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Aspirations of Attainment: �A Critical Examination of �State Policy Goals and Racial Disparities in College Completion

Eric Felix Ph.D (@EriqFelix)

Fernando Garcia M.A. (@FergarciaUCLA)

ASHE Annual Conference

November 13, 2019

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The Context: Educational Attainment in the US

Racial Educational Attainment in the United States, 2019

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The Policy: State-Level Attainment Goals/Plans

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Motivation Driving this Work

Explore the opportunities that college completion policies offer to support racially minoritized communities facing the largest disparities in educational attainment

Interrogate how attainment plans acknowledge, identify, and address racial inequities in college completion

Specifically, how the Latinx population is discussed, identified, or addressed, if it all, in these plans

Reformulate state-attainment policies to be more race-conscious in achieving their legislative intent

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Framework: Critical Policy Analysis

Foregrounds race and racism into the analysis of policy

Interrogates the difference between policy rhetoric and practiced reality

Questions the distribution of power, resources, and knowledge within policy, its design, and implementation

Highlights the broader effect of the policy and its role of contributing to the social stratification of minoritized populations by perpetuating inequities and maintaining power in dominant groups

Emphasizes members of non-dominant groups, such as racially minoritized communities, who resist processes of domination and oppression and engage in activism and advocacy in the policy process

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Methods

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Comparative Case Study

Two-Criteria Sampling Strategy

Data Collection

Collected 120 documents from 18 states
Focused primarily on legislative text, attainment plans, and press releases

Data Analysis

Created, tested (internal/external checks), and used an Analytic Review Protocol
Conduct within and across case analysis

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	Structural Elements			Racial Discourse			Feasibility
State	Completion Imperative	Are strategic goals included?	Status of Plan Since Adoption	Does their plan include racial discourse?	Do their strategies, goals, or priorities include racial discourse?	Do they prioritize Latinx or racially minoritized groups?	Is the plan feasible to achieve?	Can the plan address racial disparities?	Are there dashboards or reports to track progress?
Arizona	Primarily Economic	Yes	Living	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
California*
Colorado	Economic and Social	Yes	Living	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Connecticut	Economic and Social	Yes	Static	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Florida	Primarily Economic	No	Static	No	No	No	No	No	No
Georgia	Primarily Economic	No	Static	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Idaho	Economic and Social	Yes	Static	No	No	No	No	No	No
Illinois	Primarily Economic	Yes	Living	No	No	No	Yes	Unclear	No
Kansas	Economic and Social	Yes	Living	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Massachusetts	Primarily Economic	Yes	Living	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Minnesota	Economic and Social	Yes	Living	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unclear	No
Nebraska*
New Jersey	Economic and Social	Yes	Living	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Unclear	No
New Mexico	Primarily Economic	No	Static	No	No	No	No	No	No
New York*
Rhode Island	Primarily Economic	Yes	Living	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
Texas	Economic and Social	Yes	Living	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unclear	Yes
Utah	Economic and Social	Yes	Living	Yes	No	No	No	No	No

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FINDINGS

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An economic imperative �prompting attainment for all

“Georgia cannot afford to allow the gap in higher education attainment to widen. The state’s current and future competitiveness is at stake. Without a workforce that can fulfill the needs of the economy, the state may risk not only the loss of new employers and new business creation, but also existing jobs to more educated states and countries."

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The Framing of Inequity

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Deficit-Based

Race-Evasive

Race-Conscious

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Deficit Based

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“Ample opportunity to postsecondary education has not produced equal rates of participation. Low income students do not go to college at the same rate as more financially advantaged students, neither do underrepresented minority students, students from rural regions, or non-traditional adult students”

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Race-Evasive

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“Increase participation in postsecondary education, particularly among traditionally underserved populations”

“Meeting this goal requires increased participation from traditional populations, as well as a wider pool of non-traditional populations”

“To make meaningful progress toward the goal, the state must improve completion rates—particularly for historically underserved students”

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Race-Conscious

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“Almost one-third of Colorado’s adult population lacks education of any type after high school. Moreover, attainment levels are not equal: Only 29 percent of Hispanics, our fastest-growing population, and 39 percent of African Americans have a certificate or degree, as compared to 64 percent for the white majority…[We] have made erasing these equity gaps a top priority”

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The Brown Paradox in the Aspirations of Attainment

Empty Rhetoric

Massachusetts posed a question in their plan: “Consider this: If African American and Latino/a adults possessed college degrees at the same rate as white adults 60%, MA would easily meet its need for more college graduates by 2025,” but never articulated any race-conscious strategies for improving completion

Promising Plans

Colorado sought to increase completion rates to 66% for all groups by 2025. One of their strategic priorities included “erasing equity gaps for the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group, Hispanic/Latino.” Their attainment plan described Latinx-specific strategies for improving college completion.

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Discussions and Implications

Who benefits from these attainment plans? What is the influence of an economic imperative on improving attainment?

Lacking race-conscious discourse, these attainment plans are not able to address racial disparities in college completion.

2020 and 2025 are not so far away, what can be learned to actually mitigate racial gaps in attainment?

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Recommendations

Name, names
Be about that race talk AND action
Explicit goal setting
Mechanisms for change
Accountability and reporting

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Thank you!

Eric Felix Ph.D

@EriqFelix

efelix@sdsu.edu

Fernando Garcia M.A. @FergarciaUCLA

fergarcia@g.ucla.edu