Research & Policy

Since 2004, Excelencia has been the national leader in developing strategic research guided by the experiences and realities of today's Latino and other post-traditional students to inform action by community and institutional leaders and policy makers that facilitates institutional change.

Excelencia uses a Latino lens to bring to the forefront what we know about Latino student success, what works to improve it, and what decision makers can do.

Good policy is informed by good practice. Excelencia in Education’s policy priorities are grounded in the strengths and opportunities of the Latino community and evidence-based practices accelerating Latino student success.

Excelencia’s policy agenda advocates for accelerating Latino student success to close gaps in degree attainment based on the current profile of Latinos in higher education. Four policy issues were continually raised among leading institutions committed to supporting Latino student success: 1) affordability, 2) institutional capacity, 3) retention and transfer, and 4) workforce preparation.

Excelencia in Education’s latest analysis of fact sheets provides a detailed profile on Latino students and the institutions where they choose to enroll to inform policy and mobilize action. For 20 years, Excelencia has led the way through innovative, collaborative, and actionable efforts to accelerate Latino student success in higher education throughout the United States. The fact sheets included in this compilation illustrate these efforts and inform Excelencia’s four policy priorities: affordability, institutional capacity, retention and transfer, and workforce preparation.

What is included in Excelencia’s new release and how can I learn more using this analysis?

Access Excelencia’s lists of the 2022-23 HSIs, eHSIs, and gHSIs. 
Learn more from Excelencia’s summary of HSIs, eHSIs, and gHSIs in the HSIs Factbook.
Visualize fast facts with Excelencia’s 2022-23 HSIs Infographic.
Explore the 2022-23 data on HSIs in Excelencia’s new HSI interactive dashboard.
Learn more about the evolution of HSIs through Excelencia’s HSI StoryMap.

For 20 years, Excelencia in Education has served its mission to accelerate Latino student success in higher education in order to address the country’s need for a highly educated workforce and civic leadership. This brief initiates a series that represents the latest extension of Excelencia’s hallmark work of bringing national attention to higher education institutions and practices advancing Latino talent, strengthening our economy, and ensuring America’s future.

This series includes the top institutions graduating Latinos in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), health, and education, with examples of institutional efforts to improve Latinos’ college completion linked to these sectors.

Excelencia in Education remains committed to Ensuring America’s Future by increasing Latino college completion. Excelencia’s most recent analysis of public data on enrollment, degree completion, and degree attainment shows that degree completion gaps have increased between Latino students and their White peers. To close the gap in degree completion, the United States requires a tactical plan to reach the Latino degree attainment goal of 6.2 million degrees earned by 2030. This plan must include strategies to help Latinos accelerate degree completion while supporting increased attainment for all students.

Excelencia in Education collaborated with five Puerto Rican HSIs to understand their institutional resilience efforts. Over the last five years, Puerto Rico and its colleges and universities have faced financial, natural, demographic, health, and leadership challenges. The intersection of all these challenges created a nexus for institutional resilience efforts. Learn more about how these five HSIs have adapted to compounding challenges in their current context.

Excelencia in Education partnered with seven HSIs to continue exploring and examining the institutions' post-completion success efforts. This brief offers findings to enhance an institution’s interest and ability to invest in strategies to support students beyond completion, features institutional strategies and practices, shares lessons learned, and offers recommendations for action for institutions looking to scale up their post-completion success efforts. Learn more about how these seven HSIs recognize their role goes beyond completion by preparing students for the workforce, offering support to completers, and tracking completers after earning an educational credential at their institution.