Americans Are Unaware of the Vast Racial Disparities in Economic Well-Being
The researchers weighed participants’ estimates on several economic indicators against federal data and found that average estimates of current levels of racial economic equality exceeded reality by roughly 25 percent.
University of Georgia Led Study Examines Huge Racial Disparity in Felony Convictions
The study determined that African American men were five times as likely as the general population to have served time in prison. The study also found that 8 percent of the overall population had been convicted of a felony at some point in their lives. But the rate for African American men is 33 percent.
Examining the Data on Black Enrollments in U.S. Graduate Schools
According to a new report by the Council on Graduate Schools, in 2016, there were 184,235 Black students enrolled in graduate programs in the United States. They made up 10 percent of total enrollments. Women made up nearly 70 percent of all Black enrollments in graduate education.
Voters Don’t Punish Elected School Board Members for Low Black Student Academic Achievement
A new study finds that voters are likely to punish elected school board members when the academic achievement of White students in their district is not up to expectations. But they found no similar effect when Black student achievement lagged expectations.
Racial Differences in the Care and Education of Young Children in the United States
Some 68 percent of African American children under the age of 6 are cared for by people other than their parents each week. Some 20 percent of Black children under the age of six who are cared for in a facility outside of the home, are in a care center in a public school.
Study Examines the Racial Wage Gap for Faculty at Public Universities
Black faculty earned lower salaries, on average, compared to White faculty — approximately $10,000 to $15,000 less per year. The authors found that wage gaps were largely due to three factors: amount of work experience, research productivity and field of expertise.
Study Examines Voter Turnout Among African American College Students
The turnout rate for all African American college students declined by 5.3 percentage points in 2016 when compared to the 2012 rate. At historically Black colleges and universities the student voter turnout rate had a much steeper decline.
The Large Racial Poverty Gap and Its Impact on Higher Education
The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual report on poverty in the United States. The report shows that in 2016, 9,234,000 African Americans were living below the official poverty line in the United States. This was 22 percent of the entire Black population.
Diversity in Friendships at School Can Lead to Greater Academic Success
A new study by scholars at the University of California, Davis finds that early adolescents’ grades were higher when they socialized with peers from other ethnicities. Researchers examined the lunch companions of 800 sixth grade students in three states and examined differences in their grades.
Psychologists Find White College Students Continue to Hold Prejudicial Beliefs
A new study finds that many White college students continue to harbor racists beliefs. These beliefs lead many White students to communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults in the form of microaggressions.
A Slight Improvement in the Still Large Racial Gap in Median Household Income
The median income of Black households in the United States in 2016 was $39,490. For non-Hispanic White households in 2016, the median income figure was $65,041. Despite a small improvement this year, the racial gap in median income has remained virtually unchanged for nearly a half century.
The Huge Racial Gap in College Readiness as Measured by the ACT Test
Some 35 percent of Whites who took the ACT test were deemed college ready in all four areas of English, mathematics, reading, and science. For Blacks, only 6 percent of all test takers were deemed college ready in all four areas.
The Business Schools With the Most Faculty From Underrepresented Groups
The survey by the PhD Project found that there are 22 faculty members from underrepresented groups at the business school at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro. This was the largest number of any business school in the United States.
Differences in Treatment for Those Who Suffer Cardiac Arrest by Racial Makeup of Neighborhood
A new study, led by a Duke University School of Medicine scholar, found that people who live in predominantly White neighborhoods are much more likely than people who live in predominantly Black neighborhoods to be treated with CPR or a defibrillator after suffering cardiac arrest.
Racial/Ethnic Differences in the College Application Process
For those students who entered high school in 2009 and had applied to college by 2013, 37 percent of Black students had applied to only one college. Some 23 percent of all Black students had applied to five or more colleges.
Racial Gap in Home Ownership Is Significant at All Educational Levels
Some 70 percent of Whites with a college degree own their home. But less than half of African American college graduates own their home. Even more striking is the fact that the racial gap in home ownership rates for college graduates has actually increased since 1980.
College Students Found to Have Unconscious Racial Bias Toward Black Athletes
A study led by Patrick Ferrucci, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Colorado, suggests that unconscious racial bias, propagated in part by sports media, still influences how the public views the quarterback position in the game of football.
Black Students Making Significant Progress in Eligibility for California State Universities
A new report by Research Triangle International found that for the California State University System in 2007, the eligibility gap between White and Black students was 13.1 percent. But by 2015 it had declined to 9.8 percent. For the University of California System, the racial eligibility gap dropped from 8.3 percentage points in 2007 to 5.4 points in 2015.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Study Seeks to End Racial Disparity in Breast Cancer Survival Rates
A new research project at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee seeks to determine if a program aimed at increasing exercise among women who have had breast cancer can contribute to a reduction in the racial disparity in breast cancer survival rates.
