Browsing by Author "Espinosa, Lorelle L."

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    A Dream Undone? Advancing Access and Diversity in a Shifting Legal Landscape
    Espinosa, Lorelle L.; Gaertner, Matthew N. (American Council on Education, 2015-08-01)
    The US Supreme Court’s June 2015 decision to re-hear Fisher vs. University of Texas at Austin has prompted anxious speculation and genuine concern in the higher education community. While no one knows how the court will rule in “Fisher II,” it seems clear opponents of race-conscious admission will have at least one more opportunity to limit the role of race in college admission decisions. Moreover, independent of the Fisher case, eight states have enacted outright bans on race-conscious admission. In this report, the authors argue the significance to advance in access and diversity in a shifting legal landscape.
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    Minority Serving Institutions as Engines of Upward Mobility
    Espinosa, Lorelle L.; Kelchen, Robert; Taylor, Morgan (American Council on Education, 2018)
    Minority serving institutions (MSIs) play an integral role in the education of students from low-income families and communities of color where educational attainment is disproportionately low and income mobility can be stagnant. With a commitment to serve the nation and their surrounding communities, MSIs are engines of upward mobility for millions of students, and play this role even while the majority of MSIs are at a financial resource disadvantage when compared to non-MSIs. In this brief, we use the newly released Equality of Opportunity Project data to examine the upward income mobility of students who attended MSIs compared to students who did not. The findings shed important light on the value of MSIs as a viable path up the economic ladder for millions of students and reinforce the value proposition of higher education as a path to greater prosperity for individuals, families, and whole communities.
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    Pulling Back the Curtain: Enrollment and Outcomes at Minority Serving Institutions
    Espinosa, Lorelle L.; Turk, Jonathan M.; Taylor, Morgan (American Council on Education, 2017)
    Minority serving institutions (MSIs) play an integral role in American society, allowing a pathway to and through higher education for the nation’s rural and urban communities, and providing access to college for millions of students of color from disadvantaged backgrounds. The analysis presented in this report utilizes data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC)—the largest and most comprehensive source of postsecondary enrollment nationwide—to examine how students who started college in 2007 at an MSI move through higher education. The first study to utilize NSC data to examine enrollment and outcome trends at MSIs, this report aims to paint a more complete picture of the contributions of MSIs to the communities they serve. NSC data capture student enrollment profiles and outcomes beyond that which is available through U.S. Department of Education data and the federal graduation rate, a measure often used for accountability purposes.
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    Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: A Status Report
    Espinosa, Lorelle L.; Turk, Jonathan M.; Taylor, Morgan; Chessman, Hollie M. (American Council on Education, 2019)
    The racial and ethnic makeup of the United States has changed substantially since the country’s founding, with dramatic changes occurring in just the last 20 years. It is well known that the over 50 percent of students from communities of color in public K–12 schools will, in the very near future, be the majority of the U.S. adult population. Racial and ethnic diversity comes with a host of benefits at all levels of education and in the workforce—greater productivity, innovation, and cultural competency, to name a few. Moreover, the current and future health of our nation—economic and otherwise—requires that the whole of our population have equitable access to sources of opportunity. This report examines over 200 indicators, looking at who gains access to a variety of educational environments and experiences, and how these trajectories and their outcomes differ by race and ethnicity. These data provide a foundation from which the higher education community and its many stakeholders can draw insights, raise new questions, and make the case for why race still matters in American higher education.
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    Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: A Status Report
    Espinosa, Lorelle L.; Turk, Jonathan M.; Taylor, Morgan; Chessman, Hollie M. (American Council on Education, 2019-02-01)
    The racial and ethnic makeup of the United States has changed substantially since the country’s founding, with dramatic changes occurring in just the last 20 years. It is well known that the over 50 percent of students from communities of color in public K–12 schools will, in the very near future, be the majority of the U.S. adult population. Racial and ethnic diversity comes with a host of benefits at all levels of education and in the workforce—greater productivity, innovation, and cultural competency, to name a few. Moreover, the current and future health of our nation—economic and otherwise—requires that the whole of our population have equitable access to sources of opportunity. This report examines over 200 indicators, looking at who gains access to a variety of educational environments and experiences, and how these trajectories and their outcomes differ by race and ethnicity. These data provide a foundation from which the higher education community and its many stakeholders can draw insights, raise new questions, and make the case for why race still matters in American higher education.
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    Race, Class, and College Access: Achieving Diversity in a Shifting Legal Landscape
    Espinosa, Lorelle L.; Orfield, Gary; Gaertner, Matthew N. (American Council on Education, 2015-07-21)
    Headlines surrounding the consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions are often incomplete and ill-informed, promoting polarization and deflecting attention from practices that promote racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic diversity in higher education. As colleges and universities seek to educate an increasingly diverse American citizenry and achieve the associated educational aims, it is imperative that postsecondary leaders, policymakers, researchers, and members of the media better understand the work and challenges facing institutions in this current legal climate. This report attempts to broaden that understanding and further much-needed dialogue on how institutions can best respond to a shifting policy and legal landscape at a time when access to postsecondary education has never been more vital and our American citizenry never so diverse. We examine contemporary admissions practices at four-year colleges and universities across a wide range of selectivity in the context of recent legal challenges to race-conscious admissions, including the pending U.S. Supreme Court case Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.