Graduation Rates of NCAA Women Basketball Players Earns Praise: The college graduation rate for women student athletes playing for NCAA Division I schools in the 2012 national tournament continues to be significantly higher than that for their male counterparts, and the graduation gap between Black women and their female White peers remains narrower than that for Black and White male student-athletes, says a new report issued Wednesday.
“Keeping Score When It Counts,” the annual analysis of NCAA graduation and academic achievement data performed by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, found an 88 percent overall graduation rate for women, compared to 67 percent for men.
As important, the report says, the gap between graduation rates for Black women student-athletes and their White counterparts was 8 percent compared to the 28 percent gap it found between male Black student-athletes and their male White counterparts on Division I tournament teams.
White female basketball student-athletes on the Division I tournament teams graduate at a rate of 93 percent compared to 85 percent for Black women basketball student-athletes, the analysis found. White Male basketball student-athletes on tournament teams graduate at the rate of 88 percent, compared to 60 percent for their male Black counterparts, the study found.
