Understanding Inequity in Graduation Rates at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)
An Intersectional Analysis by Race, Gender, and First-Generation College Status
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19483638 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Christopher Erwin (0000-0002-2751-5990, University of New Mexico, corresponding author), Nattaly López (0000-0002-4970-8232, University of New Mexico), E Diane Torres-Velásquez (University of New Mexico), Cynthia Wise (0009-0003-3173-4648, New Mexico State University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 33 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2076-0760 • E-ISSN: 2076-0760 |
| Publisher | MDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT) |
| DOI | 10.3390/socsci15010033 |
| OpenAlex | W7118313488 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 39 |
We examine complex inequities that emerge when race, gender, and first-generation college status are treated as interdependent, rather than independent statuses, for assessing student outcomes at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). Drawing on student-level administrative data from two public HSIs in the U.S. Southwest, we analyze four-year graduation and placement in developmental English and mathematics. Using continuing-generation college white women as the reference group, we estimate marginal effects and then construct linear combinations for twenty intersectional social locations defined by race, gender, and first-generation college status. Our findings show that first-generation American Indian men, first-generation college Black men, and first-generation college Hispanic men experience some of the largest achievement gaps in both graduation and developmental placement, gaps that would remain obscured in conventional reporting by race, gender, or class alone. We argue that quantitative intersectionality, grounded in critical race and intersectionality scholarship, offers a value-added approach to state-based institutional analytics that can inform equity metrics, accountability systems, and resource allocation at HSIs and beyond. We conclude with recommendations for redesigning data infrastructures, reporting practices, and equity initiatives to better align HSI servingness with the lived realities of structurally marginalized students
Accountability · Analytics · Educational Equity · Intersectionality · Racism · Career Development and Diversity · Higher Education Research Studies · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
Toward a Multidimensional Conceptual Framework for Understanding “Servingness” in Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Intersectionality in higher education research
First-Generation College Students as Academic Learners
Transforming Hispanic-Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice
The politics of belonging intersectional contestations
Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education
Racial Formation in the United States
Unpacking the Performativity of Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Designation
Does Percentage of Latinas/os Affect Graduation Rates at 4-Year Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Emerging HSIs, and Non-HSIs
Decolonizing Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Quantitative Intersectionality
Cultural Citizenship in Hispanic-Serving Institutions
Making the invisible visible
QuantCrit
QuantCrit
Critical race theory, race and gender microaggressions, and the experience of Chicana and Chicano scholars
Beyond Making a Statement
Historically White Universities and Plantation Politics
The Implications of Intersectionality on Southeast Asian Female Students’ Educational Outcomes in the United States
Critical ‘street race’ praxis
Mapping the Margins
Socioeconomic roots of academic faculty
Settler Colonialism as Structure
Racing to Serve or Race-ing for Money? Hispanic-serving Institutions and the Colorblind Allocation of Racialized Federal Funding
What's Your "Street Race"? Leveraging Multidimensional Measures of Race and Intersectionality for Examining Physical and Mental Health Status among Latinxs
Utilizing Multidimensional Measures of Race in Education Research
Telling Stories About School
The Complexity of Intersectionality
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |