Graduation Rates of Black Students at Top STEM Colleges and Universities ... Part 1

Originally published in October 2012 ... Last revision: Friday 8/8/14 @ 11:47 pm

WARNING: Some versions of Microsoft's browser, Internet Explorer, show less than one fifth of the content of this report ==> Missing Tables 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, Table 2, Figure 1, and associated commentaries. Please use Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to read the full report. Thank you. 

 "The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men."
W.E.B. DuBois, The Talented Tenth, September, 1903

At the beginning of 20th century, Black America's Talented Tenth were mostly educated at the colleges and universities that have come to be known as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), as per the data presented by Dr. DuBois in his famous essay.  One hundred years later,  as the Supreme Court produces a steady stream of decisions that will inevitably make affirmative action based on considerations of race to be illegal (e.g., Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action), where are the Talented Tenth being educated today?

Part 1 presents the data ... Conclusions derived from the data are presented in Part 2

The abolition of segregation in our nation's schools by the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision, the landmark Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s, and the affirmative action initiatives encouraged by this legislation empowered black students to attend any institution of higher learning, not just the HBCUs. So the questions becomes: How many members of the Talented Tenth are currently attending the nation's most prestigious colleges and universities? And how well are they doing?

A. Criteria for Selecting High STEM Institutions
Success in any society is allocated to specific clusters of skills. In today's global knowledge-based economies, success is increasingly allocated to skills in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This suggests that a substantial segment of the Talented Tenth will be found in the colleges and universities that are the most esteemed centers for acquiring skills in STEM.  

• It seems reasonable to assume that the students with the strongest skills in STEM would cluster in the colleges and universities that they perceived to be the best places for enhancing these skills. Accordingly, the author selected the institutions that the U.S. Department of Education's IPEDS database recorded as having the highest math scores on their SAT exams because math skills are prerequisites for science, engineering, technology, and (of course) mathematics.
  
  Specifically, the author searched the IPEDS database for institutions that reported SAT scores for their students that were greater than or equal to 600 for their 25th percentiles in the Fall 2010 semester. In on other words, the author selected the colleges and universities wherein 75 percent of the students scored at least 600 on their SAT math exams.  
   
• This criterion has some obvious deficiencies. For example, not all institutions require applicants to take the Collge Board's examinations; not all schools report their students' SAT scores to IPEDS; some elite institutions, like Rockefeller University,  Claremont Graduate University, and some schools of medicine don't have undergraduate divisions; and, of course, high SAT scores are not necessarily the most valid measures of mathematical aptitude. No matter. The list of colleges and universities that satisfied this criterion in the Fall 2010 semester, as shown in first column of Table 2 at the bottom of this note, contains a high enough share of the nation's most eminent institutions of higher learning to be good enough for the purposes of this exploration.

B. Findings -- Summary Tables
The information extracted from IPEDS for each elite institution appears in Table 2 in the Appendix at the bottom of this note.  However greater insight will be obtained by examining a series of smaller tables that tabulate this data from various perspectives.

• Table 1A. Types of Institutions
  

  Sector	Research	Non-Research	Totals
  Private	39	41	80
  Public	16	3	19
  Totals	55	44	99

  
  -- 99 institutions had the required high SAT math scores
  -- Most were private, there being slightly more than four times as many private institutions (80) as public (19)

• Table 1B. Black Enrollments

Sector	Research	Non-Research	Totals	Sector %
Private	31,721	4,487	36,208	60%
Public	23,677	446	24,123	40%
Totals	55,398	4,933	60,331
Research %	92%	8%


-- The vast majority of the 60,331 black students (92%) were enrolled in research institutions
-- Most (60%) were enrolled in private institutions; but a substantial minority (40%) were enrolled in public institutions

• Table 1C. Medians of the Black Deltas
  

  Sector	Research	Non-Research	Overall
  Private	-6	-4	-5
  Public	-10.5	-6	-10

  
  This table displays the "Deltas", i.e., the differences between the 6-year graduation rates for black students and the 6-year graduation rates for all students:
  
  -- For example, the overall 6-year rate for Cal Tech (first row in Table 2) = 90%; whereas the 6-year rate for its black students = 100%. The "Delta" is calculated by subtracting the overall from the black rate = 10% ... The black students are graduating at a faster pace than the overall student body.
  
