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February 12 Black Student College Graduation Rates Inch Higher But a Large Racial Gap PersistsRead for your the alarming state of affairs for HBCU students, especially our Alma Mater: Black Student College Graduation Rates Inch Higher But a Large Racial Gap Persists Nationwide, the black student college graduation rate remains at a dismally low 43 percent. But the college completion rate has improved by four percentage points over the past three years. As ever, the black-white gap in college graduation rates remains very large and little or no progress has been achieved in bridging the divide. (The full text of this article is published in the Winter 2006/2007 issue of The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.) Throughout the nation, black enrollments in higher education have reached an all-time high. But a more important statistical measure of the performance of blacks in higher education is that of how many black students are completing school and earning a college degree. The economic gains that come from a college degree are transparently obvious. Department of Education data shows that, as expected, black students who earn a four-year college degree have incomes that are substantially higher than blacks who have only some college experience but have not earned a degree. Most important, in view of the huge penalty race discrimination has imposed on African Americans in the United States, is the fact that blacks who complete a four-year college education have a median income that is now near parity with similarly educated whites. But the good news is severely tempered by the unacceptably low college completion rate of black students. According to the most recent statistics, the nationwide college graduation rate for black students stands at an appallingly low rate of 43 percent.* This figure is 20 percentage points below the 63 percentage rate for white students. On this front, the only positive news is that over the past three years the black student graduation rate has improved by four percentage points... Graduation Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities We come now to a most disappointing set of statistics. The graduation rate of African-American students at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) tends to be much lower than the graduation rate for black students at the nation’s highest-ranked institutions. Yet the graduation rate at a significant number of HBCUs is well above the nationwide average for black student graduations, which, as stated earlier, currently stands at an extremely low rate of 43 percent. By a large margin, the highest black student graduation rate at a historically black college belongs to the academically selective, all-women Spelman College in the city of Atlanta. In fact, the Spelman black student graduation rate of 77 percent is higher than the black student graduation rate at 12 of the nation’s 56 high-ranking predominantly white colleges and universities referred to earlier. Spelman’s unusual strength shows in the fact that it has a higher black student graduation rate than do such prestigious and primarily white colleges as Bates, Colby, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Claremont McKenna, Chapel Hill, and Carnegie Mellon. Following Spelman in the rankings, the next-highest black student graduation rate among the HBCUs was at Fisk University. At Fisk, 63 percent of the entering black students go on to graduate within six years. Claflin University also has a black student graduation rate of 63 percent. Hampton University, Miles College, Howard University, Morehouse College, and Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina sadly are the only other HBCUs that graduate at least half of their black students within six years. Here is the worst news of all: At 20 HBCUs two thirds or more of all entering black students do not go on to earn a diploma. The lowest graduation rate was at the University of the District of Columbia, where only 8 percent of entering freshmen go on to earn a bachelor’s degree. At Texas Southern University in Houston, 15 percent of entering students complete college. The low graduation rates at black colleges are due to a number of reasons. Many of the students enrolled at these institutions are from low-income families, often ones in which there are few books in the home and where neither parent nor grandparent went to college. In addition, the black colleges on the whole have very small and totally inadequate endowments. They often lack the resources necessary to generate funds for student financial aid. Often they are unable to furnish sufficient aid packages for upperclassmen to permit them to stay in school. This circumstance appears to be a major factor in accounting for the low black student graduation rate at these schools. But probably the most important explanation for the high dropout rate at the black colleges is the fact that large numbers of African-American HBCU students do not come to college with strong academic preparation and study habits. The graduation results at the HBCUs are worsened by the fact that flagship universities in the southern states often tend to shuttle the lowest-performing black applicants into the state-controlled black colleges in their states. The discussion comments ranged greatly; however, most believe that ranking is determined by admission practices. Schools with a liberal admission practice tend to rank lower. On the other hand, schools ranking high practice a more restrictive admission program. To read the entire article, please log on at http://www.jbhe.com/preview/winter07preview.html. The situation calls for more action from alumni. What will be your next step? Peace, Sandi B., HUAA President |
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