The Education Department Finds a Large and Growing Racial Gap in Grade Point Averages of High School Graduates

A new U.S. Department of Education survey of students who graduated from high school in 2009 finds a large and growing racial gap in grade point averages. In 2009 the mean grade point average of white students graduating from high school was 3.09. For blacks the mean GPA was 2.69.

In 1990 he mean GPA for white high school graduates was 2.73. For blacks, the mean GPA was 2.42. Therefore, over the past 20-year period the racial gap in grade point averages for high school graduates increased from 0.31 to 0.40.