  -- Another example, the overall 6-year rate for Georgia Tech (second row in Table 2) = 80%; whereas the 6-year rate for its black students = 74%. The Delta = -6%. In this case the black students are graduating at a slightly slower pace than the overall student body.
  
  -- Table 1C (above) shows the medians of all the Deltas for each type of institution. The last column in the first row shows that fifty percent (median) of all private institutions reported that their black students graduated at a rate that was only 5 percent behind the overall student body
  
  -- By contrast, the last column of Table 1C (above) shows that fifty percent (median) of the public institutions reported that their black students graduated at a rate that was 10 percent slower than the overall student body.
  
  -- The boxplots in Figure 1 (at the end of this section) capture these outcomes more completely.  The -5% and -10% medians (50th percentiles) are marked by the solid lines through the middle of each horizontal box. The top of each box marks the 75th percentile, meaning that 25 percent graduated at that rate or faster. The bottom of each box marks the 25th percentile, meaning that 25 percent of the black students graduated at that rate or slower.
  
  -- Note that the private sector box is higher on the vertical axis than the public box. This indicates that private deltas aren't as negative as public deltas. In other words more black students in the private colleges and universities are graduating at rates that are closer to the 6-year rates of all students. Indeed the top of the private box (the 75th percentile) is almost at the zero line, meaning that black students at the 25th percentile of the private institutions are graduating at rates that are equal to or faster than the rates of all students in their colleges and universities. 
  
  -- The boxes also have outliers, data points that are marked with dots that denote values that are well above 75th percentile or below the 25th percentile. The boxplot for the private Deltas has a positive outlier, denoting an institution whose black students are graduating much faster than the overall student body!!! 
  
  However, each boxplot also has a negative outlier that denotes an institution wherein black students are graduating at much slower rates than the overall student body. But again, the private outlier is not as negative as the public, which might be interpreted as meaning that the least hospitable private institution is still more supportive of its talented black students than the least hospitable public institution.  
   
• Table 1D. Median SAT Percentiles vs. Median Deltas ... Research Institutions

  Category	Median SATs	Median Deltas
  Higher Private Research	690	-5
  Lower Private Research	640	-9
  Public Research	620	-10.5

  
  Table 1B showed that over 90 percent of the black students attended research institutions, so Table 1D (above) takes a closer look at this category. Given that there are 39 private research institutions vs. only 16 public research institutions, Table 1D divides the private sector into two components ==> "Higher private" and "Lower private" where the higher group includes the institutions whose SAT scores were above the 670 median for all private research institutions, and the lower group includes those below the overall median. Median Deltas were then computed for the higher and lower categories.
  
  The results shown in Table 1D are striking: the Deltas get smaller as the SAT scores get higher. In other words, the 6-year graduation rates for black students get closer to the 6-year rates for all students in the colleges and universities wherein 75 percent of all students obtain higher scores on their SAT exams.
   
• Table 1E. Median SAT Percentiles vs Median Deltas ... Non-Research

  Category	Median SATs	Median Deltas
  Higher Non-Research	640	-1
  Lower Non-Research	610	-5.5

  
  The private non-research universities, the largest category, contained 41 institutions. The results of splitting this category into those above its median 630 and those below its median are displayed in table 1E (above). This table for non-research institutions displays the same pattern as in previously seen in Table 1D for the research institutions.
  
