Hispanic Community College Students and the Transfer Game: Strikes, Misses, and Grand Slam Experiences

Abstract

Like baseball, community colleges are an American invention. This article employs a baseball metaphor to analyze and to explain success of Latino students in the Los Angeles Community College District. Specifically, a sample of 5,000 students were participants in the Transfer Game, where progress was measured by passing the courses specified by California's transfer readiness curriculum (IGETC). Transcript analysis was used to ascertain the proportion of Hispanic and non-Hispanic students passing IGETC modules. Among Hispanic students, differences in success patterns were found by ethnicity and gender but not by age or native language. After an average of over 6 semesters, a little less than 1/3 of all the Hispanic community college students had reached any of the transfer-ready bases, as defined by the passing of IGETC modules, and only 8.9% were transfer ready. Despite lower than optimal findings, this research celebrates those students who defied the odds and transferred to a 4-year university. The article is dedicated to these Grand Slammers.