Following Hispanic Male 8th Graders through College: A Digest of Longitudinal Enrollment and Graduation Patterns in Texas

Leveraging data for policy change: A descriptive analysis of Latino men’s postsecondary enrollment and degree attainment patterns in Texas

“…As we have observed in national data, Latinx/a/o students in Texas have made substantial enrollment and degree attainment gains in postsecondary education (Sáenz et al, 2018;Snyder et al, 2018). However, the educational outcomes of Latino men have continued to lag behind their otherrace and other-gender peers (Sáenz et al, 2016).…”

“…Lastly, consistent with prior research, our findings also underscored the importance of conducting policy-focused disaggregate analysis of data to get a firm grip on the latest educational data trends (Loeb at al., 2017;Sáenz et al, 2018). Policy efforts centered on racial equity within the P-20 educational pipeline should be at the forefront of the legislative agenda, particularly since 60X30TX has already set goals specific to increase outcomes for Latinx/a/o and African American communities, in addition to the economic challenges (e.g., unemployment) that these populations have experienced since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (Saenz & Sparks, 2020).…”

“…To understand how state-level policies impact the educational outcomes of Latino men, it is helpful to review extant policy research focused on this student population. Higher education researchers have begun to disaggregate and analyze longitudinal statewide data to provide a more holistic picture of the educational outcomes of Latino men in the form of research digests and policy briefs (e.g., Sáenz et al, 2018;Sáenz et al, 2019). These data and policy analyses provide a fuller data treatment on how Latino men perform across regions of the state, including areas of the state that are often overlooked by policymakers (e.g., border regions).…”

“…In 1965, the Texas Legislature authorized the State Board of Education to establish 20 regional Educational Service Centers (ESC) that gather data and support local school districts within the state (Sáenz et al, 2018). We identified and used eight ESCs serving border (i.e., Edinburg, Midland, El Paso) and urban (i.e., Austin, Fort Worth, Houston, Richardson, San Antonio) regions in Texas.…”