Minority kids being "left behind" from college, too

"600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Is there any doubt whatsoever that the key to the United States’ prosperity is intimately tied to an innovative, highly-educated population?

Those hopes for a prosperous future are headed straight into the toilet as this country – which will become minority white and majority black and Hispanic by 2042 – lets its young people sit on the sidelines while only the affluent get a shot at a college degree.

Here’s a sobering quote from last week’s American Council on Education report Minorities in Higher Education 2008: "The tradition of young adults in the United States attaining higher levels of education than previous generations appears to have stalled, and for far too many people of color, the percentage of young adults with some type of postsecondary degree compared with older adults has actually fallen."

Using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau, the report found several disturbing trends:

·

The percentage of young adults aged 25 to 29 and older adults aged 30 and above with at least an associate degree in 2006 was about the same, approximately 35 percent but Hispanic and American Indian young adults have even less education than previous generations

·

The postsecondary educational attainment rates of African Americans remained relatively the same for both age groups, at approximately 24 percent.

·

Asian Americans and whites were the only two groups where young adults were more educated than prior generations. Sixty-six percent of young Asian Americans had at least an associate degree compared with 54 percent of older Asian Americans. The percentages for whites were 41 percent for young adults and 37 percent for older adults. 

There are many many core problems at play here, not the least of which is that minorities often have a lower quality of K-12 education, are less able to pay skyrocketing tuition and are often financially or culturally averse to taking out huge loans to pay for the kind of education no one in their immediate families has ever enjoyed.

But the root of the problem is that minority children and their parents do not believe they can actually get accepted to and pay to go to college. What this report tells us is that their hope is dying and we need to get it on our national radar before it’s way too late.

"It appears we are at a tipping point in our nation’s history," ACE President Molly Corbett Broad said in a written statement. "One of the core tenets of the American dream is the hope that younger generations, who’ve had greater opportunities for educational advancement than their parents and grandparents, will be better off than the generations before them, yet this report shows that aspiration is at serious risk."

It’s a tricky issue to understand because the numbers are only now shifting. Sure, according to ACE’s numbers, total minority enrollment at the nation’s colleges and universities rose by 50 percent from 3.4 million students to 5 million students between 1995 and 2005 compared to white enrollment, which increased only 8 percent from 9.9 million to 10.7 million.

Though students of color made up 29 percent of the nearly 17.5 million students on America’s campuses, and significant gains occurred in college enrollment rates for young people from all races, progress was uneven and gaps widened.

In 2006, 61 percent of Asian Americans aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in college compared with 44 percent of whites, 32 percent of African Americans, and 25 percent of Hispanics and American Indians respectively.

More sobering stats:

·

The gender gap has swung in the opposite direction and now among students aged 18 to 24, and in 2006 only thirty-six percent of young men were enrolled in college compared with 44 percent of young women.

·

Despite improving their rate of high school completion from 59 percent to 68 percent, Hispanics still had the lowest rate among all racial/ethnic groups.

·

The high school completion rate for African Americans aged 18 to 24 remained relatively flat over the past two decades at about 76 percent.

Keep in mind those are just numbers for attendance, when you look at degree completion the picture darkens further: college persistence rates declined slightly, and these declines were more pronounced for students who began at two-year institutions, especially for Hispanics. 

But wait! There are rays of hope:

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African Americans more than doubled the number of master’s degrees earned from nearly 25,000 in 1995 to nearly 53,000 in 2005. During the same period, the number of doctoral degrees earned by African Americans increased 84 percent from nearly 1,600 to nearly 2,900.

·

Hispanics nearly doubled the number of bachelor’s degrees received over the last decade to more than 105,000. Hispanics also made dramatic gains in doctoral degrees earned, rising from 950 in 1995 to more than 1,700 in 2005, an increase of 83 percent. 

·

The number of minorities earning associate degrees between 1995 and 2005 grew 84 percent to just over 201,000. The number of minorities earning bachelor’s degrees over the same period grew 65 percent to 355,000.

·

Minorities outpaced whites in the percentage change in total degrees awarded at all levels over the past decade and minority women showed stronger gains than minority men at all degree levels. 

The moral of the story: minority kids can get in and complete college successfully, but we need to give them every possible bit of encouragement we can scrounge up. Anything from plain old role-modeling, to moral support and encouragement starting at age 12 to when they’re in that first big job, to throwing a kid a few bucks to pay for one of their books.

You don’t have to look too far to find a minority student who could use any of the above and it won’t cost you to tell them: "You’re going to make it," even if you’re not a hundred percent sure.

When the economy is bad, when jobs are scarce, when the belt gets tightened all we have to hold onto is hope. We can't afford to let that hope die for the millions of black, Latino and Native American kids who are struggling to believe that they, too, can go to college.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

[frank bowers]

What are you saying here, it is the parents fault not America after all the illegal aliens can slip north and put their kids in our schools free and the girls wish to get pregant after their 15 birthday and the boys and older men are too happy to please, the boys are too busy trying to rob and smoke crack to give a damn the girls hit the lotto with each child and the boys still join the ganges, this is not my fault as for as I am concerned they would be deported if and when they drop out of school as in Texas about 9/10 of the kids born with the mid wife instead of hospital have shown to be illegal aliens with forged papers, I think you might be right in the respect they are not getting into our colleges I am happy the colleges do require citizenship or school visas for the ones from out of the country, without proper papers and I am glad they would just continue to steal from the tax payers.
Keep writing and keep smiling, I know your kids will not be in the minority and will go to college. Frank down in Austin, soon to be 71 and happy.

[frank bowers]

What are you saying here, it is the parents fault not America after all the illegal aliens can slip north and put their kids in our schools free and the girls wish to get pregant after their 15 birthday and the boys and older men are too happy to please, the boys are too busy trying to rob and smoke crack to give a damn the girls hit the lotto with each child and the boys still join the ganges, this is not my fault as for as I am concerned they would be deported if and when they drop out of school as in Texas about 9/10 of the kids born with the mid wife instead of hospital have shown to be illegal aliens with forged papers, I think you might be right in the respect they are not getting into our colleges I am happy the colleges do require citizenship or school visas for the ones from out of the country, without proper papers and I am glad they would just continue to steal from the tax payers.
Keep writing and keep smiling, I know your kids will not be in the minority and will go to college. Frank down in Austin, soon to be 71 and happy.