Center for Latino Policy Research

The statewide context that frames Latino Student UC eligibility and participation has been studied and the facts have become increasingly clear to the Task Force: 

Latino students and families place great value in higher education.

Latino families are cohesive in spite of extreme poverty and growing urbanization.

Latino families are traditional but allow women to pursue higher education.

Latino students represent a large and growing population in this state.

Latino college students come from lower socioeconomic strata.

Latino college students come predominantly from public high schools.

Few Latino community college students transfer to the University of California.

Latino retention and graduation rates vary little from the UC average.

A downward trend is developing regarding Latino student participation in UC.

A corps of UC outreach programs substantially increase UC eligibility for Latino and other underrepresented student participants. 

UC eligibility of Latino students can be greatly increased by eliminating the SAT.

Recommendations regarding the University's role in K-12 education 

Report Three has two objectives: to review the knowledge-base on Latino students commissioned by the Latino Eligibility Study and to advise the Regents on policy to increase eligibility that emanates from what we know about Latino students' backgrounds, educational experiences and needs at the K-12, community college, and university levels.

The studies uniformly reject the deficiency framework where Latinos' educational failure, by and large, is attributed to some dispositional or cultural defect. Instead, all of these researchers test the alternative hypothesis - that structural barriers impede Latino students' educational achievement. The separate research studies are unified in showing how strategically considered programs and interventions do succeed.

The Task Force has begun analyzing the research studies as a whole in terms of the need for systemic and comprehensive reforms inside and outside UC to achieve a long-term increase in the eligibility and success of Latino students within the University of California.

An action agenda for the remainder of the life of the Task Force is outlined which builds on the analysis. The Task Force has identified pieces of a more holistic strategy: K-12 curricula, roles for UC faculty, UC eligibility criteria, and involvement of more segments of California society in enhancing Latino eligibility. Additionally, the Task Force will monitor the degree to which its current and previous recommendations are implemented.

School Outreach Recommendations: Traditional and Transfer Students

Traditional:

1. Hold accountable those who have responsibility for UC outreach and articulation.

2. Focus on the Students who live within commuting distance

3. Provide material in Spanish for parents

Transfer Students:

1. Establish "Step-toUniversity"  programs

2. Expand strategically targeted outreach services in the communitycolleges

Less than 4% of Latino high school graduates are fully eligible for admission to the university compared to an overall overage of 12.3%. This profound underrepresentation distinctly threatens the economic and social fabric of our state and nation, especially because the Latino population is growing at a much faster rate than any other ethnic group. Present projections indicate that Latinos will be majority of high school graduates in California a decade from now.

Too often a complex phenomenon such as eligibility is understood on either naïve or imperfect grounds. This type of popular wisdom often reaches mythic proportions. Popular misunderstanding of Latino student eligibility and participation is a case in point. Thus, this report outlines a set of key myths about Latino students and their families and uses existing information to challenge those myths.

Even at this early stage of Task Force activities, there is a sense of urgency in calling for action on the part of the university to improve the representation of Latino students. The issues surrounding eligibility are complex, however, and substantive solutions will require both short-and longer-term Task Force efforts, as well as institution resolve and responsiveness. The Task Force strategy will be to address these issues by analyzing existing data and studies; conducting original research beginning with action-oriented mini-studies and an “anchoring” study; and sponsoring symposia and conferences. By these means, the Task Force will highlight problems and identify policy and procedural solutions to the eligibility crisis.