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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2840
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 10:59 am: | 
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A report being released today by Education Sector suggests that, at many campuses, the gap in the graduation rates of black and white students is embarrassingly large, raising questions about the experience of black students once enrolled. The report finds that some institutions — including those outside the elite ranks of private higher education — have strategies that result in black students graduating at relatively similar rates to white students, while other institutions appear to accept gaps of 25 percentage points or more in the rates.
The new report, “Graduation Rate Watch: Making Minority Student Success a Priority,” is largely based on data that colleges are required to report on graduation rates, broken down by race, under the Student Right-to-Know Act, which was enacted in 1990 with a major of drawing attention to the historically low graduation rates of athletes. While that was the goal, the law required colleges to report graduation rates on all students, for comparison purposes, making possible the kind of analysis Education Sector has done.
Nationally, about 57 percent of students at four-year institutions graduate within six years — with some private colleges reporting rates well above 90 percent year after year while others have rates that are quite low. Black students disproportionately attend colleges with low graduation rates for black students. Only about 30 percent attend colleges with six-year graduation rates of 50 percent or higher. About 50 percent of black students attend colleges with six-year graduation rates for black students that are less than 40 percent.
Or as the report puts it in another way, black students are two-and-a-half times more likely to enroll at a college where they have a 70 percent chance of not graduating than at a college where they have a 70 percent chance of graduating.
...The colleges with very large gaps included public and private, and a mix of institutions in rural and urban areas. While not making this list, many other prominent universities with significant minority enrollments — and including institutions that have stressed the importance of diversity — also have large gaps in black-white graduation rates. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor has a gap of 19 percent, Indiana University at Bloomington has a gap of 22 percent, Michigan State University has a gap of 24 percent, and the University of Cincinnati has a gap of 24 percent.
Colleges with very small black enrollments were not included. The study briefly explores trends in graduation rates at historically black colleges, where average rates for all institutions are low, but where there is a split between institutions with competitive admissions (which tend to have high rates) and other institutions, which tend to have low rates. The report also notes that historically black colleges enroll “a disproportionately large share of first-generation and low-income students, who tend to be at a higher risk of dropping out."
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...Not surprisingly, the report finds that some elite colleges — with very competitive admissions for all students — have hardly any gaps at all. But the report draws attention to institutions that do not either have billions in their endowments or sit atop the rankings that nonetheless have small or no gaps in the graduation rates of black and white students. At Florida State University, for example, the report notes that the black graduation rate tops the white graduation rate, 72 percent to 69 percent. The same is true at the College of Charleston; George Mason, Towson and Winthrop Universities; the State University of New York campuses at Albany and Stony Brook; and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa — all of which also have black graduation rates of at least 60 percent.
...One issue that is not mentioned in the report, but that its author acknowledges will surely come up in discussion of it, is affirmative action. Ward Connerly and other prominent critics of affirmative action have frequently cited low graduation rates of minority students as evidence that some are being admitted to institutions where they may not succeed — and they have argued that these students would benefit from attending institutions where their academic preparation is aligned with student expectations.
Carey strongly disputes that approach and said he thinks the findings in his report show the opposite. If Florida State and other institutions are able to admit significant numbers of black students — many of them coming from poor high schools — and graduate them at high rates, that suggests that fault at institutions with low rates may rest with the institutions, not the students. “I don’t think it’s a race issue,” he said, but a question of institutional commitment to helping the students who are admitted.
“Colleges admit students with a diverse range of academic backgrounds for a lot of good reasons,” he said. “But they have an obligation to give them support.” He added that many studies show white male students are not doing as well as while female students “and no one suggests that we stop admitting white males.”
Full article: http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/21/gradrates
Get the report here: http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=678433
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Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 3097
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 01:17 pm: |
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"A report being released today by Education Sector suggests that, at many campuses, the gap in the graduation rates of black and white students is embarrassingly large, raising questions about the experience of black students once enrolled. The report finds that some institutions — including those outside the elite ranks of private higher education — have strategies that result in black students graduating at relatively similar rates to white students, while other institutions appear to accept gaps of 25 percentage points or more in the rates."
Thank you Ms. Yvette. Your posts are always interesting and informative. Unfortunately, this article is anything but encouraging. With an abysmal rate of high school graduation rates for black students (especially black males), the future for black America looks anything but bright. When you consider the continued decline in American blue collar employment, outsourcing of jobs and a daily increase in importing foreign technical specialist (India, China, et al) because of the so-called inability of America to provide the indigenous numbers needed for ever increasing technology industry and the ongoing horrific educational failure of black students, what will be the state of black communities in the year 2020? It's a very scary question when you consider the entrenched matrix of problems facing the education of black youth and the growing cuts in federal educational funding that is gorging the life out of the states. It's very unsettling prospect and I don't see anything on the horizon that is going to change things around. Am I wrong....??
