Report Reveals Best and Worst Schools for Graduating Minorities
By Charles Dervarics
Top ten lists are increasingly common on issues across the United States, but a new report from the nation’s capital is raising eyebrows by identifying the best and worst colleges for graduating Black and Hispanic students.
The report from The Education Trust also lists the colleges and universities with the largest “graduation gaps,” or differences in graduation rates between Whites and minorities. The report also targets other questionable admission policies, particularly what it describes as “enrollment management” techniques that reward
upper-income students but sometimes shortchange those with lower incomes.
“Some institutions clearly do a better job of graduating their Latino and African-American students than their peers do,” according to the report, titled “Promise Abandoned: How Policy Changes and Institutional Practices Restrict College Opportunities.” However, the study noted that “the high and low performers aren’t always the institutions you might expect.”
Stanford University had the highest graduation rate for Black students, with 89 percent, followed by Duke University’s 86 percent. Historically Black colleges and universities took the next two positions, as Spelman College and Miles College had rates of 77 percent and 72 percent, respectively.
Other institutions with a strong track record of graduating Blacks included the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Hood College and Hiram College. Two other HBCUs — Claflin University and Fisk University — also scored well.
Among Hispanic students, Stanford held the top spot, with a 92 percent graduation rate. Those in the top 10 in Latino graduation rates included the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rice University and seven other California universities, including four branches of the University of
California system.
