Latino Engagement: Investigating the Effects of High Impact Practices Participation on Students' College Outcomes

Latino students are a growing minority in higher education in the United States, but they still lag behind their peers to have a successful college experience (Hussar et al., 2020; Schack et al., 2019). On the other hand, research has indicated that participation in purposeful educational activities such as so-called High Impact Practices (HIPs) is an effective way to foster college success (Kuh, 2003; Kuh, Schneider, et al., 2008). Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate how participation in high-impact practices influences student engagement, satisfaction, perceived learning gains, and self-reported GPA in college for Latino students. Also, this research examined how participation in high-impact practices might lead to different outcomes for first-year students compared to students from other races/ ethnicities. This study used data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and structural equation model to estimate a model that explains the impact of HIP participation on Latino students. Results so far show that HIPs increase Latino students' satisfaction with college and their perceived learning gains, HIPs are related to students reporting higher GPAs. Therefore, HIPs participation appears to be a meaningful way to improve Latino students’ experience in college.