When it comes to education, we often hear about the failures. But at the Celebracion de Excelencia in Washington D.C., elected officials and higher education leaders celebrated today the evidence-based best practices of three top programs devoted to Latino college success. The three honorees are:
The DirectConnect program at Valencia College – Introduced in 2006 as a partnership between the University of Central Florida and four Central Florida colleges, this transfer initiative smoothly transitions students from college to the university.
The School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering at California State University Bakersfield – This program’s focus has been to increase the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees, especially for Latinos. Forty percent of their STEM students are now Latino.
Master of Business Administration program at the University of Texas, El Paso – This program has increased degree completion by creating an accessible program format for full-time students and working professionals.
The top three honorees represented educational distinction at the associate, baccalaureate and graduate level.
All honorees had to demonstrate a boost in Latino student enrollment, performance and graduation rates. The practices used by the 2012 honorees and finalists were compiled in Excelencia in Education’s “What Works for Latino Student Success in Higher Education.” The hope is for their practices to inspire public policy and programs at other institutions to increase Latino student success.
