Transformative Practices for Minority Student Success

Between 2000 and 2015 the Asian American Pacific Islander population grew from nearly 12 million to over 20 million--at 72% percent recording the fastest growth rate of any major ethnic and racial group in the US.

This book, the first to focus wholly on Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Institutions (AANAPISIs) and their students, offers a corrective to misconceptions about these populations and documents student services and leadership programs, innovative pedagogies, models of community engagement, and collaborations across academic and student affairs that have transformed student outcomes.

The contributors stress the importance of disaggregating this population that is composed of over 40 ethnic groups that vary in immigrant histories, languages, religion, educational attainment levels, and socioeconomic status.

This book recognizes there is a large population of underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander college students who,  given their educational disparities, are in severe need of attention. The contributors describe effective practices that enable instructors to validate the array of students’ specific backgrounds and circumstances within the contexts of developing such skills as writing, leadership and cross-cultural communication for their class cohorts as a whole. They demonstrate that paying attention to the diversity of student experiences in the teaching environment enriches the learning for all. The timeliness of this volume is important because of the keen interest across the nation for creating equitable environments for our increasingly diverse students.

This book serves as an important resource for predominantly white institutions who are admitting greater numbers of API and other underrepresented students. It also offers models for other minority serving institutions who face similar complexities of multiple national or ethnic groups within their populations, provides ideas and inspiration for the AANAPISI community, and guidance for institutions considering applying for AANAPISI status and funding. This book is for higher education administrators, faculty, researchers, student affairs practitioners, who can learn from AANAPISIs how to successfully engage and teach students with widely differing cultural backgrounds and educational circumstances.

Dina C. Maramba is an associate professor of higher education at Claremont Graduate University’s School of Educational Studies. She was previously an assistant and associate professor of student affairs administration and affiliate faculty of Asian and Asian American studies at the State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton.

Maramba’s research interests include access and success of underserved college student populations; Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders and Filipina/o Americans in higher education; equity, diversity, and social justice issues in higher education; the impact of college environments on students; and minority serving institutions. Her teaching areas have included foundations of student affairs in higher education, university diversity, access and retention in higher education, and Asian Pacific Americans in higher education.

Maramba has worked more than 10 years as a practitioner and administrator in programs designed to increase the number of underrepresented students in higher education. Previously, she served as director of the Student Support Services TRIO program at the University of California, San Diego; as a resident director at both Colorado State University and the University of California, Santa Barbara; and as a coordinator of Upward Bound at Colorado State University.

Timothy P. Fong is Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University, Sacramento. His research specialty areas include comparative race and ethnic relations, contemporary immigration, politics and public policy, community studies, higher education equity and student engagement, and qualitative methodology (ethnography and oral history).

Dr. Fong is also the Project Director and Principal Investigator for the Full Circle Project (FCP) a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. FCP is a comprehensive approach to implement a strategically focused, campus-wide effort to improve retention and graduation rates of underrepresented Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students. FCP aims to assist AAPI students throughout his or her entire college careers, and provide ample opportunities to engage in service both on and off campus to enhance their university experience.

Robert T. Teranishi is Associate Professor of Higher Education at New York University, co-director for the Institute for Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings, and a faculty affiliate with The Steinhardt Institute for Higher Education Policy. Teranishi's research is broadly focused on race, ethnicity, and the stratification of college opportunity. He has provided congressional testimony regarding the Higher Education Reauthorization Act and No Child Left Behind, informed state policy decisions related to selective college admissions, and his research has been solicited to inform U.S. Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and school desegregation. Teranishi was recently appointed by Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan to the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Commission, and was named one of the nation's top "up-and-coming" leaders by Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Teranishi is also the recipient of the Daniel E. Griffiths Research Award and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award from NYU. His work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Kresge Foundation, Walmart Foundation, WT Grant, USA Funds, ETS, and the College Board. Prior to his position at New York University, Teranishi was a National Institute for Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s W.E.B. Du Bois Research Institute. He received his B.A. from the University of California Santa Cruz in Sociology and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles in Higher Education and Organizational Change.