Minorities and whites follow unequal college paths,

report says
By Michael A. Fletcher July 31, 2013

The nations system of higher education is growing more racially polarized even as it attracts
more minorities: White students increasingly are clustering at selective institutions, while blacks
and Hispanics mostly are attending open-access and community colleges, according to a
new report.
The paths offer widely disparate opportunities and are leading to widely disparate outcomes,
said the report released Wednesday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the
Workforce.

Students at the nations top 468 colleges are the beneficiaries of much more spending
anywhere from two to five times as much as what is spent on instruction at community colleges
or other schools without admissions requirements. And students at top schools are far more
likely to graduate than students at other institutions, even when they are equally prepared,
according to the report. In addition, graduates of top schools are far more likely than others to
go on to graduate school.

The financial implications of those differences are huge: A worker with an advanced degree is
expected to earn as much as $2.1 million more in his or her lifetime than a college dropout, the
report said. Also, the report said graduates of selective colleges earn an average of $67,000 a
year 10 years after graduation, about $18,000 a year more than their counterparts who graduate
from non-selective schools.

The American postsecondary system increasingly has become a dual system of racially separate
pathways, even as overall minority access to the postsecondary system has grown dramatically,
said Jeff Strohl, the Georgetown centers director of research, who co-authored the report.
College enrollment still reflects racial and ethnic divisions.

The report focused on a comparison of whites with Hispanic and African American students.
Data on the experiences of Asian American and Native American students were too limited for
an identical analysis, the authors said.

The report raises disturbing questions about the efficacy of

higher-education policies pursued by a long line of presidents aiming to encourage more
Americans to attend college. President Obama has talked about improved access to higher
education as a means of combating the nations growing income inequality. But the Georgetown
report illustrates that higher education is doing more to replicate inequality than to eliminate it.
For that to change, the authors said, policymakers need to work harder to make the experience
at non-selective schools more like that at selective ones. That means more spending for those
schools, which often struggle with crowded classes and outdated equipment. It also would mean
added financial support for students at non-selective schools, who spend more hours working
and dealing with family responsibilities than students at selective colleges.

It is a good-news, bad-news story, said Anthony P. Carnevale, the reports other author and
director of Georgetowns workforce center. Access is up, and inequality is growing a lot with it.
And the two are intimately connected.
Between 1995 and 2009, freshman college enrollment more than doubled for Hispanics while
increasing 73 percent for African Americans and 15 percent for whites, who represent a
shrinking share of the college-age population.

Those students are largely facing different college experiences. More than eight out of 10 of
those new white students attended selective four-year schools, compared with 13 percent for
Hispanics and 9 percent for African Americans, the report said.

At the same time, more than two in three African Americans and nearly three in four Hispanics
went to open-access colleges, the report said.

Whites represent 75 percent of the students at the nations top 468 colleges overall, even though
they account for only 62 percent of the nations college-age population. Meanwhile, whites make
up just 57 percent of the students at open-access schools.

Conversely, black and Hispanic students account for 37 percent of students at open-access
schools and only 15 percent at the nations selective four-year colleges. Overall, blacks and
Hispanics make up one-third of the nations college-age population.

The reports authors said that colleges and policymakers should do more to lure high-achieving
black and Hispanic students to top schools, where their chances of graduation and future
success would be much greater. The report noted that students with low scores on college-
admission tests graduate from top schools at a higher rate than high scorers do from open-
access schools.

Currently, 30 percent of African American and Hispanic students who had an A average in while
high school wind up at community colleges, compared with 22 percent of whites.

In addition, the report said, more than 111,000 African American and Hispanic students
annually graduate in the top half of their high school class but do not earn either a two-year or
four-year degree within eight years. If those students had attended one of the top 468 colleges
and graduated at rates similar to those of other students there, 73 percent of them would be
college graduates.

The higher-education system is colorblind in theory but in fact operates, at least in part, as a
systematic barrier to opportunity for many blacks and Hispanics, many of whom are college-
qualified but tracked into overcrowded and under-funded colleges, where they are less likely to
develop fully or to graduate, Carnevale said.

