Who Gets In? Determining Equitable Admissions Criteria for Students from Migrant Backgrounds

Silas Schaeffer, Graduate Research Assistant, University of Kansas

Problem

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).

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.

Impact on Student Success

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.

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 statistically significantly higher ACT scores than students from Asian backgrounds (M = 14.94, SD = 4.12), t(89) = -6.10, p < .001. No significant difference between Latinx students (M = 3.23, SD = .72) and Asian students (M = 3.22, SD = .45) was found in high school GPA, t(140) = -0.09, p = .93.

A logistic regression was performed to investigate the effects of gender, ethnicity, GPA, and ACT scores on the likelihood that students completed their first year in higher education. The logistic regression model was not statistically significant, χ 2 (4, N = 89) = 6.67, p = .16. While it was not statistically significant it still accounted for 16% (Nagelkerke R2) of the variance in completion of the first year in higher education and correctly classified 91% of cases. While no variables were statistically significant, high school GPA was approaching significance, Wald χ 2 (1, N = 89) = 3.49, p = .06, as seen in Table 1. For a one unit increase in GPA, the odds of completing the first year of college increased by 6.88%.

Implications for the Future

The results of our study indicated that admitted students from Latinx backgrounds scored higher on the ACT than admitted students from Southeast Asian backgrounds, but that both groups had similar high school GPAs. Further research is needed to ascertain the specific cause of this difference, but it could be explained by the high percentage of students from Southeast Asian backgrounds who are refugees (Museus, 2013; Uy, Kim, & Khuon, 2019). The lower ACT scores could then result from not possessing the necessary forms of capital to navigate the U.S. standardized testing system (Duong et al., 2016; Salinas & Reyes, 2004).

High school GPA and ACT scores are traditionally two of the most heavily considered variables in the college admissions process. The results of our study suggest that GPA is a better criterion for college administrators working with migrant students from both Southeast Asian and Latinx backgrounds than are ACT scores. While there was a significant difference in Latinx and Southeast Asian students’ ACT scores, their high school GPAs and first-year college completion rates were similar. The admissions criteria used could greatly affect students from migrant backgrounds in their ability to be admitted to college, accepted to programs such as CAMP, or be eligible for merit-based scholarships. Administrators are often asked to make these difficult decisions largely based on a student’s high school achievement. With this in mind, we recommend that GPA is a more equitable admissions criteria than ACT scores for students from Latinx and Southeast Asian backgrounds.

References

Araujo, B. (2011, 2011/07/01). The college assistance migrant program: A valuable resource for migrant farmworker students. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 10(3), 252-265. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192711406282

Cranston-Gingras, A., Morse, W., & McHatton, P. (2004). First-year college experiences of students from migrant farmworker families. Journal of the First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, 16(1), 9-25.

Duong, M. T., Badaly, D., Liu, F. F., Schwartz, D., & McCarty, C. A. (2016). Generational differences in academic achievement among immigrant youths: A meta-analytic review. Review of Educational research, 86(1), 3-41.

Green, P. E. (2003). The undocumented: Educating the children of migrant workers in america. Bilingual Research Journal, 27(1), 51-71.

Hernandez, T., & Gabbard, S. (2018). Findings from the national agricultural workers survey (naws) 2015-2016: A demographic and employment profile of united states farmworkers.

Mendez, J. J., & Bauman, S. (2018). From migrant farmworkers to first generation latina/o students: Factors predicting college outcomes for students participating in the college assistance migrant program. The Review of Higher Education, 42(1), 173-208.

Museus, S. D. (2013). Unpacking the complex and multifaceted nature of parental influences on southeast asian american college students’ educational trajectories. The Journal of Higher Education, 84(5), 708-738.

Ramirez, A. D. (2010). The impact of the college assistance migrant program on migrant student achievement in the california state university system. ERIC.

Salinas, C., & Reyes, R. (2004). Graduation enhancement and postsecondary opportunities for migrant students: Issues and approaches.

Smith, S. M. (2017). How safe are the workers who process our food? Monthly Labor Review U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Uy, P. S., Kim, S. J., & Khuon, C. (2019). College and career readiness of southeast asian american college students in new england. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 20(4), 414-436.

CONTACT

Silas Schaeffer: silas.schaeffer@houghton.edu