Black Male Student-Athlete Graduation Rate Lags Behind - Higher Education: Black male student-athletes are graduating at a rate that substantially lags behind the average overall undergraduate rate of athletes, according to a four-year study of athletes and racial inequities in college sports by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education’s Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education.
The study of 76 colleges and universities that comprise six major sports conferences showed that, on average, 50.2 percent of Black male student-athletes graduated within six years. The overall rate, regardless of race, is 72.8 percent.
“While the graduation disparities were not surprising, what was surprising was the astounding pervasiveness and depth of the disparities, as well as the fact that institutional leaders, the NCAA and athletics conference commissioners have not done more in response to them,” said Dr. Shaun R. Harper, the report’s lead author. “Research has yielded clear strategies for Black male student-athlete success ― however, there needs to be the institutional will to implement these simple, and often low-cost, solutions ― as well as accountability from the media and the athletes themselves.”
