As the number of White students receiving college degrees has
stayed steady for the last five years, the number of African American,
Hispanic. Asian. and Native American degree recipients has soared.
“It’s real progress,” says Dr. Michael Nettles, director of the
Frederick D. Patterson Institute, the research and of The College
Fund/UNCF. “It’s phenomenal.”
According to an analysis by Black Issues In Higher Education of the
latest Department of Education data (see chart, page 23), the number of
African Americans receiving associate degrees is increasing at a rate
of 5.8 percent a year, while the number receiving bachelor’s degrees is
increasing at a rate of 5.6 percent a year, yielding a five-year growth
rate of roughly 24 percent.
“It’s good news. It’s a good story,” says Deborah Carter, director
of the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Office of Minority Al
fairs. “We are seeing the benefits of the outreach and diversity
efforts that colleges and universities have been making.”
The increasing success of Blacks in higher education offers an
optimistic contrast to other social trends — such as the rising
incarceration rate of African Americans over the last five years —
that have caused enormous concern among policy makers nationwide.
Unlike the incarceration data, however, the increase in degree
attainment has hardly been noticed:
“All we know is that on the higher education front, more African
Americans are making the right choice — and that is to pursue as much
education as is available,” Nettles says. “People are understanding the
opportunities and the relationship of higher education to upward
mobility.”
The Fruits of the Labor
