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“Wait, What Do You Mean by College?” A Critical Race Analysis of Latina/o Students and Their Pathways to Community College Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano

Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

ABSTRACT As a group, Latina/o students are more likely to experience a substandard K–12 education complete with underresourced schools, high teacher turn- over, and fewer college-preparatory courses. It is this same inferior educa- tion that denies many Latina/o high school students the opportunity to engage in college-choice—leading to their disproportionate enrollment in community colleges over 4-year colleges or universities. In California alone, approximately 75% of Latina/o students in higher education can be found in the community college sector—making this an important pathway for many Latina/o students. This qualitative study incorporated a Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Education framework to focus on the racialized K–12 experiences of four Latina/o graduate students who started their postse- condary career at a community college. This study was undertaken to better understand what led Latina/o students to enroll in community colleges after high school. Exploring the pathways of Latina/o students from high school to community college is imperative to community college practi- tioners (i.e., faculty, staff, and administrators) when considering best prac- tices for their large Latina/o student body, as is found in California. The initial findings suggest that racism in K–12 in the forms of tracking, limited college information, and low expectations from academic personnel had a direct impact on the postsecondary experiences and opportunities available to Latina/o students. Lastly, the findings challenge prevailing portrayals where Latina/o students passively accept their marginalized position in education by highlighting their voice, resiliency, and agency in the face of systematic racism, as evidenced by their successes in academia.

Latinas/os are one of the fastest growing groups in the United States, with 55 million people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015). The increase in the Latina/o population continues to transform the student bodies found in academic institutions from preschool to graduate and professional schools (Fry & Lopez, 2012). Specifically, we have witnessed a rise in the enrollment of Latinas/os in community college over any other sector of higher education. While there has been a surge in the number of Latinas/os in postsecondary education, particularly community colleges, the educational attainment gap still persists with “only 12.7% of all Latino adults hav[ing] a baccalaureate degree compared to 30% of Whites” (Zarate & Burciaga, 2010, p. 25). In other words, a higher number of Latinas/os in higher education does not equate to an increase in the attainment of college degrees for this group. The educational inequality present for Latina/o students does not begin in higher education; rather, it is present all throughout the educational pipeline. Latina/o students experience institutionalized racism in their elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education with fewer students progressing from one step to the next (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995; Yosso & Solórzano, 2006). Encountering substandard and underresourced schools in racially segregated neighborhoods and communities,

COMMUNITY COLLEGE JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND PRACTICE http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2016.1251362

high push-out rates, and low college enrollment and completion percentages lead to disproportion- ate schooling outcomes for Latina/o students, something that has become the norm rather than the exception (Valenzuela, 1999).

Community colleges enroll the majority of students of color in higher education in part due to their open access policies providing all interested the “opportunity” to enter and participate in higher education. Community colleges are also generally much less costly in tuition than 4-year colleges and universities. For reasons similar to these, community colleges are known to be the big equalizer in our society as they democratize higher education (Boggs, 2010). Although community colleges provide access to higher education to many marginalized communities from first generation college students, to immigrants, to students of color, it is important to maintain a critical lens. One method of doing this is by questioning the important differences between access to higher education via community college and equity in the academic outcomes in the form of degree attainment and/or transfer rates for diverse students. In 2014–2015, the California Community College (CCC) system matriculated close to one million Latina/o students, accounting for 42% of their student body (California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, 2015). Unfortunately, only 14% of the Latinas/os in the CCC system persist to transfer to a 4-year university making this one of the highest pushout points in the educational pipeline (Solórzano, Acevedo-Gil, & Santos, 2013). This educational disparity is alarming, and it calls for the improvement of retention and transfer pathways for Latina/o students in community colleges (Chapa & Schink, 2006; Moore & Shulock, 2010; Ornelas & Solórzano, 2004; Rivas, Perez, Alvarez, & Solórzano, 2007). I argue that these trends may be understood by examining the K– 12 experiences of Latina/o students, which are characterized by disproportionate placement in noncollege-track courses, limited college-going information, and systems of school governance and culture that fail to nurture a strong sense of academic identity.

As this study and other research demonstrate, these experiences reflect the presence of systematic racism for Latinas/os and other poor and working class students of color. With the assistance of the literature and participant data, I examined how K–12 schooling institutions are preparing (or not preparing) Latina/o students for their postsecondary options after high school. Given the skewed enrollment of Latina/o students in community colleges over any other sector of higher education and the low transfer rates of community colleges, it is important to further explore the formal educational experiences of students prior to their enrollment in community college. Understanding how and why the majority of Latinas/os in higher education find themselves attending community colleges provides us with the opportunity to focus on this sector of higher education as a means of improving the gap between the large number of Latina/o community college students and the dismal number of college- educated Latina/o people in this country.

