Black and Hispanic students are less likely to graduate college, study finds

Tower Center Research Associate Dominique Baker published a paper, “The Racial College Completion Gap: Evidence From Texas” with Stella Flores and Toby Park in the Journal of Higher Education.

Baker found in her research that the college completion gap has more to do with precollege characteristics such as high school and other individual context factors, than post-secondary characteristics such as how colleges attribute funding.

The key factors driving the gap more specifically were poverty and attending high-minority high schools. The gap persists even while college enrollment is on the rise and even though the majority of students in public schools are non-white.

Follow the discussion of Baker’s study at SMU Research or read a review of the paper in the Houston Chronicle.