Thanks to a Gates Foundation grant, researchers at Fresno State and two other institutions will study how test-optional policies impact undocumented students’ access to higher education.
In the wake of COVID-19, four-year institutions nationwide rapidly implemented temporary test-optional policies to accommodate applicants unable to take the SAT or ACT. Shortly after, several institutions decided to end or extend the temporary test-optional policies, while others made them permanent in hopes of increasing access for marginalized students.
Although close to 98,000 undocumented students graduate from high schools across the United States each year, only 5% to 10% enroll in higher education and far fewer complete a college degree. Overwhelming literature reveals that this is due to the financial and institutional barriers undocumented students encounter, which include college entrance exams such as the SAT and ACT.
Research shows that institutional agents — admissions officers, educational leaders and high school counselors — across K-20 systems play a critical role in undocumented students’ educational trajectories, in both positive and negative ways.
Co-principal investigators of the grant — Dr. Luis Fernando Macías, associate professor, Fresno State; Dr. Liliana E. Castrellón, assistant professor, Duquesne University; and Darsella Vigil, senior research analyst, American Council on Education — will explore how these policies are implemented and impact undocumented student access.
“This research is both timely and responsive to public calls for reimagining equitable practices in higher education,” Macías said. “In addition to informing admissions practices and policies, our work has the potential to examine other long-held assumptions about standardized assessment that have impacted marginalized communities like undocumented students.”
The principal investigators, along with graduate research consultants Citlalli Rendón Guzmán (alumna, Fresno State), and Mara A. González (alumna, University of Denver), will undertake a qualitative research project that examines the implementation of such policies and how practices among institutional agents, across secondary and post-secondary institutions, have changed to support, recruit and enroll undocumented students.
Partnering with well-established, local non-profit organizations across three under-researched states — California, Colorado and North Carolina — the study will focus on institutional agents in admissions offices, enrollment management, K-12 educational leaders and counselors in large school districts and undocumented students admitted and enrolled at 4-year highly selective institutions.
This study will be used to inform best practices to support undocumented students in the college selection process and for recruitment and enrollment at highly selective institutions. The research team will produce a report articulating findings, providing institutional agents information on how to serve undocumented students and participate in conference presentations as well as peer-reviewed journal article publications.
“This cross-institution project will help those of us in higher education design more inclusive and just practices that better serve undocumented students by helping us understand the variation in practices, policies and contexts in critically important ways,” said Dr. Elizabeth Lowham, dean of the College of Social Sciences.
