Commission Report Concludes That Black Students in the Sciences at Predominantly White Schools Face an “Academic Mismatch”

In a new report, the United States Commission on Civil Rights finds that African-American students at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities are more likely than black students at other educational institutions to succeed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The report found that black students at HBCUs reported higher levels of academic involvement and greater participation in faculty research projects than black students at predominantly white universities.

The commission, which has many members with conservative political leanings, stated that racially preferential admissions policies at selective predominantly white universities created an  “academic mismatch” problem where black students could not effectively compete with their white peers in science-related studies.