This brief summarizes institutional practices from 12 top-ranked Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) working to improve student access, retention, and the academic achievement of their students overall and of Latino students in particular.

This publication provides a synthesis of national data and the perspectives of Latino students speaking in their own voices about how they and their families view college affordability and opportunity. This brief is part of Excelencia's Higher Education's Capacity and Affordability for Latino Students project supported by Lumina and offers policy makers and institutional leaders new information to better serve this generation of Latino college goers.

This brief examines Latino students' college choices. While Latino students may not be aware of the HSI designation, they are in fact converting existing colleges and institutions into HSIs simply as a function of their own decisions-a trend that shows signs of continuing for several more years.

Hearing from Presidents of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) : Defining Student Success, Measures of Accountability, and What it Means to be an HSI profiles responses from individual interviews with college presidents to better understand their perspectives on three main topics: 1. Defining student success; 2. Measuring institutional accountability; and, 3. Describing what it means to be an HSI.

This brief serves as a primer on the conditions and history behind the invention of HSIs (Hispanic-Serving Institutions), the processes for identification, the general institutional characteristics of HSIs, and notes how these institutions are contributing to Latino student success.