Promoting Access and Equity for Underrepresented Racial Minorities? An Examination of Policies and Practices in Community College Baccalaureate Programs

Abstract

Objective/Research Question: The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which programs offering community college baccalaureates (CCBs) address access and equity for underrepresented racial minorities (URMs). The study first aimed to understand how administrators described the purpose of CCBs with regard to advancing equity for URMs. Next, the study explored how CCB programs incorporate policies and practices advancing access and success of URM students. Method: The study employed a multiple-case study design by focusing on three states offering bachelor’s degrees at several community colleges. Interviews with administrators were conducted at two colleges offering CCB programs in each state. Colleges differed in demographic composition and in the number and type of CCB programs offered. Results: Administrators described how CCBs advanced socioeconomic mobility, which promoted equity, particularly for low-income students. Findings suggested that only some attention was placed on providing access to URMs, which was largely contingent on the representation of URMs in the surrounding community and feeder programs. Few outreach efforts and support services specifically targeted URMs. Conclusion/Contributions: Given that URMs are largely concentrated at community colleges and significant gaps exist between URMs and non-URMs in college completion, CCBs might serve as an educational policy to reduce those gaps. As CCBs are primarily framed as essential to meeting workforce needs, increased opportunities for URMs may be limited without intentional efforts to outreach and support URMs.

For Latinx, by Latinx: Race-conscious leadership in policy implementation

“…This article adds to recent scholarship examining the role of leaders of color in implementing higher education policy (Cuellar & Gándara, 2020;Gaxiola Serrano, 2018;Nienhusser, 2018). Huerta provides a race-conscious example of the ways community colleges can use policy reform as a portal for achieving racial equity.…”

The Impact of Offering Baccalaureate Degrees on Institutional Enrollment in Community Colleges

“…The author estimated a 0.05% increase in total FTE enrollment in adoptive states but found null effects when looking only at Latino students, suggesting neither a divergence nor an emphasis on serving certain populations post-adoption. Highlighting this potential point, studies of CCB policies in Florida, Washington, Texas (Cuellar & Gándara, 2021), and California (Martinez & Acevedo, 2022) suggest implementers may be operating CCBs without specific attention toward using them to address gaps in educational enrollment and attainment for racial/ethnic minorities.…”

Policy implementation as a tool for advancing equity in community college

“…This absence has been noted by some higher education scholars who argue for the urgency to develop policy implementation theories (Kohoutek, 2013;Viennet & Pont, 2017), understand political factors that shape implementation (McLendon, 2003), center societal inequities in implementation efforts (Ching et al, 2020;Felix & Ramirez, 2020;Nienhusser, 2018;Santelices et al, 2019), and focus on the role of policy implementers (Mapesela & Hay, 2005;Nienhusser, 2018;Viennet & Pont, 2017). This is an especially urgent call in the community college literature given the central role this institution-type has in implementing policies that can shape minoritized students' greater access to and success in postsecondary education (Cuellar & Gándara, 2020;Felix & Gonzalez, 2020).…”