The numbers tell the story.
African-American college students earn bachelor’s degrees at nearly half the rate – Hispanic students are nearly worse at less than a third – than white students. Low-income students get their undergraduate degrees at one-eighth the rate of economically more advantaged students.
Minority and low-income high school students find it tougher than other students to even afford a college education as costs continue to rise nationwide.
Nineteen public higher education systems across the country have banded together to try to reverse those trends. They are participating in the Access to Success initiative, a National Association of Systems Heads (NASH) project aiming to shave at least to half the gaps in both college-going and degree completion rates that separate low-income and minority students from others.
“This has the potential to be one of the most significant initiatives impacting the future of higher education in America,” said Dr. Ralph Slaughter, president of Southern University System, the nation’s only historically Black university system. “Recognizing the need to make attaining a college education, not only more accessible to minority and low-income students, but to develop strategic efforts in key areas that ensure their success and ability to graduate places this as a revolutionary move.”
The project’s 19 systems, which represent more than two million undergraduates across the country, plan a four-pronged approach to working on the problem:
· increasing student access in remedial courses and other large-enrollment introductory courses;
