The Racial Gap in College Enrollments in Connecticut

A new report from the Connecticut Department of Education presents data which shows that 69 percent of all public high school seniors who graduated in 2010 went on to enroll in college. But students from low-income families were far less likely to enroll in college. Only 42 percent of the 2010 graduating seniors who qualified for the free lunch program enrolled in college.

The report found that 76 percent of all graduating white students enrolled in college. For blacks, only 52 percent enrolled in college. If we include only those students who enrolled in four-year colleges, we find that 59 percent of non-Hispanic white high school graduates went on to college compared to just 23 percent of African-American high school graduates.

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