An Examination of Latina/o Transfer Students in Cal ifornia’s Postsecondary Institutions

California’s three-tier public postsecondary system is meant
to provide equal access to higher education for all students
in the state. Yet even though Latina/os will soon make up
the majority of students in K-12 education, the enrollment
of Latina/os in the state’s postsecondary institutions
remains low. When compared to the percentage of Latina/
os enrolled in grades K-12, Latina/os are underrepresented
in all three segments of the state’s postsecondary education
system: California Community Colleges (CCC), the
California State University (CSU), and the University
of California (UC) (Ornelas and Solorzano 2004). For
example, figure 1 shows that in 2003, 47 percent of K-12
students in public California schools were Latina/o, yet
only 14 percent were enrolled at a UC campus and 25
percent at a CSU campus. The majority of these students
were concentrated in the community college system. This
brief examines the transfer function from community
college to four-year institutions as a critical segment of the
education pipeline for Latina/o students. [View Full Report]