Latino Students in Catholic Postsecondary Institutions

Catholic educational institutions play an important role in educating Latino high achieving students. For Catholic high schools students, Latinos are more likely to graduate and transition to college immediately following high school. Few studies have examined the outcomes of Latino students who attend Catholic Colleges and Universities and whether the same level of success experienced by Latinos at the secondary level is also a prevalent phenomenon at the postsecondary level. Using secondary data from National Center for Education Data Statistics on high schools, SAT data, and data from IPEDs (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), this article explores the college readiness levels, transition-to-college rates of Latinos attending Catholic high schools and the outcomes of Latinos who attended select Catholic doctoral-granting institutions. An analysis of longitudinal cohort data is examined to explore these outcome data for Latino students compared to national averages, and across doctoral institutions which account for 5.1% of all Catholic postsecondary institutions. Among the key findings, Latino students who enroll in Catholic colleges and universities have higher four-year and six-year degree completion rates, yet Latino enrollment rates remain smaller than the proportion of Latinos at the high school level in the K-12 sector. Recommendations are discussed to improve the overall outcomes of Latinos in Catholic universities. Estudiantes latinos en instituciones católicas de educación superior Las instituciones católicas de educación desempeñan un papel importante en la educación de los estudiantes latinos de alto rendimiento. Para los estudiantes de las escuelas secundarias católicas, los latinos tienen más probabilidades de graduarse y pasar a la educación superior inmediatamente después de la escuela secundaria. Pocos estudios han examinado los resultados de los estudiantes latinos que han asistido a centros de educación superior o universidades católicas, así como tampoco si el mismo nivel de éxito observado en los latinos a nivel de la secundaria también lo es a nivel universitario. Empleando datos secundarios del Centro nacional de estadísticas de la educación sobre los centros de educación secundaria, los datos de los exámenes SAT y los datos de IPEDs (Sistema integrado de datos de la educación postsecundaria), este artículo explora los niveles de preparación universitaria, las tasas de transición a estudios postsecundarios de latinos q