Excelencia in the News

Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve education outcomes for Latinx college students, on Thursday announced 20 finalists that will receive the group's first annual Seal of Excelencia certification.

In January, Oregon educators received some encouraging news about graduation rates, particularly for historically underserved students in Oregon, and most notably for Oregon’s Latinx students. Leaders discussed evidence-based programs with experts like Janette Martinez from Excelencia in Education, which tracks the effectiveness of programs accelerating Latino higher education graduation rates across the country — noting ways colleges and universities can support Latinx students beyond recruitment and admission.

Fifty-one percent of those who graduate go on to college, according to the Youth Development Institute of Puerto Rico, compared to 67 percent of suburban American high school graduates and 63 percent of rural and urban ones.

Of those who do enroll at universities on the island, fewer than half earn degrees, even after six years, the advocacy group Excelencia in Education reports, compared to more than 58 percent of college students nationwide.

Sarita Brown, president of Excelencia in Education, delivered the opening keynote at this year’s New England Latinx Student Leadership Conference hosted by Rhode Island College.

Deborah Santiago, co-founder, and CEO of Excelencia in Education, said that to serve Hispanic students properly, you have to take a look at how an institution is enrolling, retaining, financially supporting, providing a model faculty and staff, and graduating students.

“The increase in completion rates—especially by Latino students—reflects the pace of progress needed to address the continued equity gaps in degree attainment,” said Deborah A. Santiago, CEO, Excelencia in Education.

“Serving Latinos is not rocket science, but I can tell you often we put programs in place and we don’t pay attention to whether Latinos are participating or not,” Deborah Santiago told the audience at AL DÍA’s Higher Education Summit.

By 2060, almost half of the state's residents will be Latino. College graduation rates have improved, but only 18% of Latino adults have a degree.

More than 60 leaders of higher education and Latino advocacy organizations have endorsed The Seal of Excelencia, a major national initiative announced by Excelencia in Education aimed at significantly increasing the number of Latino students attaining college degrees by 2030.

“As more and more institutions hit that enrollment threshold, we have to raise the standards and expectations of what it is to be really serving our students,” said Deborah Santiago, co-founder of Excelencia in Education, at an event in Washington, D.C., in September.