  The 6-year graduation rates for black students enrolled in the higher SAT group are less negative, i.e., they are closer to the rates for all students in those colleges and schools. Indeed, examination of Table 2 (bottom of page) shows that the Deltas for 9 colleges and universities in the higher group have positive values, i.e., a higher percentage of their black students are graduating in six years than their overall student bodies!!!  ... :-)

  
Figure 1. Differences Between Black and Overall 6-Year Graduation Rates

C. Conclusions and Comments
See "Graduation Rates of Black Students at Top STEM Colleges and Universities ... Part 2"


Appendix --  Data Collected for Each Institution
Table 2 (below) contains data for the institutions whose 25th percentile was greater than or equal to 600, i.e., 75% of their students scored at least 600 on their math SAT exams. No for-profit institutions had 25th percentiles at or above 600, so all of the "private" colleges and universities in Table 2 are nonprofit.

• Column 1 ... The names of all institutions that received Carnegie classifications as Research Universities (very high research activity),  Research Universities (high research activity), and Doctoral/Research Universities. These institutions are grouped together as "Research"
  
  ... The names of all institutions that received Carnegie classifications as Master's Colleges and Universities (larger programs), Master's Colleges and Universities (medium programs), Master's Colleges and Universities (smaller programs), Baccalaureate Colleges--Arts & Sciences, Baccalaureate Colleges--Diverse Fields, and Baccalaureate/Associate's Colleges. These colleges are grouped together as "Non-Research"
   
• Column 2 ... The public vs. private nonprofit vs private for-profit status of each institution. Therefore summary Table 1B shows how many "public" vs. private instutionss: public research, private research, public non-research, private non-research
   
•  Column 3 ... The overall 6-year graduation rate recorded for August 2010
   
• Column 4 ... The 6-year graduation rate for black students recorded in August 2010
   
• Column 5 ... A computed "Delta" = (Black 6-year graduation rate) - (Overall 6-year graduation rate)
   
• Column 6 ... The SAT math score that marked the 25th percentile for each institution in the Fall 2010 semester
   
• Column 7 ... Total black enrollment at each institution in the Fall 2010 semester

