Princeton University Study Examines Link Between Socioeconomic Factors and Life Expectancy
Author Michael Geruso concludes that 80 percent of the life expectancy gap between Black men and White men is due to socioeconomic differences.
Is the National African American Spelling Bee a Good Idea?
A new event offers many young African American students the opportunity to compete on a national level in spelling competitions.
Schott Foundation Report Finds Vast Racial Inequities in New York City Public Schools
Black students are four times as likely as Asian or White students to be enrolled in the poorest performing schools.
A College Education Provides Major Economic Benefits for Blacks in California
The report found that lifetime earnings for African Americans with a four-year college degree in California have grown 85 percent, after adjusting for inflation, over the past 30 years.
Addressing the Racial Divide in STEM Education
The data suggests that attracting Black students to STEM fields is not the problem but keeping them there is a major concern.
African Americans Are Slowly Closing the Gap in Medical School Enrollments
But a racial gap remains. African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population but are only 7.3 percent of all first-time enrollees at U.S. medical schools.
New Data Shows a Wide Racial Disparity in the GPAs of College Graduates
Whites were more than twice as likely as Blacks to graduate with grade point averages better than 3.5. Blacks were nearly three times as likely as Whites to graduate with a GPA of less than 2.5.
Black First-Year Students at the Nation’s Leading Research Universities
For the sixth year in a row, Columbia University in New York City has the highest percentage of Black first-year students among the 30 highest-ranking universities in the nation.
A Check-Up on Black Progress in Nursing Degree Programs
According to data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Black have made tremendous progress over the past decade in increasing their percentage of students in bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs in nursing.
New Report Shows That Blacks Are Doing Poorly in Los Angeles County Schools
The report concludes that "if current trends continue, only 1 in 20 of today’s African-American kindergartners will go on to graduate from high school and complete a degree at a four-year California university."
The Gender Gap in African American Medical School Enrollments
Nationwide, women make up 47.2 percent of all medical school students in the United States. But for African Americans, the gender gap is significantly in favor of women.
New Study Documents Huge Racial Disparity in School Suspensions
The study by researchers at the Civil Rights Project at the University of California at Los Angeles found that up to 40 percent of all Black students in schools in Chicago, Dallas, Memphis, and St. Louis were suspended at least once during the school year.
HBCUs Hit Hard by NCAA Sanctions
Eighteen teams were penalized for the poor academic performance of their student athletes by being declared ineligible for postseason competition in the 2013-14 academic year. Of these 18 teams, 15 were teams at historically Black colleges and universities.
Research Finds Varying Racial Outcomes Among College Graduates of Art Programs
A new report from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) finds racial differences among students who majored in the arts in college. Some 60 percent of White graduates currently work as artists, compared to 53 percent of Black graduates.
University Project Aims to Restore Minorities’ Trust in Medical Research
A new project at the University of Maryland, entitled Building Trust Between Minorities and Researchers, offers information targeted at minorities about participation in research and clinical trials.
How the Ban on Race-Sensitive Admissions Impacts Black Enrollments at the University of Michigan
In order for racial parity to prevail in Michigan, the number of Black students in the entering class at the University of Michigan would have to nearly triple.
The Persisting Racial Gap in College Student Graduation Rates
In 2013 the graduation rate for Black students at the nation's largest universities that participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I is 44 percent. This is 22 percentage points below the rate for Whites.
Making Racial Health Disparities an Issue of Social Justice
The Social Equity Leadership Mobilization Alliance is a consortium established to mobilize the next generation of leaders in the public health field. Harvard, Brown, and Morehouse are members of the alliance.
No Progress in Closing the Racial Gap in Doctoral Degrees
In 2012, African Americans earned 2,079 doctoral degrees. This was 6.3 percent of all doctoral degrees awarded to U.S. citizens and permanent residents. In 2002, African Americans also earned 6.3 percent of all doctoral degrees.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Major Effort to Boost Faculty Diversity
Since the year 2000, the percentage of all faculty at Penn who were racial or ethnic minorities increased from 12.8 percent to 20.5 percent. But President Amy Gutmann says, "We still have more work to do."
