Black Colleges and Universities That Have Shown Substantial Improvement in African-American Student Graduation Rates

JBHE has collected student graduation rate statistics going back to 1998 for a group of 36 historically black universities. The good news is that during this period 19 of the 35 colleges and universities have seen an improvement in their black student graduation rates. Sixteen black colleges and universities showed a decline in their black graduation rate.

Over the past decade there have been huge differences in graduation rates at some of these HBCUs. For example, at Howard University the black student graduation has improved from 47 percent in 1998 to 62 percent in 2008. Other schools showing large improvements in their black student graduation rates are Lincoln University in Missouri, Tennessee State University, Alcorn State University, Paine College, and Prairie View A&M University. All of these black colleges and universities have seen a 10 percentage point or more rise in black student graduation rates over the past 10 years.

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