Assessing Empowerment at HSIs: An Adapted Inputs-Environments-Outcomes Model

Abstract

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) play a critical role in advancing postsecondary access and success for Latinx students. Scholarship has begun to examine how HSIs influence Latinx student experiences and outcomes, yet much remains to be explored. In an effort to inform future research of Latinx students at HSIs, we argue that student experiences and outcomes should be based on notions of empowerment given the historically marginalized status of this group. We propose a model to guide assessment on Latinx empowerment at HSIs, which builds on the Inputs-Environments-Outcomes (IEO) model (Astin & antonio, 2012) and integrates critical theoretical frameworks, namely critical race theory and community cultural wealth. In proposing an adapted IEO model assessing Latinx empowerment, we encourage scholars and practitioners to expand notions of what constitutes success and excellence at HSIs in terms of how they educate and empower Latinx students.

Toward a Multidimensional Conceptual Framework for Understanding “Servingness” in Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A Synthesis of the Research

“…Nonacademic outcomes were not as common, but included academic self-efficacy, social agency, racial identity, and leadership identity. Although not included in our initial search, more recent articles that were published outside of our time parameters propose that critical consciousness, social justice orientation, civic engagement, and graduate school aspirations are also important nonacademic outcomes to consider, so we added them to our framework (Cuellar, Segundo, & Muñoz, 2017;Garcia, 2018, Garcia & Cuellar, 2018. In the framework, both types of outcomes happen as a result of time spent within the structures of HSIs, and are affected by experiences, structural elements, and external forces.…”

The Uncertain Path Toward College: How Intersectionality Shaped the Experiences of Latinas Enrolled at a Hispanic-Serving Institution

“…Scholars have also proposed disrupting traditional measures of excellence and academic success—such as persistence rates and full-time enrollment—to better serve Latinx students (Cuellar et al, 2017; Doran, 2015; Garcia & Okhidoi, 2015). Contreras and Contreras (2015) argue that today’s Latinx students are more likely to attend school part-time, work more than 20 hours a week, and enroll in classes intermittently, lengthening the average time it takes to complete their degree.…”

Accountable to whom? Reimagining Hispanic serving institutions’ financial models

“…By centering liberatory outcomes, such as racial/ethnic identity development, critical consciousness, and graduate degree aspirations, HSI grants can more holistically capture the multiple contributions they provide to their students, especially in more culturally aware and responsive approaches (Garcia et al., 2019). HSIs can further assess the empowerment Latinx students may encounter through their experiences directly and indirectly associated with grant activities (Cuellar et al., 2017). Integrating these liberatory and empowering experiences and outcomes align with recent calls in K‐12 accountability systems to include student voice and institutional climate measures (Gagnon & Schneider, 2019; Schneider et al., 2021) and adopting them into higher education.…”