Racial Differences in Success Rates at Two-Year Community Colleges

New data from the U.S. Department of Education computes completion rates for students who entered community college in 2002. Only 27.2 percent of black students who entered two-year community colleges in 2002 earned an associate’s degree by 2005. For whites, the success rate of students entering community college in 2002 was only slightly higher at 33.8 percent.

There was very little difference between black men and black women at state-operated community colleges. But at privately operated two-year colleges, black women have a graduation rate of 44.3 percent compared to a 34.7 percent for black men.