Unpacking the Layers: Financial Aid and Latino High School Students’ Postsecondary Plans

• In Event: 70.036 - Higher Education Access and Choice for Latino Students: Critical Findings and Theoretical Perspectives

Abstract

The decreased availability and access to information about financial aid is alarming, particularly because Latinos place a high value on pursuing a postsecondary education (Zarate & Fabienke, 2007). The early dissemination of financial aid information, especially in their early secondary years, is important in directing students’ educational trajectory towards higher education. Studies have documented the positive correlation between early financial aid awareness and postsecondary participation (De La Rosa, 2006).
This paper seeks to expand the existing literature on the role of financial aid knowledge on postsecondary attitudes and participation rates for Latino students. Perna (2006) introduces a multicontextual model for understanding the cost of a postsecondary education and student postsecondary participation. Perna argues that four interrelated layers shape student attitudes and perceptions: the student’s habitus, the school and community context, the higher education context, and the state, economic and policy context. Using this model as a guiding framework, this paper will critically synthesize previous financial aid literature on Latinos and provide an overview of how financial aid accessibility and postsecondary enrollment are moderated by the multiple layers of Perna’s model.
In addition to the literature synthesis, this chapter will also descriptively and empirically examine the relationship between the availability of financial aid information and postsecondary attitudes among Latino students. Using the NCES 2009 High School Longitudinal Survey (HSLS:2009) which surveyed a nationally representative sample of high school students in the 9th and 11th grades, this study will focus on Latino students’ perceptions of financing a postsecondary education and how they are mediated by the access to sources of information of financing a college education. In addition to students, the HSLS:09 also surveyed students’ academic counselors, teachers and parents, which will be included in the estimation approach to account for some of the multicontextual layers of Perna’s model.
Preliminary significant findings through a descriptive analysis of HSLS:09 indicate a larger share of the Latinos surveyed (69.44%) reported that finances were very important in determining whether or not they pursued a postsecondary education when compared to White and Asian students, 63.25% and 64.69%, respectively. While finances can be perceived as being a potential barrier for pursuing a postsecondary education for Latino students in the sample, they also reported the largest perceived return on the investment of obtaining a four-year degree. When asked what they thought they expect are the earnings for someone with a 4-year degree, Latino students’ average reported an expected salary of $50,565, was greater than that of White and Black students, $49,715 and $48,330, respectively.
Evidence from this study provides added support to the price sensitivity of Latino high school students thinking about pursuing higher education. The end of rising college costs does not appear to be near, therefore making it imperative that Latino students are aware and taking advantage of the available financial assistance for college. The responsibility for being educated consumers of federal financial aid should not fall on students and their families alone, but rather, as Perna’s model and this study demonstrate, is the byproduct of multiple agents of change.

Authors

• José Muñoz, University of Missouri

• Blanca E. Rincon, University of Connecticut - Storrs