This study examined the counterstories of four Latina/o graduate students that began their postsecondary career at a community college. In order to center the student experience, the following research questions guided the study: What are the experiences of Latina/o students in K–12 that led to their enrollment in community college? And, how did the students reflect on this experience?

By asking the student participants to make sense of the trajectory that led to their enrollment in community college after high school, I was able to highlight the pathway to community college. And in the process, I explored how to better meet the needs of this group by improving their educational experiences. Incorporating Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education framework allowed me to focus on the educational injustices and racist systemic practices Latina/o students face when navigating systems of schooling by centering their racialized identity as a historically oppressed community (Yosso & Solórzano, 2005). In the next section, a discussion of CRT as the study’s guiding theoretical framework is provided. This is followed by the study’s methods. I then turn my attention to the three key findings that emerged from this study, K–12 tracking, limited college information, and low expectations from academic personnel, that illuminate the mechanisms of systematic racism as they

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were manifested in the participants’ experiences. Lastly, I address the implications of these findings and provide suggestions for ways to better the educational opportunities for Latina/o students.

Critical Race Theory

Employing a CRT in an education theoretical framework allowed me to place race and its various intersectionalities at the forefront of my research (Ladson-Billings, 2009). CRT provides a valuable framework in understanding how schooling institutions, such as K–12 and community colleges, have the potential of significantly impacting the lives of students of color (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Lynn & Parker, 2006). CRT begins with the premise that racism is ordinary and endemic; found in “both the institutional and the individual levels” (Yosso & Solórzano, 2005, p. 117); constituting the everyday experiences of people of color in the United States; whether knowingly or unknowingly (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). More specifically for the field of education, five CRT tenets have been identified as the guiding pillars. These five tenets include the intercentricity of race and racism with other forms of subordination, the challenge to dominant ideology, the commitment to social justice, the centrality of experiential knowledge, and the transdisciplinary perspective (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002). Together, these five tenets provide an alternative frame- work from which to analyze and center the racialized experiences of Latina/o students including the impact of K–12 on the postsecondary options afforded to students of color.

Incorporating this theoretical framework is helpful in articulating and centering the needs of historically marginalized communities such as Latina/o students. In addition, understanding the past and current practices that inhibit educational equity has helped me to better communicate the needs of students, who like myself, come from historically underrepresented communities to larger audiences. CRT speaks to my experiences and places the discussion of race and racism at the forefront while challenging racial oppression and incorporating social justice. By integrating this theoretical lens, I was able to further highlight through counterstory how marginalized groups speak back to systems of power and racism in particular (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).

Methodology

The qualitative study sought to better understand the K–12 trajectory of Latina/o students that began their postsecondary education at community colleges. Additionally, given my positionality as a first generation college student and immigrant from Mexico who is currently a graduate student, I am committed to exploring the educational injustices and barriers related to access faced by the Latina/o community. This is all done in an effort to continue to improve the Latina/o educational pipeline at every step of the way—from preschool to graduate school. The next section delineates the context, participants, and the methods implemented for data collection and analysis in this qualitative study.

Context All of the participants are Latina/o graduate students at one of the premier research-intensive universities in the west coast. The participants’ K–12, community college, and 4-year university education largely took place in one county of southern California. The university currently attended by the participants has a student body of over 40,000 students from which 11,898 are considered graduate students and only 995, or approximately 8% of the graduate student body, is Latina/o or Chicana/o (“Graduate programs annual report,” 2010–2011).

Participants Participants were purposefully selected based on a set of criteria designed to better answer the research questions. Criteria included having started their higher education trajectory at a community college, being enrolled in a graduate program, and self-identifying under any of the Latina/o pan- ethnic identities. Thus, the participant selection tools consisted of purposeful sampling and the

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snowballing technique. Purposeful sampling helped me identify participants that met the preestab- lished study criteria; snowballing allowed me to recruit a greater number of participants for the study via referrals from other participants (Seidman, 2013). A total of four student participants from the same graduate school were interviewed individually on one occasion in a semistructured format. Additionally, all participants completed their bachelor’s degree at the same institution they now attend for graduate school. The participants, three females and one male, all self-identified as Latina/ o, Chicana/o, Mexican, or Mexican American. The participants ranged in age from 22 to 31 years (see Table 1).

Data Collection and Analysis In-depth semistructured interviews were utilized as the main data-gathering technique because of the rich information they can yield when adequately implemented. The nature of this study focused on personal experiences in navigating K–12 and their impact on the participants’ enrollment at a community college. Thus, it was imperative to engage in in-depth interviews to further explore why so many Latina/o students begin their college education at a community college. Likewise, semi- structured interviews provided an ideal strategy because they allowed for a mix of “more and less structured interview questions,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 89); flexibility; and space to explore relevant issues during the interview, among other benefits. The interview protocol was developed using an adaptation of Seidman’s (2013) three-interview series by collapsing it into one three-part interview. The protocol explored three different areas; (a) a focused life history on participants’ K–12 experi- ence, (b) the details of their community college experience, and (c) a reflection on their academic trajectory thus far. Together, these three areas helped collect information directly related to the study. All interviews were conducted in English and lasted between 50 to 80 minutes.

