A roadmap for advancing Latino higher education starts in North Carolina

After two decades of growth, the United States’ Latino population reached 62.5 million in 2021, representing approximately 19 percent of the nation’s population and 50 percent of its population growth. Despite this tremendous increase, Latino students continue to experience lower rates of high school graduation, postsecondary access and postsecondary attainment than their white, non-Hispanic peers.  

Research points to a variety of factors impacting this opportunity gap. Latino students face a multitude of barriers to postsecondary access and success, including the intersection of immigration status on postsecondary affordability, the reality of balancing workloads from academic coursework and jobs and challenges navigating the bureaucracy associated with accessing and attending institutions of higher education. However, one of the largest barriers that Latino students face, as well as many students of color, is the lack of culturally relevant support and campus culture in schools. 

As a result, Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) were first funded in 1995 through the Higher Education Act to provide grants to expand educational opportunities and improve the educational attainment of Latino students. The federal designation was also developed to provide institutional stability and expand academic offerings to ensure Latino communities have access to postsecondary education opportunities.  

Since their inception, HSIs and emerging Hispanic serving institutions (EHSIs) have played a critical role in closing postsecondary equity gaps. While HSIs represent only 16 percent of all institutions of higher education in the nation, they serve 65 percent of all Latino higher education students. In 1999, 335 HSIs were recognized; that number has increased significantly over the next two decades, and 571 were recognized in the 2021-22 academic year, a jump from 559 just the year before. 

Hispanic-serving institutions have the power to revolutionize the higher education landscape. However, true transformation requires institutions and their leaders to be strategic and innovative with federal funding. That’s why I am thrilled by the work being done at The Hunt Institute, in partnership with the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research and LatinxEd, to launch Avanza: North Carolina Community Colleges Advancing Latino Student Success.  

Avanza is a community of practice designed to provide institutional leaders with a space to discuss best practices and barriers to Latino student success. The first convening, which was held in late March in Winston-Salem, N.C., included 10 North Carolina community colleges, two of which are HSIs and three of which are EHSIs. While this first iteration focused on North Carolina, Avanza should be seen as a model for states nationwide, all of which would benefit from dedicated, organized efforts in closing the equity gap facing our Latino populations.

The convening provided robust insight and takeaways on the need to further support and uplift institutions as they work to support Latino students. Institutional participants, which included presidents, vice presidents, ESL faculty, workforce development leaders and student support staff, were eager to engage in conversations to learn with and from one another.  

Conversations centered around the potential for this work, best practices for leveraging federal funds, advice on strategic planning and how to use institutional, regional and statewide data to serve institutions’ Latino diaspora. Through small group discussions, additional themes emerged that were top of mind for school leaders, such as: 

• Increasing community engagement, including investment of time and energy to build trust with Latino organizations and families;  
• The need for increased representation of Latino faculty, staff and administrators and;  
• The expansion of programs and initiatives to provide wraparound services to Latino students, including academic and career coaches, basic needs and mental health services, and greater engagement of family members.  

The topic of affordability was constant throughout the event, as one of the largest barriers impacting Latino students continues to be the lack of affordable pathways to higher education. Currently, North Carolina does not provide tuition equity, or in-state tuition, to undocumented and/or DACA students. While the cost of attendance remains a large barrier, many institutions named that North Carolina’s residency determination service, which is a requirement for all students to access higher education in the state, deterred students from believing higher education pathways were possible, regardless of their immigration status.  

These takeaways are not unique to North Carolina. In fact, I would argue they are pervasive throughout our higher education system nationwide. With the Latino student population increasing rapidly, it is imperative that leaders in the system prioritize supporting this population if we hope to close these systemic gaps in equity and attainment. The Avanza model provides an effective, impactful solution to facilitate such efforts and make real change now. 

Javaid Siddiqi, Ph.D., is president and CEO of The Hunt Institute. With over two decades of experience in education, he previously served as a teacher, principal, school board member and Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia.