According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 68.6 percent of all White students who entered a four-year college in 2018 had earned a degree at the same college by 2024. For Blacks, the six-year graduation rate was 43.8 percent. This is a hug racial gap.
It has often been said that Black students perform much better when they enroll in the nurturing environment of a historically Black college or university. JBHE has compiled a list of the graduation rates at the nation’s 25 largest HBCUs by total enrollments to see how students at these schools succeed in earning a degree. Only four of the 25 HBCUs graduated at least half of their entering students within six years.
| HBCU | Graduation Rate |
|---|---|
| Howard University | 69% |
| Hampton University | 56% |
| North Carolina A&T State University | 55% |
| Florida A&M University | 52% |
| Winston-Salem State University | 49% |
| Clark Atlanta University | 48% |
| North Carolina Central University | 46% |
| Prairie View A&M University | 43% |
| Morgan State University | 42% |
| Virginia State University | 41% |
| Delaware State University | 39% |
| Bowie State University | 38% |
| Fayetteville State University | 35% |
| Norfolk State University | 33% |
| Tennessee State University | 33% |
| Grambling State University | 32% |
| Jackson State University | 32% |
| Alabama State University | 30% |
| Alabama A&M University | 29% |
| Bethune-Cookman University | 28% |
| Southern University | 28% |
| University of the District of Columbia | 26% |
| Savannah State University | 25% |
| Albany State University | 23% |
| Texas Southern University | 20% |
It must be noted that many factors contribute to a university’s graduation rate. In addition to teacher quality, retention programs, and campus culture oriented toward Black students, in many cases the financial strength of the HBCU is often a major concern. Schools with larger endowments and an active alumni base can provide scholarship funds that allow low-income students to stay in school.
The low graduation rates at many of these HBCUs is undoubtedly impacted by a long history of underfunding at these institutions.
Graduation rates without context tell a story of questionable merit. It should always be acknowledged that HBCUs enroll MUCH larger percentages of Pell Grant recipients and first-generation students than PWIs. (In NC, for instance, public HBCUs enroll double the percentage of Pell students than public PWIs.) Those students often don’t have generational wealth to help them bear the costs of college, or examples of college attainment in their families to draw upon, and work part- or full-time to pay for their education. Despite all that, as well as gross historic and ongoing institutional underfunding, we still are more successful in educating and graduating Black students than our PWI peers and make major contributions to representation of African Americans in the knowledge economy, far greater than our size would indicate. One hundred eighty-eight years after HBCUs first began to emerge in U.S. higher education, they continue to play an invaluable, irreplaceable role for the students and communities they serve, the states where they are located and America more broadly.
Agreed.
This article reminds the readers of the challenges that HBCUs have had for almost as long as they have been in existence. Having done some consulting with some of these institutions in various forms (on-site and virtual), I have always held them in high regard because of their dedication and commitment in serving their students. These colleges and universities have always been mission driven, and faculty and staff are committed to fulfilling the individual missions. The graduation rate data that has been provided in this article is only a snapshot and does not provide information about the similar challenges that midsize and small institutions are facing in serving the same types of students. I do believe, however, that if all postsecondary institutions were more receptive to allowing external assistance to guide them in their desire to improve both persistence and degree completion rates, they would indeed have better outcomes. I say this, knowing that it sounds self-serving, but I know that despite many of these institutions having many support services and programs as well as a nurturing climate, their outcomes are not what they could be. I have worked with both HBCUs (in a consulting capacity) and PWIs as a mentor for the Higher Learning Commission’s Persistence and Completion Academy. The only difference being is that the programs offered by this accrediting agency, institutions were willing to pay a fee to be a part of the Academy because they had both the resources and receptivity to gain insight that perhaps they could not obtain internally. My point is that understanding the reality that doing more with less may be an ongoing issue, it is important to allow those who can be objective and add to their toolbox to assist them. For full transparency, I am hoping that a grant I have written, would be funded to allow more intensive assistance to 10 interested HBCUs, free of charge, to get the assistance they need from myself and a colleague with expertise in mentoring to achieve their respective student success outcomes In the meantime, I just hope that colleges and universities would realize that getting external assistance is not a sign of weakness, but a sign that doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is not the answer. Graduation data that I have reviewed for many HBCUs (thanks to their transparency on their websites), demonstrate the need to do something different.