Racial Gap

In 2011, 223,000 African American high school seniors took the American College Testing Program's ACT college entrance examination. This is an increase of 47 percent from 2007. While there was a slight improvement from last year's average score of 16.9, this year's score is exactly the same average score that black students achieved in 2007. For whites the average ACT score in 2007 was 22.6. By 2011 the average white score had improved a full point to 23.6.

A new study led by Donna K. Ginther found that black scientists were 13 percentage points less likely than white scientists to win grants from the National Institutes of Health.

After significant improvements in black enrollments at U.S. dental schools, the progress has halted. In the 2009-10 academic year, blacks remained stuck at 5.7 percent of all dental school enrollments, unchanged from 2005.

Black freshman enrollments at the University of South Carolina are up about 8 percent from a year ago, when 287 black freshmen enrolled. While African Americans make up 28 percent of the college-age population in South Carolina, blacks make up only 7 percent of the first-year enrollments at the state's flagship university.

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn recently signed legislation creating the Commission to End the Disparities Facing the African-American Community.

Girls make up nearly half of the total enrollments at the high school level. But only 14 percent of the students in higher education in Rwanda are women.

Project PRE MED will invite black and other minority college students to campus for a weekend this October.

This summer 10 undergraduate students participated in a six-week program at Duke University designed to increase the number of minorities in nursing.

There are 5,500 freshman students this year, an increase of 10 percent from a year ago.

The U.S. Department of Education recently released data on the success rate of the cohort of students who entered higher education in the fall of 2003.

A new study from the Pew Research Center shows that during the recent recession, the wealth gap has grown even wider.

The American Bar Association is considering a new proposal that would call for an 80 percent bar passage rate or a rate that is no more than 10 percentage points below that of other law schools in the state.

A study by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center finds a racial disparity in care for stroke victims.

Shoppers at Kroger Food Stores in North Texas now have the opportunity to contribute to the United Negro College Fund from now through September 10. Coin canisters have been placed at all checkout counters to encourage shoppers to deposit contributions to help students at the UNCF’s 39 member colleges and universities.