Posts published on April 11, 2014

Minority Serving Colleges Have A Vital Role

The Center for American Progress released a new report, “Lessons Learned: Implications from Studying Minority-Serving Institutions,” that examines the role of minority-serving institutions, or MSIs, and offers policy solutions to help these vital institutions. Looking at public colleges, universities, and community colleges with single-minority or combination-minority enrollment of more than 25 percent, the report finds that these more affordable higher-education institutions play an important role in helping reduce income inequality and increasing economic opportunity, particularly for low-income students.

As the United States becomes increasingly diverse, so will the nation’s schools. A majority of babies born in the United States today are children of color, and before the end of this decade, more than half of all youth will be of color. These demographic changes mean that colleges and universities are poised to have increasingly diverse student populations, which will result in the number of MSIs growing significantly in the years ahead.

Among the most challenged institutions in a strained higher-education system, MSIs have still played a key role in increasing the college-going rate among recent high school graduates from underrepresented minority groups. While these schools face fiscal challenges from lower tuition rates, support from the federal government helps bridge funding gaps, particularly if the funding is used strategically to elevate student success in various areas, such as course performance, transition to college-level courses, persistence, degree attainment, and transfer from two- to four-year institutions. The federal government has a long history of providing support to MSIs in recognition of the critical role they play and the difficult challenges they face in expanding opportunities and access to higher education for underrepresented groups.

The report details why higher education should be seen as an investment in the public good, as everyone benefits when one of our citizens obtains a college degree or other postsecondary credential. Putting resources into institutions such as MSIs has multiple benefits, including:

• Growing the economy and increasing incomes
• Reducing poverty
• Closing racial and ethnic social gaps
• Strengthening safety net programs such as Social Security

Drawing from a collaborative report from the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education, or CARE; the Partnership for Equity in Education through Research, or PEER; and the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, or APIASF, “Measuring the Impact of MSI-Funded Programs on Student Success: Findings From the Evaluation of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions,” the CAP report highlights several key factors to consider to improve results from MSIs:

• Critical funding
• Taking effective practices to scale
• Supporting MSIs in conducting assessments
• Investing in building structures in which innovation and scaling up of effective practices can take place

Minority-serving institutions play a critical role in our nation’s higher-education system. Too often, they have not received appropriate levels of support for the students they serve. To that end, strategic federal investments are needed. The ultimate results of these investments will include a reduction in the income inequality that we have observed for the groups that benefit from enrollment in MSIs.

Read the full report here.