Thursday, 10 February 2000
http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/LA0675.html
The Associated Press
Black and Hispanic high school graduates are getting swept
up in the tide of Americans pouring onto college campuses, with
enrollment climbing steadily for both groups in the 1990s, a study
found.
However, the rate of blacks finishing high school fell in the
late 1990s, and Hispanics lagged far behind whites and blacks
in getting their high school diplomas, according to the report,
to be released today by the American Council on Education in Washington.
The study analyzed Census and Education Department figures for
1996-97, the latest available. The GE Fund, the charitable arm
of General Electric Co., paid for the research.
College attendance at any time among all high school graduates
ages 18 to 24 reached a record high of 45 percent in 1997. Among
whites, the figure was 45 percent, up from 41 percent in 1991;
blacks, a record 40 percent, up from 32 percent in 1991; Hispanics,
36 percent, vs. 33 percent in 1994.
Enrollment for blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans and American
Indians rose 4 percent between 1996 and 1997, the study found.
Between 1994 and 1995, their numbers climbed by just under 3 percent.
The number of minorities who went to college represents such a
small part of the total that it had a negligible effect on the
overall figure of 45 percent, said Terry Hartle, the council's
senior vice president.
The study was done too soon to gauge the full effect of California
and Texas dropping affirmative action in college admissions in
the two most populous states.
The University of California system did away with affirmative
action beginning with the undergraduate class that entered in
1998. After a federal court ruling, Texas ended racial preferences
at state schools beginning with students applying to enter in
the fall of 1997. Washington state voters banned race and gender
criteria in admissions starting in 1999.
As for the high school graduation figures, the dropout rate represents
``a very serious problem for African-Americans, for Latinos a
catastrophe,'' said Gary Orfield, professor of education and social
policy at Harvard University.
Nearly 83 percent of whites ages 18 to 24 had high school diplomas
in 1997, compared with roughly 75 percent of blacks. In 1990,
the rate among blacks was 77 percent.
Whites holding high school diplomas were 8 percentage points ahead
of blacks in 1997, the widest gap since 1992.
The gulf between whites and Hispanics was far greater: Only 62
percent of Hispanics ages 18 to 24 had completed high school in
1997. That was some improvement, up from about 58 percent the
year before.
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