New Department of Education Report Provides Demographic Data on the Nation’s Teachers
According to the report, in the 2015–16 school year, there were an estimated 3,827,100 teachers in the nation's public schools. Of these, 6.7 percent were African Americans.
Mandatory Free College Entrance Examinations Can Boost Enrollments of Low-Income Students
The data showed that that for every 10 students from low-income families who took a college entrance exam before they were mandatory, there were an additional five students who didn’t take the test but who would score well enough to get into college if they did.
Arizona State Historian Wins Fellowship to Study African Americans’ Views on World War II
Matthew Delmont, a professor of history and director of the School of Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies at Arizona State University, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship that will allow him to conduct research on how African American viewed World War II at the time the war was being waged.
Michigan State Scholar Developing App to Allow Teachers to Analyze Classroom Bias
The Equity Quantified in Participation (EQUIP) program will record classroom interactions between teachers and students. The program will then analyze the data to see if these interactions are different based on the student's race, ethnicity, or gender.
University of Virginia Historian Documents How Black-Owned Land Was Stolen
Dr. Andrew W. Kahrl is conducting research on how tax liens and tax sales became a tool used by predatory land speculators to acquire Black-owned land. Dr. Kahrl discovered that local officials assessed Black property owners at highly inflated rates in an effort to tax them off the land.
Racial Differences in Sleep Patterns Impact Overall Racial Health Disparities
A new study by researchers at Auburn University in Alabama, Northwestern University in Illinois, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison finds that a lack of sleep is a major contributing factor in higher incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes among African Americans.
Study Analyzes Factors That Influence Academic Success of Athletes at HBCUs
The study found that "there was a significant relationship between academic performance and current living arrangements. Participants that lived on campus performed better academically than those that lived in other housing arrangements."
University of California-Led Study Finds Noise Pollution Highest in Black Neighborhoods
The researchers found a strong correlation between noise and race. The study found that neighborhoods with at least 75 percent Black residents had median night-time noise levels 4 decibels higher than in neighborhoods without any Black residents. Traffic noise was the biggest source of noise pollution.
Growth of Minority-Owned Employer Firms Outpaces Growth for All Firms
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of Entrepreneurs shows that the number of minority-owned firms with paid employees increased by 5 percent in 2015 compared to 2014. This growth was more than double the rate for employer firms as a whole.
Advanced Placement Course Provides a Huge Boost to Underrepresented Students in Computer Science
A new Advanced Placement Program for high school students is increasing the number of young students from underrepresented groups who are taking courses in computer science.
Education Department Report Documents Educational Inequality in the United States
The report contains data on African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians and other ethnic groups. There are detailed tables on enrollments, educational achievement, retention, student behavior, degree attainments, and outcomes of education.
For Black High School Students Math Tracking May Not Make Sense
In a project designed by researchers at the University of South Carolina, Black students assigned to a remedial mathematics track were instead taught algebra. Ninety percent of the students passed the course.
New Report Shows Blacks Still Lag in Degree Attainments
In the 2015-16 academic year, Blacks earned 10.2 percent of all degrees granted by four-year educational institutions in the United States. Blacks women outpaced Black men by a large margin at all levels of degree attainment.
Is Federal Graduation Rate Data Unfair to HBCUs?
A new report from the American Council on Education shows that the methodology used by the U.S. Department of Education to compute the graduation rate at HBCUs paints an unfair picture of the performance of these educational institutions in graduating their students.
New Research Shows Blacks and Other Minorities Receive Unequal Mortgage Services
A new study conducted at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan finds that Black and other minority customers experience inferior and possibly unfair service from retail banks on mortgage products.
Survey Finds Widespread Racial and Sexual Harassment in Astronomy and Planet Science
Researchers surveyed a large group of professionals and found that 39 percent of all respondents reported that they had been verbally harassed and 9 percent stated that they have been physically harassed at work within the past five years. Women of color were the most likely to be victims.
Study Finds Record Labels Glorify Antisocial Themes But Consumers Prefer Prosocial Music
Antisocial themes appeared 47 percent more frequently in songs at the top of the Billboard charts than in the songs popular on Facebook. And for the songs more popular on Facebook, pro-social themes appeared 16.5 percent more frequently than in the songs popular on the Billboard charts.
