From “Big Gaps In Two Big Gap Studies” at Minding the Campus:
“Last week both the Chronicle of Higher Education (‘Reports Highlight Disparities in Graduation Rates Among White and Minority Students’) and Inside Higher Ed (‘Gaps Are Not Inevitable’) reported on two large studies by The Education Trust of the graduation rate gap between white and African-American students and between whites and Hispanics. Even aside from the fact that the Asian gap was apparently not studied, there is a Big Gap in both gap studies.
“Noting in its press release that ’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,” The Education Trust said their studies “dig beneath national college-graduation averages and examine disaggregated six-year graduation rates at hundreds of the nation’s public and private institutions.’ That deep digging produced evidence — hold your hat!—that minorities do better at some institutions than others.
We identify public and private four-year institutions that appear to serve their black and white students equally well—that is, where both groups graduate at similar rates. We also identify public and private institutions that have a lot of work to do to catch up: Their graduation rate gaps are among the largest in the country.
“Exactly why that is true is never explained — unless you regard quoting statements such as UNC-Greensboro Vice Provost Alan Boyette’s explanation that minority success “is part of our mission. We don’t just want to provide access, we want our students to succeed” as an explanation.
“Both studies, however, reflect the belief that the explanation lies with the institutions, not with the students.”
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