Seventy years following the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, many Black students across the nation still do not have access to equitable educational opportunities in early childhood, K-12, or higher education compared with other students, according to a new report from the Southern Education Foundation.
The report highlights data and research findings on a wide range of persistent inequities that many Black students still face today–from limited access to high-quality early childhood education to inequitable K-12 school funding, less-experienced teachers, fewer opportunities to take advanced courses, harmful school discipline practices, and lower rates of college affordability and access.
Among the study’s higher education highlights:
- College affordability: Black Americans are disproportionately burdened by college-tuition debt. Four years after graduation, Black college graduates owed an average of 188 percent more on student loans than White students borrowed, a recent analysis found.
- College enrollment: Only about 12.5 percent of college students are Black. Disproportionately low numbers of Black students have the same access to Advanced Placement courses as many of their peers.
- College success: Black students complete degrees at considerably lower average rates than many of their peers.
- For two-year degrees, Black full-time students had a two-year degree completion rate of 26.7 percent within three years, compared with 34.6 percent for all students.
- For four-year degrees, Black students’ had a four-year degree completion rate of 45 percent within six years, compared to 64 percent for all students.