Reports Reveal Colleges with the Biggest, Smallest Gaps in Minority Graduation Rates in the U.S.

The Education Trust
Press Release

Contact info:
Lauren Stephens, 202.293.1217 x. 373
Publication date: August 9 2010

WASHINGTON (August 9, 2010) – Two reports released today by The Education Trust—“Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating African-American Students” and “Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating Hispanic Students”—dig beneath national college-graduation averages and examine disaggregated six-year graduation rates at hundreds of the nation’s public and private institutions.
Even though 57 percent of all students who enroll earn diplomas within six years, the graduation rates for different groups of students are vastly different. Nationally, 60 percent of whites but only 49 percent of Latinos and 40 percent of African Americans who start college hold bachelor’s degrees six years later.
“These averages mask important differences between institutions,” said Kati Haycock, president of The Education Trust. “Graduation rates at individual institutions tell a range of stories—some of smashing success—which should be studied deeply and replicated widely. Unfortunately, there are others of shocking irresponsibility. The lesson of all of these stories is: What colleges do for students of color powerfully impacts the futures of these young people and that of our nation.”
Using several years of data from College Results Online—a unique Web-based tool that allows the public to view college graduation rates by race, ethnicity, and gender for four-year institutions across the country—these reports highlight institutions that are doing well and expose those that are missing the mark on graduation equity, some of them by miles:
At Wayne State University in Detroit, for example, fewer than one in ten African Americans graduate within six years. For white students at Wayne State, the success rate is more than four times higher.
The success rate among Hispanic students attending City University of New York’s Brooklyn College is 34 percent, compared with a 53 percent graduation rate for white students.
These colleges are hardly alone.
At nearly two-thirds of the colleges and universities in the study, fewer than half the African-American students emerge with a degree.
And though the vast majority of Latino students in the study entrust their futures to public colleges and universities, more than 60 percent of the institutions they attend graduate fewer than half their Latino students in six years.
“We did uncover some large gaps in student success rates and low graduation rates for students of color. But it would be wrong to assume that these gaps are inevitable or immutable,” said Mamie Lynch, higher education research and policy analyst at The Education Trust and coauthor of the report. “For many of the ‘big gap’ schools, we can point to an institution working with a similar student body that graduates students of color at rates similar to those of white students.”
As examples of more successful colleges, Lynch points to such schools as these:
Old Dominion University in Virginia, where African Americans make up almost a quarter of the student population and have historically graduated at rates equal to white students. In 2008, 56 percent of African Americans at the university graduated in six years or less, exceeding the national average graduation rate for black students.
Florida International University (FIU), where nearly two-thirds of all students are Hispanic. Completion rates among Hispanic students at FIU have outpaced those among white students in each of the past seven years.
University of California, Riverside (UCR), which successfully graduates black, Latino, and white students. Because of its focus on data, strong leadership, and retention efforts carried out by each of the university’s colleges, the university can boast 63 percent and 67 percent graduation rates for Latino and African-American students, respectively. The success rate for white students at UCR is 62 percent.
The new reports demonstrate that similarities between schools do not necessarily result in similarities in minority graduation rates. At peer institutions—schools with comparable institutional and student characteristics—the gaps for minority student groups run the gamut from abysmal to exemplary.
At the University of Illinois at Chicago, a 22 percentage-point gap in success rates separates white and African-American students, who graduate at 52 percent and 30 percent, respectively. But at a peer institution, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, the graduation rates among black students are dramatically different. On average, 56 percent of African-American students at UNC-Greensboro graduate within six years, compared with 51 percent of white students. UNC-Greensboro Vice Provost Alan Boyette attributes the university’s equitable graduation rates to three guiding principles: (1) Student success is a part of the school’s mission, (2) the cost-effectiveness of helping students graduate rather than recruiting new students, and (3) the University of North Carolina’s systemwide focus on student retention and graduation goals.
The programs tied to UNC-Greensboro’s goals are available to all students, but many are targeted at minority and underserved populations. The programs aren’t there as showpieces. To the contrary, the university provost relies heavily on data to determine the success or failure of the programs. Those that don’t work are discontinued, and those that do are expanded.
“Higher education institutions that place success at the heart of their mission make it a realistic goal for every student,” said Jennifer Engle, assistant director of higher education at The Education Trust and coauthor of the report. “For both moral and economic reasons, colleges need to ensure that their institutions work better for all of the students they serve.”
For more information about American public colleges and universities making the biggest gains in closing gaps that separate students, read two other Ed Trust briefs, “Top Gainers and Top Gap Closers.”
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Some Public Colleges and Universities Are Making Gains, Closing Gaps in Graduation Rates for Minority Students

