— A report released Monday examines how a growing number of U.S. colleges and universities are adapting their educational practices and policies to better serve the needs of Latino students.

Among those recognized was Texas State University for its successful efforts to effectively serve its Latino students.

“Emerging HSIs: Serving Latino Students,” authored by Excelencia in Education with support from the TG Public Benefits Program, reported emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) – institutions that enroll 15-24 percent or more undergraduate full-time equivalent Hispanic students – are not waiting for official HSI status to enact policies to better serve Latino students.

“We can learn from these emerging colleges that are producing successful results,” Deborah Santiago, report author and vice president for Policy and Research at Excelencia in Education, said. “As the number of college-going Hispanics and HSIs continues to grow, it’s important to understand what it means to serve Latino students well, and we can look to these colleges as models.”

“We completely agree with Excelencia that it’s not about the definition, but about the mindset,” Juan Sepulveda, director of the White House Initiative, said. “President Obama, Secretary Duncan and Undersecretary Martha Kanter know very well that it’s impossible to achieve the administration’s ambitious goals for college completion without bumping up the retention and graduation rates of the Hispanic community.”

The report offered several examples of how these emerging colleges and universities are showing a commitment to their Latino student population.

• Of the 176 schools surveyed, 55 percent reported that their institution had specific practices related to the recruitment of Latino students.

• Almost 38 percent stated their institution had academic programs or services specifically focused on Latino students.

• More than 35 percent responded that their school had specific student support services that targeted Latinos.

Texas State University’s practices to serve Latino students include a commitment to recruiting and retaining a more diverse faculty and staff, the establishment of a robust outreach campaign to the surrounding Hispanic communities and changes in institutional practices to retain more students through the creation of a Director of Retention position and a Retention Analysis Council.

The designation of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the 1980s presumed institutions with a “critical mass” of students had adapted to serve Latino students better and would thus improve college success among Latino students.

Critical mass was defined as 25 percent or more undergraduate full-time equivalent enrollment.

In 2008, HSIs accounted for over half of all enrolled Latino undergraduates in the United States.

These institutions represented just 8 percent of all colleges and universities. Because of the limited number of HSIs and their concentrated enrollments of Latinos, it was also presumed that investing in the quality and capacity of HSIs with targeted federal funds would further improve Latino student success.

Effective practices involve not only enrolling Latino students, but also implementing support services to ensure their successful completion. At the four emerging HSIs examined in the Excelencia report, serving students included effective outreach, admission and academic and students services that facilitated Latino students, and all students’ persistence and completion.

The full report, which uses data from an online survey and case studies, is available at: www.edexcelencia.org/research/emerging-hispanic-serving-institutions-hsis-serving-latino-students