offices in our state. State universities will have to find ways to more fully support the Hispanic student population or there will be negative societal consequences. This falls, as well, on high school teachers like me, and I take this challenge seriously. The positive inevitability of the Hispanic population boom just might be the great educational opportunity in our state in the next 20-50 years.

Theoretical Framework/Lens

Through his data analysis and presentation of his findings, I notice that Mellander presents this information almost as an advocate or coach of Hispanic college students. His data analysis, in a strange way, makes me think of that oft-mythologizes, Knute Rockne “Win one for the gipper” quote. Yes, Mellander present NCES data in a highly professional manner, but he also does so, in my mind, with a rooting interest.

Findings & Conclusions

The author of this article is not happy or content with the data he’s researched. He uses the word “disproportionally” an awful lot. Still, the author is not without hope. It seems each time he uses a word with a negative connotation to describe data trends, he consistently follows it up with a positive spin on additional data. At the conclusion of his piece, Mellander (2004) relates, “Finally, it is a matter of not being either foolishly Pollyannaish or horribly depressed. It is good to remember that ‘eternal vigilance’ is not only necessary for freedom but essential for progress as well” (p. 9). I appreciate Mellander calling for “eternal vigilance” to close his piece. No matter the numbers positive or negative, no matter where the numbers are trending, Hispanic students, and teachers like myself, must consistently look to continue to build upon prior successes.

Hispanic students and higher ed – a followable path reveals itself

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Reference

Hall, R. E., & Rowan, G. T. (2001). Hispanic-American males in higher education: A

descriptive/qualitative analysis. Education, 121(3), 565-574. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/196438890?accountid=41434

Summary

Hall and Rowan’s (2001) article “Hispanic-American Males in Higher Education: A Descriptive/Qualitative Analysis” describes the initial oppression that Hispanic-American encounter with regards to education in America. Some of these forms of oppression include: unemployment, imprisonment, and poverty (Hall and Rowan, 2001, p. 565). Due to this, Hall and Rowan (2001) call for this in their article, “In an effort to reverse dropout rates programs and policies must accommodate Hispanic-American males who are less academically prepared but who have the potential for success in higher education” (p. 565). The authors describe trends in the education of Hispanic students in detail. Hall and Rowan use data to illuminate graduation rates of Hispanics versus non-Hispanics, but also the authors sub-divide and compare different portions of students deemed Hispanic like Puerto Ricans versus Mexican-Americans. Ultimately, the authors put the onus onto Higher Education in general as not doing enough to support Hispanic-American students. Talented Hispanic-American students should not be dropping out of college, and the policy process should be further counter-balanced towards enabling Hispanic-American students to graduate.

Hall and Rowan’s (2001) article, as mentioned, focuses on a myriad of different data sets when describing the problems related to Hispanics in high education. The authors also offer philosophic arguments as reasons to support change: “Consummate societies require human perfection which is beyond the possibilities of human endeavor and thus is an ideal. As a viable alternative, higher education can maximize the benefits of human development by designing/redesigning policies to accommodate Hispanic-American males” (p. 573). This strongly-worded article has numerous implications for the issues of retaining intelligent and talented Hispanic students in higher education institutions. The greatest being its focus on higher ed institutions’ role in all of this. No longer should drop-out rates be looked at solely as failures of the young Hispanic individual. There is more to it – college and universities must realize their role in all of this and redouble their efforts to support their Hispanic learners.

Organization

This report was clearly organized and easy to follow. The authors stated the problem at the onset of the text and worked from there.

Contribution to Field

This article contributed to the field as it first offered a comprehensive review of literature on the predecessors in the field of study. The authors created, in their words, a non-exhaustive analysis of focused-grouped questions given to groups of Hispanic college students. The authors utilized these groups for collection of their data, using “eight to twelve Hispanic American male college students and lasted 60 to 90 minutes” (Hall and Rowan, 2001, p. 570).

Literature Review

This article’s strength just might be its Literature Review. As mentioned, it builds nicely on what came previously, interweaving the research and analysis of some of the older texts and articles that exist on this subject. Because of this, it serves as a foundational piece and starting point from which to proceed when looking at Hispanic students in higher education.

Data Collection

The methods for data collection and the data itself are not what make this article interesting. The data is taken from surveys given to Hispanic students on college campuses. It asks the students to define and expound upon issues that they’ve faced in their time at college. For instance, one survey question is: “3 What problems did/do you have enrolling and staying in school?” (Hall and Rowan, 2001, p. 571). Another example of a survey question is: “5 What ideas do you have for successfully educating Hispanic-American males?” (Hall and Rowan, 2001, p. 571). These questions – purposely open-ended – might be a challenge for young Hispanic students in the sense that asking questions like this to students pursuing an undergrad degree, young men in their early twenties, would not allow for the depth of reflection as, for instance, a student seeking a Masters or Doctoral degree.

Analysis

To me, this is where this process became interesting in this article. The data collectors organized keywords that were repeated in these surveys and interviews. It almost felt as if they were collecting and organizing keywords as a Wordle does, but it was deeper than that. It, again, was interesting to me when the authors described the time-consuming process which now can be done in seconds using some of the algorithm software that is out there today for data organization. Still, the gesture was noble (not to mention it seemed novel for its time), and its results continue to be useful and valid in their field of study. The authors did utilize a computer program which they did mention, but this was technology circa 2001, not what is used today. Ultimately, the data was organized alphabetically and a color-coded system was used as well.

Theoretical Framework/Lens

I saw the hermeneutic for this article as one of outsiders looking in as a means of gaining knowledge. This knowledge, once illuminated, could potentially aid the next group of Hispanic scholars seeking higher education. I see this as a data collection for the purpose of gaining wisdom, a wisdom that could be passed down – almost as if the authors sought to create a document of “things I wish I knew before I started college” for Hispanic students. They went about this in innovative ways. Instead of creating a detailed list of student responses, the authors accumulated survey data and took it to original and new places.

Findings & Conclusions

The authors findings were not dismaying at all, but I noticed the types of Hispanic students who succeed in college, as listed in this article, are ones who are highly motivated and self-starters who transcended their peer groups. These students did not seem to be part of the norm or involved in groups of students who all went on to college. They were the exceptions, not the rules. And so, in one sense, not much can be gleaned from the findings – “special students will do special things” comes to mind. But that’s not the success of this article. We know now that, in spite of great challenges, special Hispanic students do make it to college, and they do find success. How does one become special? Well, that’s the challenge, but at least now a template or precedent has been set which those who seek this path and come after can follow.