The Huge Racial Gap in Debt for College Graduates
Four years after they graduate from college, Black students have an average debt load that is $25,000 more than White students who had graduated from college four years earlier. And the amount of debt held by African American college graduates, when adjusted for inflation, has increased sixfold in the past 15 years.
New Report Examines Racial Differences in Computer Science Education
Among the findings of a a new report from Google is the fact that only 47 percent of Black students nationwide attend schools that have courses in computer science, compared to 58 percent of White students.
Analysis Finds That Students of All Races Prefer Teachers of Color
A new study by researchers at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University finds that middle and high school students of all races have a more favorable opinion of Black and Latino teachers than they do of White teachers.
Study Finds Low Black Student Enrollments at Top-Tier Public Universities
The study found that just 9 percent of all Black students enrolled in higher education nationwide attended high-ranking, state-operated research universities. For Whites the figure was 19 percent.
Higher Education Does Little to Shrink the Racial Gap in Earnings
The data from the Economic Policy Institute shows that there is an hourly racial wage gap of about $3.75 for Black and White workers with a high school diploma but no further education. But for those with a bachelor's degree or a graduate degree, there is a racial wage gap of more than $6 an hour.
New Study Finds a Strong Link Between Lead in the Environment and Lower Test...
A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economics Research finds that children's exposure to lead in their environment can have a significant effect on their tests scores. Many Black children from low-income families live in older housing where lead-based paint was used.
Remedial Education Is a “Black Hole From Which Many African Americans Won’t Emerge”
A significant percentage of the students who have to take these remedial education classes are African Americans. Some 56 percent of all African American college students enroll in some type of remedial education course compared to 35 percent of White students.
Study Examines Causes of the Lack of Racial Diversity in the Legal Profession
Blacks are only 7 percent of the students admitted to the nation's law schools. They are only 4.3 percent of the associates and 2 percent of the partners at U.S. law firms. A new study finds that increased mobility in the legal labor market coupled with less access to leadership networks by Black attorneys is a factor.
Study Finds Army Vets Are More Comfortable With Racial Residential Integration Than Non-Vets
A new study by sociologists at the University of Massachusetts and the University of Connecticut finds that soldiers' experiences with racial integration in the military result in veterans being more willing to live in racially integrated neighborhoods once they return to civilian life.
Study Examines Whether African Students at Western Universities Return to Africa
The return rate to Africa has been declining. In the 1970s, 65 percent of the African scholars who earned degrees at Western universities returned to Africa. Since 2010 the rate is only 40 percent.
New Federal Data on Pell Grant Participation and Median Income of Recipients
The U.S. Department of Education recently released a new report on participation in the Pell Grant program. The need-based program provides up to $5,815 annually in federal funds for college students.
Northwestern University Report Examines the Black Student Experience on Campus
A new report issued by the Black Student Experience Taskforce at Northwestern University presents a detailed look at the status of African American students at the university.
Scholars Identify Diversity in the English Language Used Online by Different Ethnic Groups
The goal of the study was to identify online language usage by African Americans so that search engines like Google will be better able to serve a more diverse population of users.
Study Finds a False Promise of Trade School Education for Low-Income Black Youth
A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University at Buffalo finds that Black students who enroll at for-profit trade schools often wind up more in debt and with fewer job prospects than their peers who enrolled at two-year or four-year nonprofit educational institutions.
Among High School Seniors Illicit Drug Use Is Lower for Blacks Than for Whites
A new report from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan finds that illicit drug use is more prevalent among White students who are about to enter college than it is among African American students who are about to enter their college years.
University Study Finds a Continuing Racial Gap in Hollywood Productions
The University of Southern California study found that of the 100 top-grossing films in 2015, people of color were 26 percent of all the actors who held speaking roles. Seventeen of the 100 top-grossing films had no Black characters whatsoever. Only three of the 100 top-grossing films had a woman of color in a leading role.
Black-Owned Firms Remain Only a Tiny Slice of the American Economic Pie
New data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that in 2014 there were 108,473 Black-owned firms with paid employees, making up just 11 percent of all firms designated by the Census Bureau as minority-owned. Black-owned firms made up just 2 percent of all businesses with paid employees.
Study Finds That School Zero-Tolerance Discipline Policies Do More Harm Than Good
A new study by F. Chris Curran, an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, finds that zero-tolerance public school disciplinary policies may produce racial disparities in school suspensions and expulsions which could hinder the academic success rates of African American students.