The nations system of higher education is growing more racially polarized even as it attracts
more minorities: White students increasingly are clustering at selective institutions, while blacks
and Hispanics mostly are attending open-access and community colleges, according to a
new report.
The paths offer widely disparate opportunities and are leading to widely disparate outcomes,
said the report released Wednesday by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the
Workforce.

Students at the nations top 468 colleges are the beneficiaries of much more spending
anywhere from two to five times as much as what is spent on instruction at community colleges
or other schools without admissions requirements. And students at top schools are far more
likely to graduate than students at other institutions, even when they are equally prepared,
according to the report. In addition, graduates of top schools are far more likely than others to
go on to graduate school.

The financial implications of those differences are huge: A worker with an advanced degree is
expected to earn as much as $2.1 million more in his or her lifetime than a college dropout, the
report said. Also, the report said graduates of selective colleges earn an average of $67,000 a
year 10 years after graduation, about $18,000 a year more than their counterparts who graduate
from non-selective schools.
The American postsecondary system increasingly has become a dual system of racially separate
pathways, even as overall minority access to the postsecondary system has grown dramatically,
said Jeff Strohl, the Georgetown centers director of research, who co-authored the report.

College enrollment still reflects racial and ethnic divisions.

The report focused on a comparison of whites with Hispanic and African American students.
Data on the experiences of Asian American and Native American students were too limited for
an identical analysis, the authors said.

The report raises disturbing questions about the efficacy of

higher-education policies pursued by a long line of presidents aiming to encourage more
Americans to attend college. President Obama has talked about improved access to higher
education as a means of combating the nations growing income inequality. But the Georgetown
report illustrates that higher education is doing more to replicate inequality than to eliminate it.
For that to change, the authors said, policymakers need to work harder to make the experience
at non-selective schools more like that at selective ones. That means more spending for those
schools, which often struggle with crowded classes and outdated equipment. It also would mean
added financial support for students at non-selective schools, who spend more hours working
and dealing with family responsibilities than students at selective colleges.

It is a good-news, bad-news story, said Anthony P. Carnevale, the reports other author and
director of Georgetowns workforce center. Access is up, and inequality is growing a lot with it.
And the two are intimately connected.

Between 1995 and 2009, freshman college enrollment more than doubled for Hispanics while
increasing 73 percent for African Americans and 15 percent for whites, who represent a
shrinking share of the college-age population.

Those students are largely facing different college experiences. More than eight out of 10 of
those new white students attended selective four-year schools, compared with 13 percent for
Hispanics and 9 percent for African Americans, the report said.
At the same time, more than two in three African Americans and nearly three in four Hispanics
went to open-access colleges, the report said.

Whites represent 75 percent of the students at the nations top 468 colleges overall, even though
they account for only 62 percent of the nations college-age population. Meanwhile, whites make
up just 57 percent of the students at open-access schools.

Conversely, black and Hispanic students account for 37 percent of students at open-access
schools and only 15 percent at the nations selective four-year colleges. Overall, blacks and
Hispanics make up one-third of the nations college-age population.

The reports authors said that colleges and policymakers should do more to lure high-achieving
black and Hispanic students to top schools, where their chances of graduation and future
success would be much greater. The report noted that students with low scores on college-
admission tests graduate from top schools at a higher rate than high scorers do from open-
access schools.

Currently, 30 percent of African American and Hispanic students who had an A average in while
high school wind up at community colleges, compared with 22 percent of whites.

In addition, the report said, more than 111,000 African American and Hispanic students
annually graduate in the top half of their high school class but do not earn either a two-year or
four-year degree within eight years. If those students had attended one of the top 468 colleges
and graduated at rates similar to those of other students there, 73 percent of them would be
college graduates.

The higher-education system is colorblind in theory but in fact operates, at least in part, as a
systematic barrier to opportunity for many blacks and Hispanics, many of whom are college-
qualified but tracked into overcrowded and under-funded colleges, where they are less likely to
develop fully or to graduate, Carnevale said.