The number of first-generation Black students entering four-year colleges dropped by almost two-thirds between 1971 and 2005, according to new data collected by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The representation of first-generation Black students at four-year colleges dropped from 62.9 percent in 1971 to 22.6 percent in 2005, says the report, “First in My Family: A Profile of First-Generation College Students at Four-Year Institutions Since 1971.”
This may suggest a positive trend, but that is not the case, says visiting assistant professor Victor Saenz, the lead author of the study.
“It’s a huge disconnect and we were careful to interpret the data,” Saenz says.
The decline could be attributed to the increasing attractiveness of two-year colleges and the diminishing access to four-year institutions. First-generation Hispanic students showed similar numbers, though they had the highest overall rate of first-generation college students (38.2 percent) in the study.
“But this stems from the transient nature of the [Hispanic] population and the steady influx of immigrant-born children,” Saenz says. “They can also be attracted more to two-year colleges.”
The report states that parental encouragement was a strong motivator for first-generation students to go to college. In 2005, 47 percent of first-generation students said parental encouragement was an important reason to attend college, besides getting a better job (77.3 percent), making more money (76.4 percent) or preparing for graduate school (58 percent).
