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Research shows that gang-associated youth are less likely to complete high school and earn a postsecondary educational credential. However, scholars have not determined "why" gang youth do not persist into higher education. This ethnographic study aims to focus on the narratives of 13 Latino high school young men to understand what college knowledge they possess. We found the students have aspirations to pursue postsecondary education degrees or credentials; however, they receive minimal information and support from school personnel to build the needed college-going behaviors and information to plan and prepare for higher education.

This article examines college-going identity construction for Black, Latino, and Asian American and Pacific Islander high school students. The authors use Marcia's (J Personal Soc Psychol 3(5):551-558, 1966; in: Delson (ed) Handbook of adolescent research, Wiley, New York, 1980) ego identity statuses perspective to examine how students develop their college-going identities to consider their post-high school pathways. We draw on focus groups interviews with 153 Black, Latino, and Asian American Pacific Islanders students enrolled in 10 urban and suburban high schools in California. The findings show the importance of being somebody, not quitting before establishing a career or graduating from college, joining the military as a pathway to finance postsecondary education, and the internal pressure to pay for higher education. The significance of this paper challenges the dominant narrative of young men of color not invested or interested in higher education, but highlight how the young men of color negotiate their agency in constructing their ideas and making decisions based on how various tensions and aspirations shape their goals after high school.

Immediately after President Obama's successful campaign, many hypothesized that the United States had entered a post-racial era. This study uses critical race theory to examine how high-achieving Black and Latinx college students make meaning of and navigate affirmative action policy discourses in an era of colorblind racial politics. Semi-structured interviews with 46 alumni of two race-conscious college access programs illustrate how participants employ a race-conscious framework that affirms the reality of race-conscious policies. Their discourse addressing race, intersectionality, and equity disrupts colorblind ideology. Connecting our analysis to the current social landscape, we argue intersectionality offers a framework for engaging politics of accountability. In the conclusion, we conceptually distinguish between post-racial era conditions and post-race (or post-racist) aspirations.

Research shows that gang-associated youth are less likely to complete high school and earn a postsecondary educational credential. However, scholars have not determined "why" gang youth do not persist into higher education. This ethnographic study aims to focus on the narratives of 13 Latino high school young men to understand what college knowledge they possess. We found the students have aspirations to pursue postsecondary education degrees or credentials; however, they receive minimal information and support from school personnel to build the needed college-going behaviors and information to plan and prepare for higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black males are scarce on White campuses. Still, they experience hypervisibility and are targets of hypersurveillance. This study used focus groups and semi-structured interviews to examine the experiences of 36 Black male students attending seven "elite" historically White Research I institutions. Two themes emerged: (a) anti-Black male stereotyping and marginality and (b) hypersurveillance and control directed at Black men by Whites. Participants reported stereotyping and increased surveillance by police on and off campus. They also reported being defined as "out of place" and "fitting the description" of illegitimate members of the campus community. As a result, students reported psychological stress responses symptomatic of racial battle fatigue (e.g. frustration, shock, anger, disappointment, resentment, anxiety, helplessness, hopelessness, and fear). The study finds the college environment was more hostile toward Black men than other groups, exemplifying Black racial misandry.

The use of affirmative action admissions practices in U.S. colleges and universities has been a source of contentious public debate and legal battles since the policy's inception in the 1960s. The legal challenges to race-conscious admissions will continue for the foreseeable future, including renewed court scrutiny on specific universities' policies ("Fisher v. University of Texas" at Austin et al., 2013). Although the benefits that arise from a diverse student body are well-documented, it is less clear how that process occurs within the classroom. Using rich qualitative data from a national sample of 203 law students, this study examines classroom-level diversity, consequences when it is absent, and necessary conditions for activating the educational benefits. From the students' perspective, structural diversity in the classroom is a necessary prerequisite for more enlightening, interesting discussions, which promote better learning outcomes. However, the mere presence of diversity does not necessarily educe these benefits, the diversity must in fact be "activated" (Marin, 2000). Therefore, we find faculty members have the responsibility to create spaces for diverse viewpoints to be heard and to facilitate discussion so all students benefit. We call for training to help faculty take on these roles, along with other implications for policy and practice, concluding that U.S. law schools must do a better job incorporating racial diversity in teaching, learning, and practice, or they will have failed to address a compelling national interest.

