Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the South-Central United States: A Research Report for Los Barrios de Amarillo
Author: Preuss, Michael D.
Date: 2019-12-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: College Students,Hispanic American Students,Institutional Characteristics,Student Characteristics,Student Attitudes,Social Values,Cultural Influences,Academic Support Services,Student Personnel Services,STEM Education,Job Placement,Enrollment,Graduation Rate,Inclusion,First Generation College Students,Teacher Student Relationship,Outreach Programs,Intercollegiate Cooperation

Nearly two-thirds of the Hispanic/Latinx college students in the United States attend Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI). Yet, very little research has been conducted regarding these colleges and universities. To address this concern, a sequential, exploratory investigation was conducted with funding from the National Science Foundation (award 1764268). Material from the literature and qualitative data gathered in focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used to create surveys that were administered to employees and students at HSIs in a seven-state region of the south-central United States. This research report presents findings from the survey of faculty, staff, and administrators completed as part of the investigative process in the late spring of 2018. The survey was distributed to 119 Hispanic-Serving Institutions. A total of 494 persons from Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas accessed the survey. There were 403 complete response sets representing as many as 60 of the HSIs. Results are presented in a wide variety of topic areas as there were 68 questions on the survey, many of which were multi-part queries. Major content areas are as follows: (1) an overview regarding Hispanics in the United States and in higher education, (2) discussion of the importance of HSIs to and Hispanic/Latinx students in higher education, (3) commentaries regarding key topic areas in the report, (4) institutional characteristics of the HSIs in the sample (e.g., staffing, facilities, key program offerings), (5) perceptions the faculty, staff, and administrators had of Hispanic/Latinx cultural values and Hispanic students, (6) academic, student support, and career placement systems present to aid students, (7) STEM outreach offerings, (8) patterns of intra- and inter-institutional collaboration, (9) perceived limitations for HSIs, (10) practices relevant to evaluation of institutional processes and programming, and (11) grant-seeking activity. Appendices include information about the conference at which the research was initiated, a detailed description of the research methodology, the focus group and interview question sets, the full survey, and detailed data tables listing the results of statistical analyses completed. Conclusions are stated for the six topic areas in which the most information was gathered. These are the characteristics and qualifications of the employees at the HSIs, differences found between community colleges and four-year institutions, employees' understanding of Hispanic/Latinx cultural values and students and, in particular, differences in this area found along ethnic lines, the levels of support programming offered specific to Hispanic students, patterns of intra- and inter-institutional collaboration noted, and staffing, practices, and programming related to grants. [This report was prepared for Los Barrios de Amarillo by the West Texas A&amp;M University, Office of Evaluation and Research.]