Study Questions Critique of Graduation Rates at Minority Institutions

New research from professors at Florida State and Vanderbilt Universities questions the assumption that minority students will be less likely to graduate at minority-serving than at predominantly white institutions. The study acknowledges graduation rates are lower, on average, for black students at historically black colleges and universities and Latino students Hispanic-serving institutions than for the same groups at other colleges and universities. But when the scholars controlled for such factors as student educational background and institutional resources, they found that graduation rates were comparable. The scholars who did the research are Stella Flores, associate professor of public policy and higher education at Vanderbilt, and Toby Park, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Florida State.