Skip to main content

Longer road to the B.A. for many black students

College is designed for student to finish in four years, but for many students that timeline is more of a pipedream. Just 41 percent of first-time, full-time freshman graduate four years after starting, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Students of all shades and backgrounds struggle to graduate on time, but black students often take the longest to get to graduation day.

The median amount of time black students spend to obtain a bachelor’s degree is five years and four months – an entire year longer than the median for white students, according to a data analysis published this month by the Center for American Progress, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Researchers there examined data from the National Center for Education Statistics on nearly 20,000 college alumni who graduated between 2015 and 2016.

The median time for Latinx students was four years, eight months and for Asians it was four years.

Higher education experts say there could be a number of reasons for the additional time black students spend pursuing their degrees.

The education black students receive in elementary, middle and high schools may affect their ability to persist in college, says Natasha Warikoo, an expert on race and higher education. She’s also author of the book “The Diversity Bargain: And Other Dilemmas of Race, Admissions, and Meritocracy at Elite Universities.”

“On average black students are attending schools that are of lower quality and more likely to be segregated,” said Warikoo, a sociology professor at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Many enter college ill-prepared for college-level work, she said.

Related: Many state flagship universities leave black and Latino students behind

And when black and Latinx students reach higher education, Warikoo said, they’re often at institutions that offer fewer resources, such as community colleges or the less-well-funded campuses of state university systems.

Institutions with an abundance of resources are usually very selective and academically competitive. In recent years, a number of elite schools have boosted the number of black students they enroll, but many still have just a sprinkling of these students on campus. In fall 2018, for example, Harvard University’s entering class had a black enrollment of 14.5 percent, but the University of California at Berkeley’s freshman population was just 3.1 percent black.

“I think about those colleges that have more resources and the role that they can play in terms of admitting more underrepresented students,” said Warikoo. “Admit more black students.”

Black students may also have less time to study once in college.

Students could be taking longer to graduate “because they’re working part time or full time,” said Marissa Navarro, a co-author of the report and a special assistant for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress.  “When you’re working over 40 hours a week and then you’re trying to take as many classes as you can, but still be successful in those classes, it’s going to take longer for you.”

Related: Black college students in Illinois get the short end of the financial stick

The ramifications for staying in school longer can penetrate for years to come. The most difficult one may be the financial cost.

“The longer you’re in college, the more debt you’re acquiring,” said Warikoo. “One more year of college is one less year working. That’s lost income.”

The Center for American Progress report notes that the average loan amount for black borrowers was $36,900, the highest for any racial group.

Being in school comes with a lot to juggle, such as tests, internships and just everyday classes, Navarro said.

“If we did more to help these students, then it would be less responsibility for them and it would help them to finish quicker,” she said.

This story about black students was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our higher education newsletter.

The post Longer road to the B.A. for many black students appeared first on The Hechinger Report.



Udimi - Buy Solo Ads from The Hechinger Report https://ift.tt/2OgyjD8
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tips and Strategies for Remote Learning (March 2020)

For the past four weeks, starting two weeks before our Spring Break last week, teachers, administrators and staff at our school have been preparing for “remote school” for students as a result of the coronavirus / COVID-19 crisis. On March 19, 2020, our Head of School sent out a letter to our parents including information about our remote learning plans and FAQs for parents . If your school is currently preparing for remote learning ( as all Oklahoma public school districts now appear to be , pending tomorrow’s state school board meeting vote) I encourage you to review these publicly shared documents and information. As our school’s “Technology Integration and Innovation Specialist” this year, I’ve been building an instructional site for our teachers to support remote learning, on support.casady.org , which is openly licensed CC-BY . This collaborative effort with many other teachers and members of our school staff has provided a good opportunity to curate as well as present instruc...
Post a Comment
Read more

5 Tips for Embracing Outdoor Learning in Any Setting

In a year when all schools look different from usual, some teachers are embracing the outdoors as their classroom. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included outdoor learning in recommended strategies for schools to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and research has shown positive instructional outcomes from such methods. Long-time outdoor educators also tout the social and emotional benefits . But getting started can feel daunting. Below are five tips from experienced teachers for trying outdoor learning in any setting. Look for possibilities in different spaces Becky Schnekser is teaching K-5 science fully outdoors this year at a private school in Virginia Beach. She has the advantage of a well developed outdoor classroom, but that’s not a prerequisite. “Any outdoor space is an opportunity, whether you have a beautiful wooded area or you have concrete jungle,” she said. From sidewalk math to history walks to socially distanced singing , educators are finding wa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guidance on Accreditation for Governing Boards

With accreditation under intensified scrutiny from state legislators and other quarters, two national associations have issued a joint statement reminding governing boards of the importance of higher education’s quality assurance system and the role they should play in it. The Joint Advisory Statement on Accreditation & Governing Boards 2022 , from the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, refreshes a 2009 statement the two groups issued at another time when accreditation had taken heat, then from the Bush administration’s Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education. More recently, legislators in Florida have proposed legislation that would require colleges to regularly change accreditors and give them the right to sue accreditors that take regulatory action against them. The Florida measure came in response to an accrediting agency’s inquiry into external influences over governance at two ...
Post a Comment
Read more