The data obtained from the interview transcripts was hand-coded and initially open-coded using an in vivo coding technique to preserve and honor the voices of the participant while examining potential themes across interviews (Saldaña, 2013). Once the initial phase of coding was complete, I coded by themes otherwise known as analytical coding in order to further develop concepts that emerged from the interviews (Merriam, 2009). During this phase I incorporated descriptive coding to help me label different pieces of data (e.g., narrow the different educational spaces: K–12, community college, school activism). Because this study was informed by CRT, part of my coding process involved examining explicit and implicit themes related to racism and other forms of oppression. Hence, some of the thematic categories and labels from the data included K–12 margin- alization, community college tracked, immigration and language discrimination, etcetera.

In the case of the student participants, I was able to incorporate CRT to assist in the design of counterstories (Yosso, 2006). This was a method of sharing the lived experiences and perspectives of historically marginalized groups in the form of narratives and short vignettes. Solórzano and Yosso (2001) define counterstory as a method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told, in other words, those placed at the margins of society. In utilizing counterstory, I was able to expose and call into question the majoritarian discourse of White racial privilege and center the lived educational realities of Latinas/os. Integrating counterstories was essential in this study as it helped challenge dominant narratives by highlighting the racialized experiences of students of color— barriers and successes—in order to depict a more accurate understanding of Latina/o students (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).

Table 1. Participant information.

Pseudonym Age Self-identity

Cristina 31 1st Generation Chicana and Mexican; 1st Generation College Student Julian 25 3rd Generation Chicano and Mexican American; 1st Generation College Student Laura 29 1st Generation Latina and Mexican American: 1st Generation College Student Melissa 22 1st Generation Latina from El Salvador; 1st Generation College Student

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Findings To better contextualize my analysis, I first provide a brief description of the participants. As stated earlier, the four participants, Cristina, Laura, Melissa, and Julian (all participants have been assigned pseudonyms for their protection), are all in graduate programs at a prominent research university in the western United States. And they all started their postsecondary education at different community colleges in southern California. While all participants identified as Latina/o or Chicana/o and were first generation college students, their immigration status varied; the majority identified as first generation immigrants. Julian is a 25-year-old Chicano graduating with his master’s and interested in working at a teaching university or a community college. Like Julian, Laura is also finishing up her graduate degree and hopes to work helping people and students at a community college. Melissa, the youngest participant, is graduating with her master’s degree and hoping to find her dream job doing program evaluation for schools and nonprofits in order to continue providing adequate services to disadvantaged communities. Lastly, Cristina is currently advancing through her doctoral program and interested in working at a teaching university and running a community center in a neglected community. As visible in these short participant introductions, all students have future goals and plans rooted in social justice.

Before delving into the analysis, I believe it is important to highlight the educational aspirations and accomplishments of these students in order to avoid reinforcing the negative stereotypes associated with Latinas/os and education. All four of the participants echoed an interest in attending college after high school albeit they began to think about this at different times in their K–12 career. For some, this was something that they had known since early in their childhood; for others, it did not happen until late in their high school years—mainly due to lack of exposure and information. Julian and Laura, two of the participants, better illustrate this as demonstrated in the following excerpts from their interviews:

It was always just, I knew, it was just in the back of my head, college was the place to go. I didn’t know what it was for, I didn’t know what I was going to do, I just knew college was the thing. (Julian)

My dream was to go to a 4-year university after high school so I tried to do good things and I did take the SAT [Scholastic Aptitude Test] and ACT [American College Test] and did horrible on them, you know. (Laura).

These small excerpts can be read as examples of how Latina/o students are interested in attending college as a means of bettering themselves even though they have very little informa- tion on what college is and how it works. For Julian, a first generation college student, he attributed his interest in college since an early age to his mother, father, and older brother. These family members started to plant a seed in him through conversations, encouragement, and placing school banners in his room—even though they had not been able to attend college themselves. This is not an isolated event as the literature on first generation college students of color has demonstrated familial support to be one of the main sources of encouragement for pursuing higher education (Yosso, 2006). In other instances, such as the case with Laura, students have better access to college admissions information but are not able to obtain competitive scores on the required standardized test to be considered for admission. A number of factors contribute to Laura’s experience—and that of other students like her—including a substandard education and discriminatory tests, such as the SAT and ACT, that continue to exclude non-White and low-income students from gaining admission to competitive, top-tier institutions (Young, 2004; Zwick, 2007). Furthermore, the educational successes of the partici- pants serve to debunk racial stereotypes dealing with Latinas/os and their so-called innate disinterest and rejection of education. This is evident by the fact that all participants are enrolled in top-tier graduate programs amidst the continued barriers they have faced throughout their academic careers.

