Research & Studies

According to new survey from the Afterschool Alliance, parents of some 5.7 million Black children want to enroll them in afterschool activities, yet only 1.3 million Black children currently attend such programs.

Compared to their White and Hispanic peers, Black teens are more likely to use nearly every social media platform, particularly YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. Over a third of Black teens say they are constantly on TikTok or YouTube on a daily basis.

In 2025, 24.3 percent of the 111 directors who made the 100 top-performing films were made by a director of an underrepresented racial background. Just 43 Black men and 11 Black women have directed a movie included in the 1,900 top-performing films since 2007.

A new report published in the Tennessee Lookout has examined just how much money the state of Tennessee owes Tennessee State University as a result of missed land-grant funding, disparities in per pupil funding between the HBCU and the University of Tennessee, and segregation scholarships that took money directly from the TSU budget.

While total student enrollment at the University of Missouri has declined by roughly 10 percent over the past decade, Black student enrollment has decreased by about 34 percent. Only 85 of more than 2,200 current faculty members are Black. Just 36 of these Black faculty members have tenure or tenure-track status.

First appearing in 1892, the boll weevil destroyed much of the country's cotton crops by 1922, affecting a significant portion of Black farmers. A new study has found this agricultural shock, which caused many Black fathers to migrate to other areas or change their occupation, may have led to long-term economic benefits for Black sons born after the boll weevil first appeared.

According to a new study from the United Negro College Fund, some 60 percent of high school students in the Northeast, Midwest, or Western United States are not at all or only slightly familiar with historically Black colleges and universities, suggesting an urgent need for teachers and school counselors to increase students' awareness of these institutions.

A new report from the Legal Defense Fund and Thurgood Marshall Institute analyzes several areas of college admissions processes where race, class, and gender biases can be baked into decision-making and outlines ways to make college admissions more fair for students of all backgrounds.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Research has released a new report advocating for the sixth reauthorization of the the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, which allocates funding for state career and technical programs. According to the report, these programs provide a key pathway for the economic mobility and educational attainment for Black students.

For the 2025-2026 academic year, Black students represented 11.3 percent of all applicants, but only 8.4 percent of all matriculants to medical schools in the United States. This is a significant decline from 2021-2022, when Black students' representation among medical school matriculants peaked at 11.7 percent.

In addition to Black adults' overall higher cancer mortality rate compared to White adults, a new report from the American Cancer Society found significant cancer mortality rate disparities within the Black American population based on education.

A new study led by Dr. Sandra Iregbu of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has found that when African Americans with poorly-controlled type 2 diabetes perceive their condition as unchangeable, their mental health suffers, potentially leading to worse clinical outcomes.

“Banning DEI policies in higher education directly contradicts their fundamental purpose: to eliminate barriers to equal opportunity and create more equitable academic institutions,” the report authors write. “Without these programs, systemic disparities are likely to persist and widen, thereby reinforcing inequities in education, employment, and social mobility.”

For decades, research has documented African Americans' lower levels of trust in scientific institutions compared to Americans of other racial groups. According to a new study, this may be largely due to the persistent lack of racial diversity in the STEM workforce.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, about one-third of Black Americans would rather live in the past than in present day, while one-fifth would prefer to live sometime in the future. Notably, half of White Americans would choose to live in the past, while just 10 percent would choose the future.

In the 2023-24 academic year, there were 112,552 scholars from foreign nations teaching at colleges and universities in the United States. This was a 10 percent increase from the previous year.

Overall, 61.1 percent of college students who began their postsecondary education in fall 2019 graduated within six years. However, for Black students, just 44.0 percent completed their degree by 2025 - the lowest completion rate among all major racial groups.

According to a new survey from Pew Research Center, some 95 percent of all Black adults - regardless of their religious affiliation - believe in a God or universal spirit, with nearly three-quarters believing so with absolute certainty. In contrast, just over half of Hispanic and White adults and a third of Asian adults express the same conviction.

Of all American students studying abroad in all areas of the globe during the 2023-24 academic year, about 6.1 percent, were African Americans. Twenty years ago in the 2003-04 academic year, African Americans were 3.4 percent of all American students who studied abroad.

While the average U.S. household spends 3.2 percent of their income on utility bills, Black households spend an average of 5.1 percent of their income on energy expenses. This disparity holds true even when comparing households in majority-White and majority-Black neighborhoods with similar income levels.