Executive Brief

Hispanic Higher Education in the United States
Hispanics are now the largest and fastest growing minority in this country.  Yet, this group lags behind in higher education access and completion.  While not comprehensive, this brief outlines some of the issues Hispanics have faced historically and continue to face today.

Today, there are 47 million Hispanics living in the United States, fifteen percent of the population. Of that group, only 12.9 percent of Hispanics graduate from college, compared to 30.7 percent of white and 17.5 percent of black students. With such a large portion of America’s working population undereducated, not only Hispanics, but America as a whole, could fall behind in economic success and future prosperity. Higher education is the clear path to progress for this population. However, there have been many obstacles to higher education attainment throughout history for Hispanics in the US.

History

• The US federal government did not create the classification of ‘Hispanic’ until the 1970s, limiting meaningful data collection about this group prior to this time period. Before the 1970s, reorganization was by Spanish surname.

• Hispanics began settling and participating in education in North America in the sixteenth century.

• Early discrimination from British colonists termed “Hispanophobia,” which refers to anti-Catholic and anti-Spanish discrimination. Today’s discrimination against Hispanics has its roots in the attitudes developed during this time period.

• Unlike African Americans, Hispanics were not explicitly prohibited from attending White colleges and universities in the late 1800s, but their participation remained mostly limited to privileged families or students from northern Mexico hoping to obtain a bilingual education. However, segregation based on skin color, accents, or surnames remained common.

• A successful push from the Hispanic middle class to enter higher education came with the formation of LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, formed in 1929, which provided scholarships and contested segregation in colleges and universities and the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944 (the GI Bill) which allowed Hispanic veterans to enter postsecondary institutions.

• Civil rights activism in the 1960s and 1970s created a flood of Hispanics into colleges and universities. During this time, Latino Studies courses also began to appear on campuses. A field of study that is widely respected today.

• Hispanics identified as the fastest growing minority group in the 1980s, nicknamed “Decade of the Hispanic.”

• Due to a lack of familiarity with the Hispanic populace and the abolishing of programs aimed at minorities by the Reagan administration, advances made by Latinos in the 1960s and 1970s suffered a setback in the 1980s.

• In 1986 the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) was founded. The purpose of this organization was to promote development of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI’s) and to improve access and the quality of college-level education for Hispanics. Until this time, there were no Hispanic Serving Institutions, as there had historically been for African Americans and Native Americans.

• In 1990, President Bush signed an Executive Order directed towards educational improvement for Hispanics. The Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics has been re-commissioned by each Presidential Administration, most recently by President Obama in October 2010. 

Current Educational Issues

• Hispanic students cite financial troubles as the top reason to not attend college. Seventy-four percent of Hispanic students name the need to support their families financially as the reason they cannot attend.

• As of 2004, financial aid was still not equal for Hispanics compared to other minority groups. Hispanics received the lowest amount of financial aid, $9,000, compared to $10,500 for Blacks and $9,900 for whites.

• High drop out rates plague the Hispanic population. In four-year institutions, 54 percent of Latinos drop out, compared to 41.5 percent of white students.

• There is a disproportionate number of Hispanic students enrolled in community colleges compared to four-year institutions. Fifty-six percent of all Hispanics enrolled in college are enrolled in a community college and only 10 percent will transfer to a four-year institution.

• Deficiency in English continues to be a hindrance to higher education completion and success. 

Considerations when working with this population

• The terms Hispanic and Latino/a encompass individuals with Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, or Latin American ancestry. It should be noted that these populations all hail from different countries with different nationalities, cultures, and racial-ethnic identities, yet are lumped together in a single classification.

• Fifty-nine percent of Hispanics old enough to attend college are foreign–born, compared to the 41 percent of native-born Hispanics. Sixty percent of native-born Hispanics aspire to attend college, whereas only 29 percent of foreign-born Hispanics share this aspiration.

• Hispanics tend to be more family-oriented than the general population, meaning a student determines success in terms of family approval rather than personal gratification.

• Throughout history there have been teachers who do not know how to deal with Spanish-speaking youth that often place these students in classes below their level due to their lack of English. Insufficient primary schooling means that very few can meet the requirements to attend college, which is a trend that continues until today.

• It improves retention and is overall beneficial to students and their families if colleges offer bilingual support and provide materials in Spanish.