For organizational purposes and a clearer presentation of my findings, the data analysis and interpretation are presented in segments by themes. This in and of itself was a difficult task to do as

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much of the data incorporates multiple experiences filled with instances of racism, discrimination, tracking, and support among others. Hence, it is important to highlight how intersectionality, described as the multiple forms of oppression based on race, gender, sexuality, etc., that shape the experiences of students of color based on the multiplicity of their identities, makes analysis even more challenging. Yet, I have tried my best to present the data in a coherent manner (Perez Huber, 2010). Additionally, in this section, I used interview excerpts from all participants to support my findings on how different forms of institutional racism shape the schooling experiences of Latina/o students and leads to their enrollment in community college. By emphasizing the voices of the participants and their counterstories in the subsections to come—together with my supplemental interpretation—this analysis aims to demonstrate the resiliency and agency expressed by Latina/o students and their families even in the face of systematic oppression and racism.

Institutional Racism. Instances of institutional racism were a common occurrence as expressed in the counterstories provided by the participants. Racism as experienced by the students consisted of events inside and outside of their schools, whether in K–12 or community college. More specifically, the students themselves mentioned how they experienced racism through (a) being placed in the noncollege track while in K–12, (b) receiving limited information on preparation for college and the application process, and (c) suffering from a lack of encouragement and support from school stakeholders—all leading to negative experiences and disengagement in high school and, ultimately, to their enrollment in community colleges. This section discusses in detail the three findings highlighted above as important to the literature on educational racism for Latina/o students. It is important to note that although not all students discussed issues related to race and racism in their lives equally. In other words, not everyone used the same explicit language or described the severity of it on the same scale. But it was still something that all students discussed as important in their schooling experiences.

Exclusionary Tracking for College Access. Literature on the K–12 schooling experiences of Latina/o students states how placing students in noncollege tracks is a common occurrence for this popula- tion (Yun & Moreno, 2006). Consequently, Latina/o students experience an inequitable education compared to their White counterparts early in their academic career, leaving them unprepared for college and with limited postsecondary options (Valenzuela, 1999). The participants in this study all discussed how high school—and in some cases preschool, elementary, and middle school—was filled with experiences in which they were excluded from the college preparatory track due to their race, immigration status, and English language skills, further highlighting intersectionality as experienced by the participants. The experiences varied from being placed in a classroom with students with “behavioral” issues to not being granted the opportunity to take college preparatory courses during high school.

In the case of Laura, who migrated from Mexico to the U.S. at the age of four, she explains how her experience as an immigrant student with limited English proficiency led her to being enrolled in bilingual classrooms up until 3rd grade, which she further described as “bilingual meaning Spanish.” During 4th grade, Laura was identified as a gifted student and transitioned into an all-English classroom at a pilot school. Although this experience should have marked her transition and placement in a regular English track, Laura still experienced a form of tracking early in her academic career during her elementary years:

In fifth and sixth grade, I know now reflecting on it I wasn’t put in the class with all the advanced English speakers, I was put in the class with English speakers but with the kids that had more behavioral issues. I didn’t have really good teachers fifth and sixth grade. I pretty much spend a lot of time being disciplined.

In this passage, Laura very vividly shares how, although she was made to believe she was placed in an advanced all-English classroom, she was instead placed in a classroom with students who had been identified with behavioral problems. Research on the schooling experiences of limited English

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proficiency students has demonstrated how these students get disproportionately and wrongfully placed in special education classrooms filled with students with behavioral problems (Callahan, 2005). This is problematic at many levels given that students who are placed in classrooms such as these get automatically labeled as special education students or students with behavior problems, even without the proper diagnosis (MacSwan & Rolstad, 2006). Interestingly, Laura does not discover that she suffers from anxiety until 11 years later when at the community college, something she was thankful for as she was then able to receive accommodations for tests and thus able to perform better in her classes. Moreover, Laura describes how much of her time in 5th and 6th grade was spent being disciplined by the teachers instead of learning subject matter content. Experiences like these can result in students being left behind academically in comparison to their peers, especially in comparison to peers tracked into honors classes. Being negatively labeled at such an early age has a long-term impact on the education of these students, as they will continue to be placed in a noncollege track as they transition to middle school and high school, largely reducing their chances of attending college (Callahan, 2005). Furthermore, exiting the special education track and transitioning into a regular, noncollege track is also a hard task to do for these students and their families. Their label has now become a part of their academic identity and a signifier to teachers, administrators, peers, and the school at large of their academic potential, or lack thereof. Such discourse on the limited academic potential of English language learners can be interpreted as a reflection of the national discourse on immigration, which continues to devalue immigrants from Latin American countries. Similarly, schooling institutions, such as the one attended by Laura, further reinforce the narrative placed on immigrant students with limited English skills by engaging in discriminatory practices based on immigration status and race.

