The report follows up on an earlier Education Trust report on graduation rates among White and underrepresented minority students published in December. Black students have had the slowest rate of improvement in terms of graduation compared to their White, Latino and Native American peers, the report found.
“Institutions must understand that they have a lot of power and influence,” said Andrew Nichols, director of higher education research and data analytics at the Education Trust and one of the authors of the report. “When they want to, they can drastically improve outcomes for students, particularly those from underrepresented minority backgrounds, or those from low-income backgrounds. It really starts with will and desire, and a belief that you can change and that student outcomes aren’t simply a byproduct [of] students not being prepared or having other challenges outside of the institution.”
Institutions should be “mining their own data,” Nichols said, to catch areas of weakness. Universities can take steps such as revamping their academic advising, developing early-alert systems that will trigger adviser support when students encounter difficulties, and increasing or reallocating their financial aid, among other measures.
“There are a lot of small things that institutions can do to make things easier for students,” Nichols added.
Some institutions stood out as exemplars in terms of helping Black students succeed, per Education Trust’s more recent report, such as the University at Buffalo and The Ohio State University. At both schools, Black student graduation rate has improved faster than that of their White contemporaries.
While the gains at individual campuses are to be celebrated, it is important to remember that they also serve as a reminder of how wide the disparity once was between White and Black students. Today, Black students are still not graduating at the same rate as their White peers at the two institutions, although they have substantially narrowed the gap.
