Dozens of schools will qualify for “Hispanic-serving institution” (HSI) status in the coming years, but those colleges and universities must adapt their practices and policies to better serve Latino students, according to a report to be released Monday by the educational nonprofit organization Excelencia in Education.

 In the report, Excelencia highlighted 176 “emerging” HSIs in 20 states that had Hispanic undergraduate full-time enrollment between 12 and 24 percent in the 2006-07 school year. The report, which includes survey responses and contributions from many institutions, demonstrates that, for states and academic entities, enrolling and graduating Hispanic students is a priority.

 “I truly believe that HSIs have an extraordinary opportunity to lead,” said Dr. Margarita Benitez, director of higher education at the Washington-based think tank Education Trust during a briefing on Capitol Hill. “You don’t have to wait to reach 25 percent to ask yourself what you can do for Hispanic students.”

 HSIs, which are eligible to compete for Title V federal funds, are defined as academic institutions that have 25 percent or more Hispanic enrollment. The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) lists 225 institutions as HSIs.  

 Deborah Santiago, vice president of policy and research at Excelencia and co-author of the report, said the HSI designation is  growing. The highest concentration of emerging schools were located in densely-populated states like California and Texas, but an unanticipated number of them appeared in Kansas, Indiana, Arkansas, Oregon and Utah.

 Nearly 44 percent of emerging HSIs are community colleges, and private colleges occupied a significant share at 36 percent. Public four-year institutions lagged behind, representing just a fifth of all emerging HSIs.

 But the HSI label has its critics. Government criteria do not hold schools accountable on Hispanic retention or graduation completion, and, as a result, the critical mass theory that contends that institutions change to accommodate the emerging quarter of their population doesn’t seem to hold true, Hispanic education advocates argue.