(NAME-MCE) Postsecondary Picture for Minority Students

[Anselmo Villanueva]

September 13, 2007

For better format, graphs/tables, and related stories, go to:

http://insidehighered.com/news/2007/09/13/minority

For complete report, go to:

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007039.pdf
The Postsecondary Picture for Minority Students

The newest report from the National Center for Education Statistics is, as
its title ("Status and Trends in the Education of Racial and Ethnic
Minorities <http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007039.pdf>") suggests, designed to
provide a comprehensive look at how members of minority groups are faring in
the American educational system, from top to bottom. But while the data it
offers on that subject are decidedly mixed — showing significant progress
over time for all groups, but wide gaps remaining in access to and success
in college — the report's most provocative (and potentially troubling)
numbers may be about gender, not race.

Most of the data in the report from the Education Department's statistical
arm have been released in earlier or narrower reports. But by bringing
together reams of statistics over 30 years on the full gamut of educational
measures, from pre-primary enrollment of 3- to 5-year-olds to median incomes
for adults over 25, the study aims to provide a broad-based look at "the
educational progress and challenges that racial and ethnic minorities face
in the United States."

Progress and challenges are both evident; virtually every category contains
good news and bad news. In the higher education realm, for instance, the
report shows that where black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander and American
Indian/Alaska Native students made up 17 percent of college undergraduates
in 1976, their share of that total had risen to 32 percent by 2004. And each
of those groups saw their raw numbers at least double over that time, with
some groups showing significantly greater proportional increases, as seen in
the table below:



1976

2004

% Change

Black

943,355

1,918,465

103%

Hispanic

352,893

1,666,859

372%

Asian/Pacific Islander

169,291

949,882

461%

American Indian/Alaska Native

69,729

160,318

130%

Representation in graduate education changed along roughly the same lines,
the study finds, with minority group members making up 25 percent of the
graduate school population in 2004, up from 11 percent in 1976.

In addition, the proportion of all 18- to 24-year-old Americans who were
enrolled in college rose sharply for all racial groups between 1980 and
2004, in most cases increasing by at least 50 percent.

But those positive developments aside, the research shows that members of
underrepresented minority groups badly lag their white and Asian peers in
college going. By 2004, 60.3 percent of Asian/Pacific Islander 18- to
24-year-olds were enrolled in college, as were 41.7 of white Americans in
that age group. The numbers were lower for other groups: 31.8 for black
Americans, 24.7 for Hispanics, and 24.4 percent for American Indian/Alaska
Natives.

Similarly, the proportion of degrees awarded to most racial minority groups
fell well short of their representation in the population. Slightly less
than 10 percent of all college degrees awarded by U.S. degree-granting
institutions in 2003-4 — and 9.3 percent of bachelor's degrees, and 6
percent of doctorates — went to African-Americans, who make up 12 percent of
the population. Hispanics fared worse, earning 7.3 of all degrees,
6.8percent of baccalaureate degrees, and
3.4 percent of doctorates, despite making up 14 percent of the U.S.
populace.

Concerning as those numbers might be to advocates for minority education,
the most striking data in the report are probably those related to the
educational outcomes of men, of all races and ethnicities.

By virtually every measure used in the report, male students have fallen far
behind their female counterparts. That development isn't new, but the
federal report lays out the situation starkly. For instance, the study finds
that the gender gap in undergraduate enrollments expanded generally and for
all races between 1976 and 2004, as seen in the table below:

*The Gender Gap in Undergraduate Enrollments, 1976 to 2004*



*Proportion of undergraduates *
*who were male, 1976*

*Proportion of Undergraduates*
*Who Were Male, 2004*

*% Difference Between Female *
*and Male Enrollment, 2004*



All

52.0%

42.9%

14.2%



White

52.4%

44.1%

11.8%



Black

45.7%

35.7%

28.6%



Hispanic

54.3%

41.4%

17.1%



Asian/Pacific Islander

53.8%

46.2%

7.5%



American Indian/Alaska Native

49.9%

39.1%

21.8%



Similarly, the proportion of male 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in college in
2004 had fallen to 34.7 percent, compared to 41.2 percent for women. Six to
10 percent gaps existed for all racial groups, too, with the exception of
Asian/Pacific Islanders; for them, men were more likely to be enrolled in
college by a 63 to 58 percent margin.

Women are also outperforming men as degree recipients, as seen in the table
below:

*Degrees Conferred by Gender and Race, 2003-4*

Demographic Group

All degrees

White men

818,690

White women

1,121,646





Black men

87,728

Black women

184,183





Hispanic men

78,775

Hispanic women

122,784





Asian/Pacific Islander men

75,435

Asian/Pacific Islander women

93,335





American Indian/Alaska Native men

8,476

American Indian/Alaska Native women

14,255

— Doug Lederman <doug.lederman at insidehighered.com>