Modeling student success at a Hispanic -serving institution: A local approach

This study collected and examined qualitative student data pertinent to college student perspectives on barriers to success, the knowledge that students use, and the actions that they take to overcome barriers at a large urban Hispanic-serving public university in South Texas called Hill Country University (HCU) (pseudonym). Also examined were student recommendations for changes at HCU that may support student success at HCU, and student-anticipated problems with those changes. Student Success Modeling (Padilla, 2004) served as the framework for the study wherein dialogical student focus group members collaborated on the completion of qualitative surveys using the unfolding matrix as the data collection instrument. Concept modeling served as the method of data analysis. HCU personnel from the divisions of Student Affairs, Fiscal Affairs, and Academic Affairs responded to the author’s interpretation of the student data as a triangulation model assessment procedure and to ensure a robust interpretation of the student data. The data analyses resulted in the development of local student success models (LSSMs) for undergraduate Hispanic and non-Hispanic students at HCU that revealed the context of student success for each student group. An implementation model that is responsive to the data in the LSSMs was proposed as a means to help campus leaders align student programming and services at HCU with the barriers to student success that are encountered by its students