Parallel to Laura’s experience, Latina/o students in schools across the country experience non- college tracking in large numbers (Yosso & Solórzano, 2006; Zwick, 2007). Cristina, a first generation college student and the oldest of three had a very negative and disempowering high school experience. When asked about her pathway to community college, she shared:

What led me [to enroll in a community college] was basically that I didn’t have a chance at getting into any college. And so my track was the community college track. I know the AP [advanced placement] and honors students were getting into UCLA [University of California at Los Angeles], into the top schools. That’s when I started to question my position, I was like wait, what do you mean by college?

Cristina, who studies educational injustices in the Latina/o community, came to the conclusion that she was community college tracked in high school. She shared these reflections as we sit in her office where she mentors underrepresented college students about their future options for graduate school programs. Realizing that she was left out of the college track was disheartening for Cristina once she began to question her disadvantaged position. This questioning became more apparent to her during her senior year in high school when she started to hear of peers being admitted to colleges such as UCLA. She questioned even more when she came to the conclusion that most of those students had been enrolled in advanced placement (AP) and honors courses, something she was not provided with due to her placement in the noncollege track. Without this opportunity, Cristina was not able to gain admission to any college, as she did not meet the minimum college admission requirements. Furthermore, Cristina shared how she believes she was first officially tracked during her middle school years, although she also remembers instances of racism in academic settings as far back as the Head Start program she was enrolled in. Hence, for Cristina, much like as for Laura, her noncollege tracking started early on in her academic career, before she was able to have the language and tools to speak back to this type of racial discrimination and systematic oppression. The experience of Cristina can be taken as a piece of evidence of the different forms of racism that Latina/o students and their families face when attempting to navigate educational institutions starting in K–12 and beyond (Yosso, Smith, Ceja, & Solórzano, 2009). Additionally, this excerpt speaks to how Latina/o first generation college and immigrant students suffer from noncollege preparatory academic tracking, thereby leaving them only with the option to attend community college.

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Other students, such as Melissa, became aware of their disempowered position early on in their high school years and decided to pursue information on their options. In the excerpt below, Melissa, a self-identified first generation immigrant from El Salvador and college student from an impover- ished majority Latina/o and Black community, comments on how she navigated high school in order to graduate:

The thing that really made me start going to a community college was because I wanted to at least graduate high school. It was like I’m going take this class just so I can get a passing grade, you know.

Much like the other women I spoke to, Melissa experienced a form of noncollege tracking during her high school years. This—in combination with having a few bad grades—led her to believe she might be at risk of not graduating high school, making college an even more distant goal. In order to prevent this, Melissa, much like many of the peers at her high school, enrolled in her local community college to make up a bad grade she had received. Soon after her enrollment in the community college class, she was offered information on a program that would help her not only graduate high school, but also earn college credit at the same time. Melissa saw this as the best option as she thought this would be a good way to keep herself busy with school and out of the streets, ensure her graduation from high school, and allow her to begin to earn some college credit in preparation for enrollment at a 4-year university. In brief, as a result of being placed in a noncollege track, Melissa enrolled in a community college to make up a class and, ultimately, was led to a support program that helped her graduate high school and earn college credit. This excerpt high- lights how noncollege-tracked students can practice agency as a means of bettering their education when provided with adequate information even in the face of continuous systematic barriers. Moreover, this example begins to describe not only the detrimental impacts of noncollege tracking in the Latina/o community, but also the importance of additional information and support on college and postsecondary options.

Limited College Information and the Prison Pipeline. Much of the literature has pointed to tracking as a main issue impacting the Latina/o community and their academic success in K–12 and beyond. Likewise, access to college information and preparation has also been found to be a key component in the experiences of disenfranchised students of color, as also found in this study. Research studies have found that Latina/o students largely attend schools that suffer from finite resources including limited AP and honors courses; impoverished facilities; unprepared teachers and few counselors in largely overcrowded schools; and limited college preparation, information, and workshops (Kozol, 1991, 2005; Valenzuela, 1999; Vaught, 2011). This combination disproportionately affects Latina/o students who, for the most part, live in low-income communities, creating a cycle of low educational attainment. The lack of access to college information and preparation further supports the maintenance of communities with low socioeconomic status. The students in this study all shared how very little information on college was received throughout their high school career from not once meeting with an academic counselor to first finding out about college only a few months before high school was over.

