Stella M. Flores

Higher Education and Children in Immigrant Families

The increasing role that immigrants and their children, especially those from Latin America, are playing in American society, Sandy Baum and Stella Flores argue, makes it essential that as many young newcomers as possible enroll and succeed in postsecondary education.Immigrant youths from some countries find the doors to the nations colleges wide open. But other groups, such as those from Latin America, Laos, and Cambodia, often fail to get a post-secondary education. Immigration status itself is not a hindrance. The characteristics of the immigrants, such as their country of origin, race, and parental socioeconomic status, in addition to the communities, schools, and legal barriers that greet them in the United States, explain most of that variation.Postsecondary attainment rates of young people who come from low-income households and, regardless of income or immigration status, whose parents have no college experience are low across the board. Exacerbating the financial constraints is the reality that low-income students and those whose parents have little education are frequently ill prepared academically to succeed in college.The sharp rise in demand for skilled labor over the past few decades has made it more urgent than ever to provide access to postsecondary education for all. And policy solutions, say the authors, require researchers to better understand the differences among immigrant groups. Removing barriers to education and to employment opportunities for undocumented students poses political, not conceptual, problems. Providing adequate funding for postsecondary education through low tuition and grant aid is also straightforward, if not easy to accomplish. Assuring that Mexican immigrants and others who grow up in low-income communities have the opportunity to prepare themselves academically for college is more challenging. Policies to improve the elementary and secondary school experiences of all children are key to improving the postsecondary success of all.

Latino Immigrant Access to Higher Education in a Bipolar Context of Reception

This study evaluates the recent political context in which foreign-born noncitizen immigrants in the United States exist, their traditional and new settlement locations of residence, and where they are most likely to use public policies that encourage college enrollment. Legislative trends indicate that state activity continues to evolve around the issue of college access for undocumented immigrants, whereas U.S. congressional activity on the federal version of this educational legislation and general immigration policy remains unresolved. n: Este estudio evalúa el contexto político reciente en el que inmigrantes extranjeros no-ciudadanos se encuentran en los Estados Unidos de América; sus arreglos tradicionales y nuevos lugares de residencia, y donde existen más posibilidades de utilizar políticas públicas que apoyan inscripciones universitarias. Tendencias legislativas indican que la actividad estatal continúa evolucionando alrededor del problema de acceso universitario para inmigrantes sin documentos, mientras que la actividad del congreso estadounidense en la versión federal de esta legislación educacional y política inmigratoria general se mantiene sin resolución.

Race, Ethnicity, and College Success: Examining the Continued Significance of the Minority-Serving Institution

The minority-serving institution (MSI) sector has grown considerably since the 1980s, yet we have less empirical information about what currently influences students to enroll in and complete college at these institutions in comparison to their non-MSI counterparts. We evaluate student postsecondary outcomes by race and ethnicity in Texas’s large MSI sector utilizing state administrative data from 1997 to 2008. At the enrollment stage, we find that race is an important predictor of college enrollment, despite controlling for detailed precollege characteristics. At the college-completion stage, however, the effect of race is largely no longer present after accounting for institutional characteristics, including attending an MSI. That is, in most of the cohorts examined, Hispanic and Black students who initially enroll in a four-year institution showed no difference from their White peers in six-year graduation outcomes. In sum, Hispanic-serving institutions are particularly critical locations for Hispanics while the non-MSI community colleges emerge as key institutions for Black students, signaling important implications for how historically Black colleges and universities might address recruitment and transfer strategies. Implications for practitioners and researchers are offered.

College Persistence among Undocumented Students at a Selective Public University: A Quantitative Case Study Analysis.

Texas House Bill 1403, which was passed in 2001, is the first in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policy to benefit undocumented students in the United States. Seven years later, the literature includes virtually no empirical evidence of the persistence patterns of students who have enrolled in postsecondary institutions as beneficiaries of the in-state resident tuition policies in Texas, and in the United States in general. This study represents one of the first research studies to provide a quantitative analysis of the persistence behavior of ISRT policy eligible students at a large selective public institution in Texas. The findings, while not generalizable to all postsecondary institutions with this population, provocatively suggest that ISRT recipients are remaining in college at rates similar to those of their Latino peers who are U.S. citizens and legal residents. The study addresses the implications of this policy for selective institutions and makes suggestions for further research.

