Balance (1965 - 1990)
Changing Demographics: Minorities & Higher Ed
As with all young people, the high school graduation rates for African-American youths climbed slowly but steadily from the 1960s until the 1980s. In 1967, approximately 56% of African-Americans, 18-24 years old, graduated from high school. In 1986, the percentage of 18-24 year old African-Americans who graduated from high school was 76%.
The college attendance rates for African-American young people during this time increased slightly but were not as steady. There were gains between 1965 and 1975 but some erosion of these gains after the mid-1970s. The percentage of African-Americans, 18-24 years old, enrolled in college increased from 23% in 1967 to 29% in 1986. This is below the high rate of 33% recorded in 1976. The attendance rates for Hispanic-American students mirrors that of African-American students.
However, those who study college attendance do not know if the higher rate of minority attendance in the mid-1970s is simply a bubble or a peak. If it is a peak, then later attendance rates would be seen as a declining trend. If it is a bubble, then it would simply be an anomaly in an otherwise steady but slow increase in college attendance for minorities.
However, the college attendance gap between minorities (both African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans) and their white counterparts still exists.
African-Americans historically had lower college attendance rates when compared to white students. In 1964, the gap between white and black students, ages 18-24, enrolled in college was 14%. By 1986, the gap was 7%, a reduction of 50%. However, there have not been any further gains in reducing this gap through the 1980s.
By 1990, the College Board sponsored and published Changing the Odds: Factors Increasing Access to College by Sol H. Pelavin and Michael Kane. In the report, Pelavin and Kane explore the relationship between curriculum, race, and college attendance.
Pelavin and Kane found that in terms of persistence to the bachelor's degree, only 17% of black students and 11% of Hispanic students who went directly to college after high school graduation attained senior status after four years. For whites, that percentage is 33%. This points to the need to sustain minority students' attendance in higher education.
Pelavin and Kane did find correlation between the courses taken in secondary school with college attendance and persistence. They found that those enrolled in academic courses had higher rates of postsecondary participation. This implies that if talented minorities can be identified, properly guided, and given advanced academic courses, then their chances at success in postsecondary educational institutions are greater.