In this article, Uma Jayakumar, Rican Vue, and Walter Allen present their study of Young Black Scholars (YBS), a community-initiated college preparatory program in Los Angeles. Through in-depth interviews and surveys with twenty-five middle- and higher-income Black college students, they document the positive role of community in facilitating college access. The authors show that students' perceptions of YBS's support of their college aspirations are qualitatively different than perceptions of their schools' support. The authors theorize that YBS participants embrace college-going as an act of resistance to deficit-based narratives regarding the racial achievement gap and social reproduction. By drawing on students' experiences, they put forth a new model of a liberatory college-going process for students of color that leverages community cultural wealth and promotes transformative resistance.

This study applies the principles of critical race theory to examine quantitatively the experiences of a national sample of 37,582 faculty. Among the key factors influencing retention and satisfaction are campus racial climate, autonomy and independence, and the review and promotion process. Results support the value of examining faculty of color in the aggregate and of disaggregating racial categories. (Contains 4 tables and 3 footnotes.)

Using an Opportunity to Learn (OTL) framework, this study examines the college preparatory experiences of Latina high and non-high achievers at an urban Latina/o majority high school. Findings indicate that students relied almost exclusively on school resources to navigate their college preparation process. However, the school provided differential OTL based on class ranking and perceived eligibility for selective colleges.

Being that educational disparities, manifested through socioeconomic instability, were a major contributing factor to the Los Angeles riots, it is important to examine how public high schools are now shaping the postsecondary opportunities of underrepresented students. Using opportunity-to-learn (OTL) and bounded rationality as frames, this article examines the college preparatory experiences of Black and Latina/o students at a magnet and standard urban high school, specifically focusing on the experiences of high achievers. Findings indicate that students at the two schools had equally high college aspirations, but experienced very different college preparatory environments. Magnet students had access to more college-going resources and greater opportunities to learn, manifested directly from opportunities offered at their school and indirectly from the collective college-going culture shaped by the school, peers, and parents. Bounded rationality allowed students at the underresourced urban school to perceive their school's resources positively and stay motivated, but limited their efforts to pursue additional resources to enhance their opportunity-to-learn. (Contains 2 tables.)

This article examines the history, present, and future of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). We begin with a brief review of the existing literature on HBCUs, considering common themes and how these institutions changed over time within a broader socio-historical landscape. In addition to historical information, we use a national database to illuminate trends and shifts in the students choosing to attend, and being served by, these institutions. We close by considering new challenges that face these institutions, addressing how HBCUs are positioned to move forward with their important mission of educating the Black community.

Affirmative action addresses disparities in higher education. Recent trends threaten gains, resegregation is underway nationally. California outlawed affirmative action, the quality of K-12 education is declining, and prison construction is soaring. African American and Latino participation in higher education has declined; both groups are overrepresented in prisons and among the poor. Opponents pretend affirmative action threatens academic quality and promotes reverse discrimination. In fact, economic instability spurs efforts to defend status quo privilege. There is a clash of national ideologies, the American Dream versus White supremacy. Higher education must be a model for society in promoting equity, excellence, and diversity.

This article addresses the stubborn and persistent underrepresentation of African American and Chicano-Latino in California higher education by examining the academic resources, performance, and postsecondary outcomes of students from public high schools with different racial compositions. The results from this study provide evidence for the degree to which social stratification in California public higher education is associated with racial segregation and inequities in educational resources and postsecondary preparation during high school.

Surveys the history of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) from their beginnings in the late 19th century to the present; identifies challenges facing their future; and examines their role in providing not only educational opportunities but also social, political, and economic development to the African American community within the constraints of a racially stratified society. (EV)

Examined the status of African Americans in the U.S. professorate and its relationship to this group's access and success. Faculty surveys compared the characteristics, experiences, and achievements of African American professors on six predominantly white campuses to those of their white peers. African American faculty members were systematically and significantly disadvantaged on all measures relative to whites, presenting obstacles to their recruitment, retention, and success. (SM)

Introduces a theme issue that includes a collection of articles on work being done to prevent movement backward in efforts to gain equal educational opportunity for minority group students, discussing affirmative action, racial discrimination and bias, and equity in higher education (with a focus on California's efforts to roll back affirmative action). Examines the continuing challenges of race, economics, and educational opportunity. (SM)