Racial Differences in Educational Debt Levels for Doctoral Students
Blacks who earned doctorates in 2012 had an average of $54,132 in debt from educational loans. Whites who earned doctorates had average educational debts of $25,992.
The Racial Gap in College Graduation Rates
At publicly operated colleges and universities, 39.7 percent of Blacks earned their bachelor's degrees within six years from the same institution at which they enrolled in 2006 compared to 60.2 percent of Whites.
A Call to President Obama to Include Girls of Color in “My Brother’s Keeper”...
In an open letter to President Obama, a group of 1,000 women of color state that "the crisis facing young boys of color should not come at the expense of girls who live in the same households, suffer in the same schools, and endure the same struggles."
Ten Universities to Tackle the Problem of K-12 Teacher Diversity
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education has selected 10 universities to participate in a program with the goal of increasing the number of Black and other minority men who teach in the nation's public schools. Only 2 percent of public school teachers are Black males.
Black Degree Attainments in Engineering: Long Way to Go to Reach Parity
In 2005, Black earned 5.3 percent of all bachelor's degree awarded in engineering. In 2012, Blacks earned only 4.2 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in the discipline. Blacks did slightly better in graduate degrees in engineering.
University of Utah Project to Provide Prenatal Care to African Refugees
Aster Tecle, an assistant professor of social work, will co-lead The Perinatal Community Health Workers to Support African Refugee Women and Families that will train other African women to provide appropriate information, assistance, and prenatal care.
New ACT Test Results Show Very Few Black Students Are Prepared for College
According to the 2014 scores on the ACT college entrance examination, only one in 20 Black students were rated college-ready in all four areas: English, reading, mathematics and science. Whites were nearly seven times as likely as Blacks to be college ready in all four areas.
Academic Disciplines Where African Americans Earned No Doctoral Degrees in 2013
According to the National Science Foundation, there were 18 academic fields where none of the doctorates awarded in 2013 went to an African American. More than 1,800 doctorates were awarded in these fields.
Stanford Study Examines the Reasons Behind Racial Disparities in School Discipline
In controlled experiments, the researchers found that the stereotype of black students as "troublemakers" led teachers to want to discipline Black students more harshly than White students.
New Study Finds No Progress in Increasing Black Faculty in Chemistry
African Americans make up just 1 percent of the chemistry professors at the 50 U.S. colleges that have the largest budgets for chemical research. Thirty of these 50 schools have no Black chemistry faculty.
A Sharp Rise in Suicide Among Young African Americans
The study, led by scientists at Ohio State University, discovered that the overall suicide rate remained stable over the past 20 years but this obscured a significant increase in suicide incidence in Black children and a significant decrease among White children.
Stanford University Study Documents the Racial Gap in Neighborhood Affluence
The research found that Black families with an income of $50,000 live in a community where the average income is $42,579. Whites with an income of $50,000 live in a community where the average income is $53,000.
Increasing the Number of African American Cancer Researchers
The Minority Training Program in Cancer Control Research aims to encourage Black and other minority graduate students to pursue doctoral degrees and careers in research relating to cancer.
Study Finds Lack of Racial Diversity in Hollywood’s Top-Grossing Films
Only 17 percent of the films had a lead actor from an underrepresented minority group. In 2014, 17 of the top-grossing films did not feature one Black or African American speaking character. Less than 5 percent of the directors were Black.
A Large Racial Gap Persists in ACT Test Scores
The average score for Blacks on the ACT college admissions test in 2015 was lower than for any other racial or ethnic group including American Indians, Hispanics, and Pacific Islanders. The racial gap in ACT scores has remained relatively constant for many years.
The Growing Racial Gap in SAT Scores
Since 2006 when the SAT college entrance examination was revised, the racial scoring gap on the combined reading, mathematics, and writing sections of the SAT has increased by eight points.