Table 2. Black Enrollment at Institutions Whose Math SAT 25th Percentile >= 25%

Public Research Institutions	Sector	Total 6-Year	Black 6-Year	Delta	Math SAT 25%	Black  Enroll	Total Black
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	public	84	77	-7	680	2278
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus	public	80	74	-6	650	1168
University of California-Berkeley	public	91	76	-15	640	1081
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	public	90	78	-12	640	1777
College of William and Mary	public	90	89	-1	620	568
Colorado School of Mines	public	64	67	3	620	65
SUNY at Binghamton	public	78	71	-7	620	728
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	public	88	81	-7	620	2504
University of Virginia-Main Campus	public	93	83	-10	620	1710
University of Wisconsin-Madison	public	83	61	-22	620	1079
University of California-San Diego	public	86	82	-4	610	428
University of Maryland-College Park	public	81	69	-12	610	3999
Michigan Technological University	public	65	40	-25	600	103
Missouri University of Science and Technology	public	66	52	-14	600	315
University of Florida	public	84	73	-11	600	3884
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	public	70	45	-25	600	1990
Count	16		Median	-10.5	620		23,677
Private Research Institutions	Sector	Total 6-Year	Black 6-Year	Delta	Math SAT 25%	Black  Enroll	Total Black
California Institute of Technology	private	90	100	10	770	29
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	private	93	84	-9	740	463
Princeton University	private	96	93	-3	710	460
Washington University in St Louis	private	94	89	-5	710	822
Harvard University	private	97	97	0	700	1509
University of Chicago	private	93	82	-11	700	696
Yale University	private	96	91	-5	700	549
Columbia University in the City of New York	private	92	87	-5	690	1404
Northwestern University	private	94	91	-3	690	969
Rice University	private	92	88	-4	690	329
Stanford University	private	95	93	-2	690	732
University of Pennsylvania	private	96	91	-5	690	1515
Vanderbilt University	private	91	85	-6	690	943
Carnegie Mellon University	private	86	79	-7	680	459
Dartmouth College	private	95	89	-6	680	386
Duke University	private	94	91	-3	680	984
Tufts University	private	91	84	-7	680	412
Brown University	private	96	89	-7	670	461
Cornell University	private	93	88	-5	670	933
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	private	82	87	5	670	170
University of Notre Dame	private	96	85	-11	670	351
Emory University	private	88	81	-7	660	1388
Johns Hopkins University	private	90	84	-6	660	1576
Case Western Reserve University	private	82	70	-12	650	560
Georgetown University	private	93	82	-11	650	1062
University of Southern California	private	89	88	-1	650	1646
Boston College	private	91	80	-11	640	686
Brandeis University	private	91	89	-2	640	198
Lehigh University	private	88	81	-7	640	220
Polytechnic Institute of New York University	private	55	32	-23	640	287
New York University	private	86	77	-9	630	1969
Northeastern University	private	77	65	-12	630	1458
University of Rochester	private	84	75	-9	630	389
Stevens Institute of Technology	private	72	44	-28	620	162
Tulane University of Louisiana	private	70	69	-1	620	958
University of Miami	private	80	78	-2	620	1096
Illinois Institute of Technology	private	64	45	-19	610	283
Boston University	private	83	73	-10	600	1122
George Washington University	private	81	79	-2	600	2085
Count	39		Median	-6	670		31,721
Public Non-Research	Sector	Total 6-Year	Black 6-Year	Delta	Math SAT 25%	Black  Enroll	Total Black
United States Air Force Academy	public	81	75	-6	630	284
SUNY at Geneseo	public	77	44	-33	620	136
United States Coast Guard Academy	public	77	71	-6	600	26
Count	3		Median	-6			446
Private Non-Research	Sector	Total 6-Year	Black 6-Year	Delta	Math SAT 25%	Black  Enroll	Total Black
Harvey Mudd College	private	87	75	-12	740	7
Pomona College	private	94	95	1	700	102
Amherst College	private	95	100	5	670	203
Swarthmore College	private	93	96	3	670	97
Bowdoin College	private	93	85	-8	660	89
Claremont McKenna College	private	93	88	-5	660	40
Washington and Lee University	private	93	93	0	660	69
Carleton College	private	93	89	-4	650	69
Hamilton College	private	88	76	-12	650	73
Haverford College	private	92	83	-9	650	86
Middlebury College	private	91	94	3	650	58
Wesleyan University	private	94	90	-4	650	182
Williams College	private	95	93	-2	650	152
Colgate University	private	88	87	-1	640	120
Reed College	private	79	56	-23	640	31
Vassar College	private	93	95	2	640	126
Bucknell University	private	92	88	-4	630	108
Davidson College	private	91	100	9	630	113
Oberlin College	private	87	92	5	630	164
Scripps College	private	83	100	17	630	40
Wellesley College	private	90	92	2	630	153
Barnard College	private	88	81	-7	620	103
Colby College	private	90	89	-1	620	64
Macalester College	private	88	87	-1	620	72
Villanova University	private	90	85	-5	620	504
Albion College	private	74	52	-22	610	49
Colorado College	private	87	67	-20	610	29
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art	private	89	89	0	610	54
Gettysburg College	private	85	68	-17	610	93
Grinnell College	private	88	71	-17	610	84
Kenyon College	private	86	75	-11	610	60
Lafayette College	private	89	95	6	610	114
Trinity College	private	86	81	-5	610	165
Wheaton College	private	88	75	-13	610	86
Whitman College	private	86	63	-23	610	21
Dickinson College	private	82	76	-6	600	83
Furman University	private	84	88	4	600	187
Kettering University	private	58	43	-15	600	111
Occidental College	private	85	88	3	600	83
St Olaf College	private	85	83	-2	600	63
University of Richmond	private	87	84	-3	600	380
Count	41		Median	-4			4,487
				Black Total Enrollments		60,331	60,331
				Count All Institutions		99
				Black Public Enrollments		40.0%	24,123
				Black Private Enrollments		60.0%	36,208

  Source = IPEDS Data Center, data collected on 10/24/12 & 10/25/12, "Compare Individual Institutions"