Julian, a third generation Chicano, did not face issues navigating school due to his immigration status or English language proficiency as he was a native English speaker; nevertheless, he still suffered from tracking in high school as he was not part of the college preparatory track. Additionally, Julian explained how he would always receive good grades, but was never chosen to enroll in AP classes or any other college-track courses during high school. He further explained:

There was like zero college prep, it was just taking those general classes. My high school didn’t have, at least for myself, didn’t have any college prep, it was only about meeting those graduation requirements. It was never like, what’s the steps after. I wouldn’t say I had any college prep, it was just like meeting those general requirements. I was never approached by anybody, like I didn’t see any counselors at all throughout my entire high school experience except for one time when I was forced because I got in trouble for something. But besides that I didn’t see any academic counselors.

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In Julian’s excerpt we are able to see how not only did he suffer from being noncollege tracked as he was only assigned the general coursework albeit his good grades, but also how he did not receive any college preparation at all. College preparation is vital to the success of students like Julian who are first generation college students and do not have readily available resources to prepare and guide them through the process. Furthermore, he shared how he was never approached by any school stakeholder about his plans for after high school, nor did he ever receive any information or preparation for college. Instead, he highlighted how the only time he met with an academic counselor was when he got in trouble and was required to attend a meeting. In this instance, Julian, like many Latino students, was not called in to see an academic counselor to discuss his future career plans or to receive information on college, but instead, to be reprimanded.

We can imagine how such experiences in high school support the well-documented school-to- prison pipeline for Latinos (Valles & Villalpando, 2013). This intractable pattern for schools to treat students like delinquents further reinforces the master narrative that Latinos are not meant to be in academic spaces as they threaten the school safety. These experiences directly affect the academic identity Latino males hold of themselves and how others come to view them as well as reinforce derogatory stereotypes based on race and gender. This excerpt can be interpreted as an example of how schools are not only not providing adequate information, resources, and preparation for college, but how they are also damaging the academic identities of Latinos by tracking them into the school- to-prison pipeline by reinforcing a criminal identity and not an academic one.

When discussing her experiences in K–12, Cristina, a self-identified first generation Chicana from Mexican immigrant parents, highlights the role marginalization and racism had in her understand- ing of college and plans after completing high school. More specifically, she mentions how she had limited information about her postsecondary education options:

When I found out about college it was when students were getting admitted, so it was way late. I didn’t have any counselor tell me, talk to me about college at all. That wasn’t even a conversation. Tracing back marginalization and discrimination for being an immigrant, a daughter of an immigrant family, really impacted my senior year [in high school] when I finally decided that maybe I wanted to go to college, but I didn’t know what college was until we had somebody from [a local university program for underrepresented students] come and talked to us about going to a JC, a Junior College. And so that’s when things really shifted for me. Being introduced to the university and language, and the possibilities of being educated really transformed my views of where I could see myself. And that’s why I’m here [in graduate school], this is why I’ve been striving for the PhD.

In this excerpt, Cristina begins to provide a glimpse of how her status as a Latina and first generation immigrant shaped the way she experienced schooling in the United States. Growing up in a predominantly Latina/o immigrant community, Cristina, like Julian, suffered from limited infor- mation and education that would have better prepared her for college; this is something commonly experienced in marginalized communities such as this one. As she mentioned, it was only until her senior year of high school that she learned about college through an outside program. However, because it was too late to begin her preparation for 4-year universities and the application deadlines had already passed, she was left with only one option; the community college. It is important to emphasize how as a high school student, her teachers, counselors, and schooling as a system decided that she was not worthy of college. She was not “college material,” and consequently she was not provided with the necessary information and tools to enter college after high school.

Cristina is an example of the many Latina/o students relegated to the margins and robbed of a quality education that prepares them for college and beyond (Valenzuela, 1999). This is an unfortu- nate reality that Latinas/os continue to experience as demonstrated by their low participation in higher education (Yosso & Solórzano, 2006). Once again, not because it was their choice not to participate in college, but because it was decided for them, at times, far before they even entered high school. Cristina exemplifies the millions of Latina/o high school students who experience limited college information and preparation in K–12, but when given the opportunity, education, and tools, will succeed in academic spaces all throughout the educational pipeline. It was with the assistance of a college outreach and support program that Cristina was able to reimagine her future and transform

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her educational trajectory: She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree, the highest educational degree obtainable.

Low Expectations and Lack of Encouragement and Support. The previous sections suggest how tracking and limited college information directly impact the academic experiences of Latina/o students in a detrimental manner. Similarly, the lack of encouragement and support from teachers, counselors, and other school stakeholders further inhibits the academic identities of Latinas/os as successful students with academic potential beyond high school. In this section, I explore how the participants suffered from low expectations, support, and encouragement, and how these forms of institutional racism ultimately led to having poor experiences in the classroom and disengagement. In the case of Laura, she explained how even though she was able to be in some honors classes she still experienced low teacher expectations:

My high school education was disappointing to me. I was really withdrawn from it at high school. A lot of it was the environment and also that I didn’t like the ways my teachers were, like I was not challenged at all and I think I did bad. And I never, I feel like till this day I feel like that’s how I function, more so when I was a younger person. If I felt like my teachers weren’t taking me serious, if I felt that they didn’t think that I was smart, I wouldn’t put the effort, I would just do okay, I would just get a C. It was a joke, like my junior year in high school our teacher never assigned us an essay, we never wrote an essay in that class. And senior year the same thing we never wrote an essay and I was in honor classes, you know. I felt that I was being cheated. I really think I saw through those [low expectations] and my way to deal with those was to also withdraw, I didn’t do much to do better.

