Approximately 20 percent of all U.S. postsecondary institutions are eligible to apply for a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) grant, with over a 90 percent increase since 2010. Despite extensive descriptive and qualitative research on Latine-serving institutions (HSIs), fewer quantitative studies have examined how an institution receiving a Higher Education Act Title V Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions (DHSI) grant affects college outcomes. Using an institution-year panel data set spanning 2004–2020, I analyze the effect of institutions receiving DHSI grants on Latine credential attainment. I find that grant receipt increases Latine bachelor’s degree completion in public and private four-year colleges by nine percent and nearly 30 percent respectively and associate degrees by almost 25 percent using recent innovations to the quasi-experimental difference-in-differences research design. This effect is not due to an increase in Latine enrollment. Additional analyses provide evidence that colleges receiving a DHSI grant contributed to the expansion of Latine college attainment.
William Casey Boland (2026) studied this question.