“Trickle-down” reform: Hispanics, higher education, and the excellence movement

The current excellence-in-education movement has dealt a heavy blow to the advancement of Hispanics seeking degrees in higher education. Attempting to reform education while ignoring the concerns of minorities who traditionally have not fared well in schools strongly suggests that reformers expect the benefits of reform to “trickle down” to minorities after first benefiting mainstream students. The result is that reform measures such as the raising of college admission standards, the restructuring of financial aid, curriculum changes, and competency tests for teachers have added additional hurdles for Hispanic students, placing greater restrictions on their access to higher education. Reconceptualizing the definition ofexcellence to include not only higher standards, but educational equity, is a demographic imperative as the nation moves to a “minority majority.”