The Education Trust
News Release
Contact info:
Lauren Stephens 202/293-1217 x373

Data from College Results Online Show Progress at Various Institutions Throughout the United States

WASHINGTON (January 28, 2010) – When choosing a college, many young people often make their decision based on popularity and prestige. What they may not consider is the school’s track record in actually graduating students.
For students of color, this issue is particularly important: Nationally, only about 40 percent of underrepresented minority, or URM, students (African American, Latino, and Native American) earn a bachelor’s degree within six years. The figure for nonminority students is more than 60 percent. But according to two briefs released today by The Education Trust, many institutions of varying types are ensuring that far more young Americans of color earn a degree.
“Top Gainers” and “Top Gap Closers” highlight public institutions nationwide that have made the biggest improvements in these areas. For example, since 2002:
Georgia State University—a research university in downtown Atlanta—boosted its minority graduation rate by 18.4 percentage points. In 2002, only 32.3 percent of minority students graduated in six years. By 2007, that rate had increased to 50.7 percent—which exceeds the school’s non-minority graduation rate of 45.5 percent. The university ranks fifth nationwide in the number of bachelor’s degrees granted to African-American students, according to Diverse magazine.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, a school with a relatively small population of minority students, improved its URM graduation rate by 11.5 percentage points to 60.4 percent. At the same time, their gap between non-URM and URM students narrowed by 8.9 points. In 2007, Wisconsin’s minority students graduated at almost 20 percentage points above the national average.
The URM graduation rate at rural Western Oregon University jumped from 17.5 percent in 2002 to 42.3 percent in 2007. Now, the gap between minority graduation rates and nonminority graduation rates at this public liberal arts college is just 3.1 percentage points.
Richard Stockton College of New Jersey—a suburban campus located near Atlantic City—increased its URM graduation rate by 7.5 percentage points, improving to 58.5 percent in 2007.
“Nationwide, two-thirds of minority students who attend a four-year college attend a public institution,” said Christina Theokas, director of research at The Education Trust and coauthor of the briefs. “Given their mission to serve the higher education needs of their communities and their states, it’s critical for public institutions to not just provide access to these students but also help more of them succeed. The good news is that some are taking that charge seriously.”
Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and College Results Online—a unique Web-based tool that allows the public to view college graduation rates by race, ethnicity, and gender—the studies found that about 60 percent of public four-year colleges have seen improved graduation rates for students of color since 2002. At the same time, 46 percent of these institutions narrowed the graduation-rate gap between minority and nonminority students. The significant gains made by these schools in boosting minority student success and closing gaps are not just happenstance. The public colleges and universities recognized in these briefs have made success for all students—especially minorities—a primary focus.
At Georgia State, for example, minority students now graduate at rates higher than their nonminority classmates, putting them atop the list of best improvers in each of the two Ed Trust briefs. According to Ron Henry, the school’s former provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, these gains came first and foremost by focusing on data. Henry and his colleagues used data to identify various potholes on the path to a bachelor’s degree for GSU students, from high failure rates in introductory courses to high dropout rates between the sophomore and junior years, when students transition into courses for their majors.
Although GSU took a campuswide approach to improving outcomes for all students, when administrators disaggregated the data, they found that some programs were particularly effective for minority students. For example, first-year learning communities—where faculty members coordinate teaching two or more courses and often serve as advisers to the same group of students—were instrumental in improving retention rates between the freshman and sophomore years by five to six percentage points for all students. But for minority students, these rates rose by ten to 12 percentage points.
“Georgia State’s example demonstrates that public institutions can strive for access and success simultaneously. Institutions should see these as twin goals, not an either-or proposition,” said Jennifer Engle, assistant director of higher education at The Education Trust and coauthor of the briefs. “To reach President Obama’s goal of regaining the global lead in educated adults by 2020, graduating more students—especially from fast-growing minority groups—must be a national priority.”
This work was supported by a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education. The foundation works to ensure that 60 percent of Americans are college-educated by 2025.

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About College Results Online
College Results Online (http://www.collegeresults.org/) is an interactive tool designed to provide information about graduation rates for most four-year colleges and universities. It allows users to:• Examine graduation rates and see how these rates have changed over time.• Compare graduation rates of similar colleges serving similar students.• Learn about colleges’ track records in graduating diverse groups of students.Some colleges do a much better job of graduating students than others. At many colleges, signifi cant gaps exist in graduation rates between white students and students of color. But some colleges are proving that low graduation rates—especially for minority students—are not inevitable.
Access to Success,
College Results Online,
Higher Education

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