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Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12139
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 01:53 pm: |
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With the sky rocketing costs of college tuition and the long-term committment student loans entail, it's a wonder Blacks are even enrolling in universities at all. Not only can people not afford to be sick, nowadays, but it's also very expensive to pursue a degree. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6650
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 03:11 pm: |
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And so what do you intend to DO about it, smarty pants? |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12141
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 04:20 pm: |
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Do you have any suggestions, chrishayden, since YOU claim to be the mentor and savior of black youth.  |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6652
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 05:10 pm: |
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Stay out of grown folks conversations.
She has to answer first. She's the one who keeps preaching to the choir on here. I'll wager nobody who posts or lurks or reads here is a young man at risk or a gangbanger or even young enough to be a student.
All this stating and restating the obvious is a mystery to me.
It's like we have known this for 500 years. Now what solution have you.
She is the expert on child development. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 12142
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 07:23 pm: |
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YOU stay out of intelligent people's conversations, crissyboy. Nobody re-treads stuff any more than you. If you didn't have the huffingtonblog site, you'd be at a loss for an orginal thought. And you are so discombobulated that you can even get your mind together enough to address your post to whom it was meant for. pitiful. |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2841
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 08:21 am: |
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Ah, Chris... Well, one of the reasons I posted this was to show the "half full" aspect of the report. Obviously, some institutions are doing a good job. (THe full article has more details.)
But also, it is a matter of individual/family choice. Parents, pastors, kin, guidance counselors, and others need to do a better job of guiding Black youth who are going to college to enroll in the colleges with track records of retaining and graduating Black students. This simple solution seems obvious to me from the report.
This particular article is not about how to get gangbangers into college. That is not my area of expertise. But we also have a responsibility to ensure that our kids who do go, do finish. THere are many reasons young people do not finish in 4 or 5 (or even 6) years. I was one of those young people who did not go straight through right after high school. Programs exist for re-entering students, for delayed entering students, for students who need to go to special programs or community colleges before heading to 4-year institutions, etc. There are semester-on semester-off programs for students who must work to hep pay their way. ANd on and on. These programs can and should be replicated.
There is an increasing view that the college-going experience is not the same for every person, and institutions need to adapt to recognize this.
(BTW, still waiting to hear your poetry solution  ) |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2842
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 08:22 am: |
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Thanks, Ntfs! |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6654
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:10 pm: |
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There is an increasing view that the college-going experience is not the same for every person, and institutions need to adapt to recognize this.
(This was fine if college in America was really a method of providing a better life for people. It is a bottleneck for keeping people out. College is set up so people flunk out or leave. Besides, there are not enough jobs for these people. If you got a bunch of underemployed overeducated people you have a recipe for revolution.
The Complex is not stupid.
It is every man woman and child for his or herself in this country. There is strength in numbers.
Members of families, church groups, other organizations should band together and make programs to help their own kids.
Rots of ruck.
BTW, still waiting to hear your poetry solution
(Moi?)
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Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2846
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:15 pm: |
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Oui, tu. |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6655
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:22 pm: |
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The solution to the current sad state of American poetry? |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2847
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:27 pm: |
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http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/35998.html?1208729372#POST1169 14 |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6659
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:34 pm: |
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! I suppose you poets/writers are better able to "do something about it"???
(My that post was fitting to somebody who spent her whole life trying to label children Special Ed and shoot them up with Ritalin.
I shouldn't dignify it with an answer, you weirdo, but seeing as how you are weak I will.
A poet and writer, or I, or a garbageman, can do just as good a job as anybody else, cuz on the mass level ain't nothing going to happen.
America ain't about the masses.) |
Yvettep
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 2849
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:36 pm: |
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LOL! You're funny, Chris! You must be missing Cynique today! |
Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 6661
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:45 pm: |
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(This is the deal.
In the present state of Black America I can influence very little outside my own circle. Oh, I can speak out about attending college every chance I get. But then, when a kid comes up to me and asks if I can help him get in, what? And what if he asks me about if he needs him some walking around money or he got to drop out, what?
And this does not even take into consideration those I will never see or talk to.
Everybody knows you can do better if you go to college. But money talks and bullshit walks. What about that kid who lives in a home which is not even conducive to study?
We want everybody to get over, which is laudible. But in trying to get everybody over what if you get nobody over?
Do for you and yours. You have done more than most other people are going to do.
Hell, seeing how Negroes turn on the race as soon as they get their papers has made me a little sour on it. |
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