When Low-Income and Minority Students Head to College, the Achievement Gap Follows
Two years ago, 24 public higher education systems (including the University System of Maryland and state university systems in California and New York) pledged to halve the achievement gap in college access and completion by the year 2015.
But just how big exactly was that gap? In order to develop a baseline for the aforementioned "Access to Success" initiative, The Education Trust conducted a comprehensive study to examine how low-income and minority students typically fared in those schools.
The results of that study were just released in a report called "Charting a Necessary Path." According to an article in the Washington Post, the findings were indeed alarming.
Of the low-income and minority students who entered the participating colleges in 1999, only 45 percent had received bachelors degrees six years later. For the rest of the student body, that number was 57 percent.
A mere 24 percent of freshmen from underrepresented minorities (identified as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans) who entered two-year institutions attained completion within four years (either through a certificate, an associate's degree or transfer to a four-year college). The success rate was 38 percent for other students.
As I read about this college achievement gap, a burning question ran through my mind: What about the charter schools in underserved communities who boast phenomenally high college acceptance rates for their students? What do these students' college graduation rates look like? And do these hard working seniors successfully bridge the K-12 achievement gap only to succumb to another one in college?
With more than a little trepidation, and my fingers crossed, I started checking the websites of familiar charter schools to see if they posted any college achievement data for their graduates.
First on my list was KIPP—one of the most widely known charter school organizations with 82 schools nationwide.
Most KIPP schools (55 of them) are middle schools that started with a fifth grade and added a subsequent grade each year for three years. The first KIPP middle schools opened with fifth grade classes in 1994. So in a perfect world, those students should have graduated from 12th grade in 2002, and from four year colleges in 2006.
According to KIPP’s website, more than 85 percent of KIPP students from the original two KIPP Academies matriculated to college. But I couldn’t find any information describing how these students fared in college since 2002.
Given that it’s still early in KIPP’s history, any data on KIPP’s college-bound alums will necessarily be limited. (There are currently only 11 KIPP high schools with the first opening in Texas in 2004, so its entering class isn’t expected to graduate from college until 2012.) Still, I would love to see a longitudinal study done on KIPP students tracing their progress through college and beyond.
I then checked Green Dot’s website—another well-known charter school group based in Los Angeles—and ran into a similar problem. Only five out of 18 Green Dot schools had graduating classes, and 76 percent of those students were admitted to four-year universities (with the majority of the rest going on to two-year colleges.) An outstanding accomplishment to be sure, but data about those students' subsequent achievements ended there.
So my question remains unanswered, and I will continue to be on the lookout for longitudinal studies tracking the performance of graduates from these and other exceptional schools as they make their way through college.
In the meantime, I think the Post article gave rise to several key questions that are too rarely addressed: Is getting students to college enough of a barometer to measure a college prep school’s success? Should what happens to those students while in college be considered? And will colleges like those participating in Access to Success succeed in halving, or better yet eliminating, the achievement gap? If so, what strategies will they use? And why is the overall completion rate from these colleges so low?
In a speech given earlier this year, President Obama said the following:
[A]t the start of my administration I set a goal for America: by 2020, this nation will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world…Today, I am announcing the most significant down payment yet on reaching this goal in the next ten years. It’s called the American Graduation Initiative. It will reform and strengthen community colleges from coast to coast so that they get the resources students and schools need – and the results workers and businesses demand. Through this plan, we seek to help an additional five million Americans earn degrees and certificates in the next decade.
My sincere hope is that both of these bold initiatives will succeed, and that 10 years from now, the college achievement gap will only be seen in our collective rear view mirrors.
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