The Magic Key

"An outstanding scholarly accomplishment ... [that] deserves a wide readership and promises to have major policy impacts." -- Jorge Chapa, Professor, Institute of Government and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign "A rare multidimensional and multi-data-source exploration into Mexican American student success... The book brings together some of the best thinkers in higher education." -- Adrianna Kezar, Professor, University of Southern California Rossier School of Education and Codirector, Pullias Center for Higher Education "We are left with a sense of hope ... that the prized llave majica can certainly be placed within the reach of every Latina/o student." -- Laura Rendon, Professor, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Texas at San Antonio

This much-needed volume provides a comprehensive empirical study of the school experiences of Mexican Americans and those who help them succeed.

Mexican Americans comprise the largest subgroup of Latina/os, and their path to education can be a difficult one. Yet just as this group is often marginalized, so are their stories, and relatively few studies have chronicled the educational trajectory of Mexican American men and women. In this interdisciplinary collection, editors Zambrana and Hurtado have brought together research studies that reveal new ways to understand how and why members of this subgroup have succeeded and how the facilitators of success in higher education have changed or remained the same.

The Magic Key’s four sections explain the context of Mexican American higher education issues, provide conceptual understandings, explore contemporary college experiences, and offer implications for educational policy and future practices. Using historical and contemporary data as well as new conceptual apparatuses, the authors in this collection create a comparative, nuanced approach that brings Mexican Americans’ lived experiences into the dominant discourse of social science and education. This diverse set of studies presents both quantitative and qualitative data by gender to examine trends of generations of Mexican American college students, provides information on perceptions of welcoming university climates, and proffers insights on emergent issues in the field of higher education for this population. Professors and students across disciplines will find this volume indispensable for its insights on the Mexican American educational experience, both past and present.