Achievement Gap: 10 Reasons Minority Students Aren’t Finishing College

While the freshman population at most colleges is a pretty accurate representation of the diversity in America, the group of students who will stick around to graduate isn’t. In recent years, graduation rates have plummeted overall but especially for students who are of African-American, Hispanics, and Native American backgrounds. More minority students may be heading to college, but a significant portion simply aren’t staying in school long enough to finish their degrees.

College completion is a problem for all students, but there are a number of factors that make it especially hard for minority students to finish a two- or four-year degree. Here, we touch on some of those issues, and offer insights into the ways that some schools are helping to overcome these hurdles and keeping minorities in school until graduation.

1. Poor high school education.

   Many minority students struggle with college from the get-go because they haven’t had access to high quality high school academic programs. As a result, many are behind and have to take remedial classes in order to catch up and be at the level of their peers. While poor college readiness is a problem across the board, it’s an especially big issue for minority students. A recent College Board test found that only 23% of African American, Hispanic, and American Indian students hit the benchmark for readiness in math, fewer than 15% for science, and more than half didn’t meet any benchmarks at all.

2. Financial struggles.

   College is expensive and the skyrocketing levels of tuition have hit all those who want to get a college degree. Yet while keeping up with rising tuition costs is hard for all students, this and other financial concerns have a greater effect on minority students than it does on their white or Asian counterparts. Why? Minority students are more likely to come from families without the resources to fully finance a college education, making them reliant on financial aid and their own ability to earn enough to pay for courses. In a time when student aid is being cut and jobs are hard to come by, students are increasingly having to choose paying rent and buying food over financing a college education, and minority students are being hit hardest of all.

3. Stereotypes.

   As odd as it may seem, stereotypes can and do play a role in minority students’ level of college completion. It’s called the “stereotype threat” and it’s an all-too-real phenomenon that hampers the success of many minority students on college campuses. For many, the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype or doing something to inadvertently confirm a negative stereotype, in this case that minority students aren’t as smart or as capable as other students, can become a crippling fear. While not only minorities are subject to stereotype threat, it has long been discussed as one of the reasons that minority students struggle to stick with college, as it can cause a sense of self-doubt, ambiguity, and stress that sometimes results in a loss of motivation, feelings of not belonging, and even acceptance that the stereotype is true.

4. Lack of advisement and support.

   Nothing illuminates just how poor advisement and support is for minority students at most schools like an example of a school that is getting it right. At most colleges, minority students don’t get open access to mentors, coaches, support groups, and academic advisement, but there are many schools that are changing that, realizing that providing these kinds of services is one of the easiest and most successful ways to improve minority college completion rates. Take Notre Dame, for example. The school has a strong support system for students through the Multicultural Student Programs and Services office, which assigns minority students to faculty mentors and provides multicultural activities, as well as a wealth of other resources. The result? Completion rates for African-American and Hispanic students are only 1.1% lower than the school-wide average. Similar schools report a 10% gap. Advisement and support can make a huge difference, and with many colleges not providing the right kind of services, minority completion rates continue to suffer.

5. Lack of on-campus engagement.

   It isn’t just academic life that helps keep students enrolled at colleges or drives them to drop out. Social engagement also plays a major role in keeping all students, but especially minorities, in school through graduation. Research has shown that when students get involved in campus activities, build relationships with their peers, and feel that they belong on campus their chances of dropping out fall significantly. For minority students, that often means being able to find groups of students who come from similar backgrounds. On some campuses, this is easy, but other, less diverse schools need to do more to make sure that students from all racial and cultural backgrounds feel accepted and valued if they want to improve completion rates.

6. Family history.

   Plenty of people become the first in their family to graduate from college, but to pretend that coming from a background of college graduates doesn’t play a role in college success is disingenuous. Research from the Pell Institute shows that first-generation, low-income students make up 30% of current college students, yet of those 4.5 million students, just 11% are expected to graduate. Graduation rates of non-first-generation students hover around 55%, creating a huge disparity between those who come from college-educated families and those who do not. Because first-generation students are less likely to be academically and financially prepared for school they are four times more likely to drop out. It isn’t a problem without a solution, however. At some colleges, these first generation students get support and mentoring, and at the University of Cincinnati, there’s even student housing exclusively for first-generation students.

7. No academic mentors.

   It isn’t always enough for students to just engage with peers who are from similar backgrounds; many struggle at schools where few professors are minorities. It’s hard for some students to believe that they can be successful or get ahead in academics and business without legitimate role models who can show them that not only is it possible, it’s attainable right at their very own institution. Sadly, few college faculty members are minorities nationwide. Consider this: nearly 30% of college students are minorities, but only 12% of full-time faculty members are minorities. Many minorities students may have had few teachers of their race for their entire academic careers, as many states have huge discrepancies between the number of minority students and minority teachers, a factor many believe is contributing to greater dropout rates in high school, and may be playing a role in higher education as well.

8. Some colleges aren’t set up for minority success.

   The racial achievement gap in college graduation isn’t the same for every college. In fact, some colleges actually have higher graduation rates for minorities than white students. It is possible for schools to erase many of the completion problems minorities have in college, but it takes a lot of work and many colleges simply aren’t set up for minority success. Colleges that have created solutions to many of the other problems on this list have far greater levels of college completion for their minority students, and many have seen huge jumps in graduation rates within just a few short years of implementing new programs. Yet if colleges simply stick to what they’ve been doing in the past, little will change and minority students may continue to struggle for years to come.

9. Low expectations.

   The schools that have been the most successful in improving their graduation rates for minority students share a common strategy: they promote equity and high academic achievement in all students, regardless of background, and provide the academic and social support necessary to help students to meet that goal. As odd as it might sound, students are more likely to stick with school and perform better while in school at any level when they are challenged and expected to succeed. Students need to feel that they were accepted to a school because they can do well, and when given the support and guidance of faculty, can often meet those goals. Success breeds success, and this kind of supporting and challenging environment, when coupled with other minority-friendly programs, leads to far greater levels of college completion than are found in other schools that have much lower expectations of students.

10. Many minority students are part of other at-risk groups.

    Racial and ethnic status aside, many minority students are at a higher risk of dropping out of college because they fit a range of categories that have low college completion rates. Minority students are more likely to be transfer students, attend school part-time, work full- or part-time jobs, have enrollment delays, and have to take remedial courses. All of these factors can significantly lower a student’s chances of graduating from college, even when compared to those who don’t share these factors within the same minority group. Consider this: African-American students who delay enrollment only have a 32% completion rate, while those who head to school right after college have a 54% completion rate. To really help minority students improve graduation rates, schools need to not only help provide a better environment for minorities but also concentrate on better services for students coming from non-traditional backgrounds.