Tracking the Status of African Americans at Vanderbilt University
Blacks make up 8 percent of the undergraduates and 5 percent of the graduate students at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. But Blacks make up just 3 percent of the tenure-track faculty at the university.
University of Georgia Study Examines Blacks’ Reluctance to Seek Treatment for Depression
A new study led by Rosalyn Denise Campbell, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia, finds that the stigma of mental illness in the African American community has a major dragging effect on the rate of Black Americans who seek treatment for depression.
Georgetown University Examines Its Ties to the Slave Trade
Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., announced that a memorial to slaves who were sold by the university in 1838 would be built on campus. Also preferential treatment in university admissions will be given to the descendants of the university's former slaves.
Race and Rural Location Impact Black Students’ Access to College
Interviews with African Americans in rural high schools found that students overwhelmingly felt that they had encouragement and support to go to college, yet didn't have access to academically rigorous classes or enough one-on-one time with a counselor to get help with the college admission process.
University of Michigan Study Finds Many Black Men Routinely Face Discrimination
The findings included data that found that 20 percent of Black men reported that people they encountered acted like they were better than them on a daily or weekly basis. One in 10 Black men said that people acted as if they were afraid of them.
Tracking The Snail-Like Progress of Faculty Diversity
A new report from the TIAA Institute finds that African Americans have made only slight progress in increasing their percentage of faculty positions in higher education over the past two decades. And the gains that have been made are mostly in non-tenure-track positions.
“Handholding” of Young Black Males in High School May Hinder Their Success Later On
Chezare A. Warren conducted a study that found that special attention given to Black males in urban high school classrooms may not serve them well later in life.
UCSF Study Finds Racial Disparity in Prescriptions for Opioids at Emergency Rooms
Researchers examined data from more than 60 million pain-related emergency room visits between 2007 and 2011. They found that in cases where there was no definite outward sign of a pain-producing injury, Black patients were half as likely as White patients to be given prescriptions for opioids.
Do Young Black Students Do Better When They Have a Black Teacher?
A new study by researchers at the University of Virginia’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning suggests that the racial or ethnic heritage of the teachers in the front of pre-kindergarten classrooms can make a big difference in the performance of students.
New Discovery May Improve Treatment for Those Who Suffer From Sickle Cell Disease
A study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University, MIT , Florida Atlantic University, and the University of Korea reports on a discovery that may help physicians treat those who suffer from sickle cell disease.
Duke University Scholar Finds That “Beauty Is in the Ear of the Beholder”
A new study by Robert L. Reece, a doctoral candidate in sociology at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, finds that when test subjects are told a person is of mixed-racial heritage that person is perceived as more attractive than when test subjects are told the person is Black.
Report Documents the Large and Growing Racial Wealth Gap
Wealth is a major factor in college affordability for American families. And a new report shows that the racial wealth gap in the United States is huge and expanding.
Will the Internet Serve to Raise Black Participation in Medical Research?
In a study of nearly 1,000 people, researchers analyzed DNA to determine genetic factors that were linked to smoking behavior and nicotine additions. Black participants were far less likely to go online to find out if they had these genetic variations that increased their risk.
A New Database of Peer-Reviewed Articles on Black Males in Education
Louis Harrison and Anthony Brown of the University of Texas at Austin have created The Black Male Education Research Collection. The new website is a repository of research on issues relating to Black men in all levels of education, with a special emphasis on higher education.
Report Finds a Decline in Hate Speech at the Nation’s Schools
The U.S. Department of Education report found that in 2013, 7 percent of all students ages 12 to 18 were called a hate-related word at school in 2013. This is down from 12 percent a decade earlier.
How to Increase Diversity in Biomedical Science Research
A new report from by the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Association of American Medical Colleges offers strategies for increasing the number of biomedical researchers from underrepresented groups.
New Academic Study Offers a Clue to Explain Racial Differences in Breastfeeding Rates
One surprising finding of a new study that may explain racial differences in breastfeeding rates is the fact that the authors found that Black mothers were nine times as likely as White mothers to be given formula for their babies when they were still in the hospital.
Study Finds a Persisting Racial Gap in National Institute of Health Grant Awards
A new academic study finds that race appears to still play a role in the awarding of grants from the National Institutes of Health but the gender of the grant applicant apparently no longer plays a significant role.