As evident in Laura’s excerpt, she begins her discussion on her high school education by sharing how disappointing her education was to her, something that should not be taken lightly as this mirrors the experiences of millions of Latinas/os nationwide (Yosso, 2006). Laura further expanded on her disappointment by stating how her teachers did not challenge her enough. In fact, she further highlighted how she was upset by how she never got to write an essay in her classes, something she needed practice in for the college admission requirements. Laura interpreted the various actions or inactions by her teachers to mean that she was not smart enough for more rigorous academic work. In response to this, she would do “average” or just enough to get by, although she knew she was capable of doing better. This is a common sentiment expressed among students who realize they are being labeled as incompetent and unintelligent (Valenzuela, 1999). Hence, she was able to see through the low expectations her teachers had for her and responded by engaging in a form of what could be interpreted as self-defeating resistance (Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001). I must caution I am weary of interpreting this instance as solely an act of self-defeating resistance because of the complexities found in this situation. For example, the power dynamics practiced in schools largely limit the options and agency students like Laura have to respond to low expectations other than doing well in classes amidst the hostile environment. She closed this section of the interview by sharing how she felt, cheated, once again—a very strong term and possibly a depiction of her feelings about the low expectations and limited support and encouragement she received while in high school—all of which led to her further withdrawing from school, mentally, emotionally, and at times, physically.

It is instances like the one shared by Laura that slowly begin to chip away at the academic identities of Latina/o students. Hence, it is extremely important to nurture the identities of Latina/o students in schools as worthy students who are smart and capable of having an accomplished life. When this is not the case, it has detrimental effects on the lives of students and their academic visions beyond high school. Melissa further illustrated this:

When I was in high school, before I got involved in the program [that encouraged me to pursue higher education], I didn’t really see myself going to college. I kind of thought it would be nice if I went, but it wasn’t something I was like planning to do, you know. I wanted to be a psychologist and I didn’t know what that entailed. Because before the program, when you look at, when you think of the college student, I wouldn’t think it was people like me.

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The cumulative impact of low expectations and a lack of encouragement are visible in Melissa’s account. She highlighted how she wanted to be a psychologist, which could be interpreted as having an active interest in going to college; yet, she did not see herself going to college. Occurrences like such merit further inquiry; why would a student who has defined career goals not see herself/himself going to college? The answer to this is visible in Melissa’s excerpt when she shares how she did not believe people like her could be college students. Melissa, a first generation immigrant and college student from El Salvador, did not see herself as a college student. This could be attributed to a myriad of reasons, all addressed in the literature. But for the purposes of this article, and keeping in mind the CRT lens and approach centered here, I am making the interpretation that this is a result of the racist systemic practices found in schools and by extension in the classrooms led by teachers. Hence, low expectations, lack of encouragement, and an absence in supporting the development of an academic identity in Latina/o students are vehicles through which institutional racism is enacted. Although given the requirements for this study, none of the participants were completely pushed-out of schooling even in the face of multiple barriers (damaged academic identities and disappointing schooling experiences); yet thousands of students are not fortunate enough to enjoy this privilege year after year.

The limited nurturing of Latina/o students in the classroom has been linked to the high push- out rates of these group in the literature. For example, a study done by Aviles, Guerrero, Howarth, and Thomas (1999) demonstrated how Chicano students did not dropout as commonly as referred to in the mainstream education literature; instead, they were facilitated out or pushed out. The study further confirmed this by sharing how a “combination of lowered teacher expectations and encouragement on the part of school personnel to opt out of mainstream education facilitated a steady exodus of Chicano/Latino students out of the school system” (Aviles et al.,1999, p. 469). This statement begins to explore how not only are the low teacher expectations harmful to the academic success of students, but also how other school stakeholders, such as counselors and administrators, also provided very little support and encouragement to their success. Other studies have also found “discrimination and racial microaggressions, apa- thetic and bad teachers, a bad school or negative school environment, irrelevant and boring coursework” (Luna & Revilla, 2013, p. 28) to be the cause of student disengagement and, ultimately, factors leading to the push out of Latina/o students much like that discussed in the counterstories found in this study. Hence, students like Melissa, Julian, Laura, and Cristina, and the millions of other Latina/o and Chicana/o students throughout the educational pipeline, have to constantly battle educational injustices filled with racism and oppression to survive schooling institutions, a victory some accomplish while others do not.

