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The Problem.
Joseph Yeado, a researcher for the Education Trust, reports that according to the US Department of Education, in the past 3 years, more blacks and Hispanics have enrolled at 4-year universities and the graduation rates have risen to 40 percent for blacks and 51 percent for Hispanics across the country. Although more minorities are enrolling in college, the bigger problem is actually staying in college, as described by Jennifer Engle, another author for the Education Trust (Gonzalez). Life gets in the way of education, which leaves some students incapable of completing their schooling. Even switching to community college from a 4-year university is a tough option for students, and the graduation rates at community college are even grimmer; the US Department of Education reports the official community college graduation rate is only at 18 percent, and if transfer students are included, it only rises to 40 percent, Jennifer Cotton explains. Cotton also explains a process called "swirling," which is taking part in a little bit of everything; work experience programs, transferring between multiple community colleges, and taking semesters off, all of which extend time to graduation. These swirlers are not taken into account when graduation and success rates are measured. However, many of the situations that cause students to swirl are many of the same reasons that they are community college students in the first place. They need to work to support themselves or their family, care for loved ones, or simply can't afford to attend school anymore. Almost anyone who has dropped out of college can tell you it started as just taking a semester off to get things together, but they got caught up in life and never went back. .
John Benson argues that the biggest fight with closing achievement and opportunity gaps is getting over the stereotypes that minorities are unintelligent and incapable of doing higher level classes.
