Graduation rates have been steadily improving at universities for about a decade now.
But a report released today by the Education Trust shows that at some public institutions, the gap in graduation rates between minority students and white students is actually growing. The Education Trust is an advocacy group for low-income and minority students.
At 26 institutions, the researchers found, the completion rate increased more for minority students than for white students from 2003 to 2013, resulting in a narrowing of the racial gap. At 17 colleges, by contrast, graduation rates for students of color declined and gaps between white students and minorities on their campuses grew. The Education Trust focused its analysis on 328 public institutions where overall graduation rates increased, and specifically on a group of 255 universities within that pool that had at least 50 minority and 50 white students in their graduation cohorts.
"We caution institutional leaders who celebrate their graduation rate gains to take a good look at their data and ask whether they are doing enough to get more African-American, Latino and Native students to graduation and to close completion gaps," said Kimberlee Eberle-Sudre, a policy analyst at Ed Trust and co-author of the report, in the news release.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/02/study-shows-rise-graduation-rates-doesnt-always-benefit-minorities