Understanding the Impact of Academic Entry Characteristics, Remediation Requirements, and Semester Course Hour Load in the First Year on the Academic Performance and Persistence to Graduation for Latino Students

College access and student success, defined as timely college graduation, remains a key goal for many Texas policymakers (Braxton, Doyle, Hartley, Hirschy, Jones, & McLendon, 2014; Closing the Gaps, 2013). Texas ranks second only to California to its population of Latinos (Vega & Martinez, 2012); how Latinos persist to college graduation in Texas is representative of the Latino undergraduate experience nationwide, including potential issues and challenges. Further, how institutions of higher education address Latino student needs and assist in paving their pathway through college helps establish best practices for the entire nation. As institutions of higher education remain one of the primary vehicles for overcoming social and economic inequalities in the United States (Carey, 2004; Vega & Martinez, 2012), high quality experiences and educational accessibility (as well as affordability) at public universities is essential for Latinos to achieve economic growth and social mobility. The purpose of this study is to advance the understanding of undergraduate Latino student persistence by analyzing a variety of pre-college variables, as well as college attendance behaviors and academic achievement from a research university located in Southeast Texas, which will be known as Central South University. This study will follow the Latino population of the entering class of first-time in college freshmen to Central South University for fall 2003 and track them until summer 2009. Academic entry characteristics, along with remediation requirements, and semester credit hour load will be utilized to ascertain effect on institutional first-year grade point average (GPA) as well as likelihood of persistence to graduation for Latino students. The following research questions will be addressed: 1. Among Latino students, how do academic entry characteristics such as SAT score, high school GPA, and high school class rank, along with remediation requirements (mathematics, reading, and/or writing) and semester credit hour ...