The First State Dream Act In-State Resident Tuition and Immigration in Texas

In 2001, Texas became the first state to pass an in-state resident tuition policy that benefits undocumented immigrant students, a majority of whom are of Latino/a origin. This analysis estimates the effect of the Texas in-state resident tuition policy on students likely to be undocumented. Using a differences-in-differences strategy and two extensive data sets, results indicate that foreign-born non-citizen Latino/a students were more likely to attend college after the introduction of the Texas benefit. The results were strongest for older high school graduates, who were found to be 4.84 times more likely to have enrolled in college than not after the tuition policy than their counterparts in Southwestern states without a tuition policy. Multiple tests show that results are robust regardless of specification.

Legislative Agenda Setting for In-State Resident Tuition Policies: Immigration, Representation, and Educational Access

Few recent issues in higher education have been as contentious as that of legislation extending in-state college tuition benefits to undocumented students, initiatives now known as in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policies. Building on several strands of literature in political science and higher education studies, we analyze the effects of demographic, economic, political, and policy conditions on the likelihood of these initiatives becoming positioned for legislative action during the period 1999–2007. In particular, we develop and test a theoretical framework distilled from research on “descriptive and substantive representation” in U.S. politics. Our event history analysis finds that the percentage of female legislators (an indicator of descriptive representation), the percentage of the population that is foreign born, the level of unemployment, and the type of higher education governance in a state are associated with the likelihood of an ISRT initiative achieving the legislative agenda. To conclude, we explore several conceptual and policy implications of our findings.

Pricing Out the Disadvantaged? The Effect of Tuition Deregulation in Texas Public Four-Year Institutions

This article examines whether tuition deregulation in Texas (in 2003 the state legislature gave tuition-setting authority to institutional governing boards) has affected the college enrollment of underrepresented and low-income students. Using a difference-in-differences research design, we find that Hispanic students have been most negatively affected by tuition deregulation. Results for black students are largely mixed, in that we find an increase in college enrollment after deregulation in some specifications, while Pell Grant recipients, incoming and returning, appear to have experienced an increase in college enrollment following deregulation. Implications and recommendations for state governments considering this contentious legislation are provided.

Public Policy and Higher Education Attainment in a Twenty-First-Century Racial Demography: Examining Research from Early Childhood to the Labor Market

In this chapter, we utilize a P-16 framework that incorporates policy analyses from early childhood programming to college access to evaluate the college completion outcomes for low-income and underrepresented students. We begin with a review of the current college-age demography in the USA and then evaluate key policy initiatives in early childhood, kindergarten, high school, the college choice and admissions stage, and finally college completion. We find that some initiatives in early childhood stages have remarkably consistent effects on college access while policies incorporating high school exit exams and some college remediation programming have less consistent outcomes toward the goal of college completion. We comment on the various options for datasets used in this area of educational intervention research. We end with recommendations regarding the use of contemporary data to further disaggregate the roles that diverse demographic characteristics and contexts might have in designing future interventions regarding college success.

Does English Language Learner (ELL) Identification Predict College Remediation Designation? A Comparison by Race and Ethnicity, and ELL Waiver Status.

Using individual-level longitudinal state administrative data, this analysis examines whether English language learner (ELL) status increases the likelihood of being designated as needing college remediation. We track a cohort of ELL and non-ELL students from first grade to college entry and investigate whether there are differences in students’ remediation designation related to time spent in an ELL program, race/ethnicity, and ELL waiver status. Results suggest distinct differences across racial and ethnic groups within the ELL category. Consistent among all student groups is the negative impact of a concentration of underrepresented students in a high school on remediation designation.

English Learners and their transition to postsecondary education

In this review, we aim to bridge the established scholarship on English Learners (ELs) in K-12 schooling with the comparatively emergent research in current higher education literature, to address how ELs navigate the transition from K-12 schooling to postsecondary education in the U.S. Our objectives are to: (1) advance terminology for describing these students in higher education, (2) provide an understanding of political and legal developments shaping their academic preparation in the K-12 system that have consequences for their success in higher education, (3) identify key themes in the literature on these students once they arrive in higher education, (4) highlight promising theoretical perspectives to guide future research, and (5) advance higher education policy and practice implications. Our primary findings are that precollege and college academic experiences, financial considerations, sociocultural experiences, and cultural and linguistic assets influence EL students’ transitions from high school to college. Based on these findings, we advance theoretical perspectives that emphasize: (1) addressing the multiple social and historical contexts that shape ELs’ educational trajectories, (2) taking into account the multiple social identities associated with EL status, (3) recognizing the resources that support these students (including the assets they bring to education), and (4) challenging deficit ways of framing EL students.