Conclusions and Implications The goal of this article was to explore how Latina/o graduate students reflect on their K–12 experiences and pathways to community college. It is only by understanding the students’ trajectory from high school to community college that practitioners are able to better serve the growing Latina/ o student population and improve the students’ educational experiences. Highlighting the student perspective, as was done in this study, challenges the majoritarian narrative alongside ideologies of meritocracy when considering postsecondary options for Latina/o students. The continuous rise in the enrollment of Latina/o students in K–12 and community colleges together with the high instances of racism, as illuminated by these students’ counterstories, makes for an even more challenging educational pipeline for Latina/o students to navigate.

The findings of racism in K–12 in the forms of tracking, limited college information, and low expectations from academic personnel presented in this article speak to the structural inequalities found in our education systems. Endemic racism is responsible for the limited postsecondary options afforded to Latina/o students and students of color when compared to their White counterparts. While scholars, educators, and policy makers continue to work on having an educational reform that provides an equitable education to students of color, community colleges can begin responding to this inequity by supporting the educational success of their large Latina/o student body. More

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specifically, community college faculty, staff, and administrators can learn from the less than favorable K–12 educational experiences many of their Latina/o students endured prior to their arrival at community college. Being aware of the detrimental academic and personal impact of institutional racism on Latina/o students can aid community colleges in having a more complex understanding of their students. Knowing the students’ prior educational experiences is critical when working with a population that is often times stereotyped as not fit for academic spaces, especially a postsecondary education. While it is clear that improving the retention and transfer rates of Latina/o students at community colleges should remain a priority, there are other areas that community colleges can simultaneously work on when considering the K–12 experiences of students.

K–12 schools and community colleges can help improve the pathways of K–12 to community college for Latina/o students by (a) ending tracking practices that constantly exclude and further marginalize students, (b) providing students college preparation and information, and (c) nurturing the academic identities of students. Noncollege tracked students find themselves with limited postsecondary educations albeit their college-going aspirations. The lack of available college-level courses directly impacts the future academic experiences and college-choice for these students. Currently, community colleges are witnessing a growing number of majority women and students of color being placed in developmental education courses in English, math, and reading (Crisp & Delgado, 2014; Crisp & Nora, 2010). While developmental education courses were created with the goal of helping students prepare and advance to college-level coursework, research has demonstrated this to be detrimental to the retention and success of students given the dismal passing rates (Fike & Fike, 2008). Crisp and Delgado’s (2014) findings demonstrate how being placed in a developmental track can “serve to decrease students’ odds of successfully transferring to a 4-year institution” (p. 112). Parallel to the noncollege tracks Latina/o students experience in high school, community colleges need to consider the negative academic outcomes and implications of placing these same Latina/o students in developmental tracks. Providing Latina/o students with quality, college-level educational tracks during high school and community college can enhance the graduation and degree attainment of this community.

Providing high school students appropriate college information and support on their postsecond- ary options beyond high school is imperative to their academic careers. To achieve this, schools need to account for the different levels of familiarity that Latina/o families and students have with the college application process, including standardized tests, financial aid applications, and the different postsecondary options from private, public, 2-year and 4-year institutions. Similarly, community colleges need to afford students the same level of academic counseling and guidance to achieve their degrees and/or transfer goals. Although there are college-outreach and student support programs that target historically marginalized communities as experienced by the participants in this study, we cannot solely rely on these programs. Instead, community colleges need to employ an institutional commitment to the success of their Latina/o students by ensuring students receive adequate information and preparation.

Because the academic identities of students such as Julian, Melissa, Laura, and Cristina have been damaged by years of racism in the form of lower expectations and a lack of encouragement, it is critical that high school educators and counselors implement practices that can nurture Latina/o students’ academic identities. In doing so, Latina/o students will be able to establish a valuable academic image that can continue to develop over the years. The nurturing of academic identities should continue for students when they enter community colleges. Incorporating pedagogical practices that hold students accountable to high expectations while also understanding their experi- ences as a marginalized group can strengthen the academic careers and future pathway of these students. Together, the strategies on college-tracking, college preparation and support, and nurturing academic identities can provide students with more equitable postsecondary opportunities and a more successful community college experience.

Centering the counterstories of Latina/o graduate students provides scholars, educators, and practitioners the opportunity to learn from their trajectory and experiences while being critical of

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majoritarian discourses. Although students of color have access to higher education via the pathway of community college, we have seen in the literature that access does not equate to successful degree attainment. Yet, in order to begin to chip away at institutional racism, we first need to hear these experiences through the voices of those situated at the margins. It is only after our society can acknowledge the impact of racism in education that we will be able to deconstruct the practices that support educational inequalities for Latina/o student and students of color in general.

Acknowledgement

My deepest gratitude to Cristina, Julian, Laura and Melissa. Thank you for helping transform the educational experiences of future generations of Latinas/os.

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