Who Gets In? Determining Equitable Admissions Criteria for Students from Migrant Backgrounds Silas Schaeffer , Graduate Research Assistant, University of Kansas
Problem
Impact on Student Success
Migrant workers are essential to the United States’ economy. They work important jobs such as planting and harvesting crops and processing and packing meat. These workers put food on the table for millions of Americans by engaging in work that is physically exhausting and sometimes dangerous. Despite the importance of migrant and seasonal farmworkers (MSFWs), many live under the poverty line, with few opportunities for economic mobility (Hernandez & Gabbard, 2018).
While it would be ideal for all students from migrant families to participate in CAMP, limited federal resources make that unfeasible. The limitation of funds means that students are accepted to CAMP on a competitive basis, requiring administrators to use criteria such as high school GPA, ACT scores, and entrance essays to decide which students will be accepted.
The difficulties of MSFWs do not end with the workers themselves but extend to their children as well. Students from migrant, seasonal, and farmwork families have lower secondary and postsecondary outcomes (Green, 2003; Salinas & Reyes, 2004). Like any vulnerable population, they face a series of unique challenges and thus deserve the chance to obtain the necessary support and resources to help them succeed (Cranston-Gingras, Morse, & McHatton, 2004). Programs, such as the federal College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), provide support to these students through resources which includes scholarships, academic counseling, tutoring, and social gatherings (Araujo, 2011; Ramirez, 2010). CAMP provides targeted supports and services to help these students transition into college. CAMP is a 5-year federally funded college access program that helps high school students from migrant farm work backgrounds transition to college through help with college and scholarship applications and assistance with FAFSA completion. CAMP also supports students through their first year of post-secondary education by providing advising, tutoring, freshman success courses, and social events to foster a sense of belonging among students. The CAMP program described in this study served 35 students each year across four institutions: two 2-year community colleges and two 4-year institutions. There are about 40 CAMP projects in the United States. Most CAMPs partner with one Institute of Higher Education (IHE) and work exclusively with students that have been admitted to and are currently enrolled in classes at that IHE. However, there are some CAMPs, particularly those in the Midwest, that work with students from several different IHE’s simultaneously. The reason for this is due to the low population density and widespread location of midwestern migrant and seasonal workers. Most CAMP students come from Latinx backgrounds and their parents are seasonal farm laborers. The demographics of Midwestern CAMP students are different; there is an almost even proportion of students from Latinx and Southeast Asian backgrounds (e.g., Thai, Khmer, Laotian, Hmong, Vietnamese). The students’ parents are often involved in the meat packing industry, rather than working as farm laborers. The meatpacking industry remains a dangerous industry, including hazards of physical exertion and exposure to dangerous chemicals (Smith, 2017). These challenges facing the families of migrant students significantly impact their children’s academic success.
One of the challenges facing admissions administrators of any program is to establish fair and equitable criteria that also accurately predict the success of the students. Our study examined High School GPA and ACT scores to see if they significantly predicted the first-year completion of students from migrant backgrounds. After determining if the two variables were predictive of firstyear completion, we investigated if students from Latinx and Southeast Asian backgrounds differed in their High School GPA or ACT scores. While deciding which students will be admitted is never an easy process, many CAMP administrators select from an almost entirely Latinx population, making it more manageable for them to compare students’ GPA and ACT scores. Midwestern CAMP administrators have the additional complication of having an almost even number of Latinx and Southeast Asian students. There is some research on the academic factors that predict the success of Latinx students in CAMP programs (Mendez & Bauman, 2018; Ramirez, 2010). However, the same cannot be said about migrant students from Southeast Asian backgrounds. This study fills a void of literature predicting the first-year completion of students from Southeast Asian backgrounds and also is unique in providing a comparison in the achievement of migrant students from Latinx and Southeast Asian backgrounds.
The Study Our research investigated data from 163 undergraduate CAMP students attending midwestern colleges or universities. All students accepted to the target CAMP program submitted their high school transcript, demographic information (gender and ethnicity), and financial information as part of the application process. This information was entered into SPSS and used to conduct the following statistical analyses: 1. We conducted two t-tests to see if Latinx and Southeast Asian students differed on high school GPA or composite ACT scores. 2. We then conducted a logistic regression to examine the effects of gender, ethnicity, GPA, and ACT scores on students’ firstyear completion.
Findings An independent samples t-test was conducted to see if there was a difference in ACT scores and high school GPAs among students from Latinx and Southeast Asian backgrounds. Admitted students from Latinx backgrounds (M = 20.72, SD = 4.96) had
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