More BIPOC Students Are Earning Degrees. Here’s How States Are Delivering for Them
Credit: Klaus Vedfelt / DigitalVision / Getty Images- Lumina Foundation’s Stronger Nation Report found that almost 55% of working-age adults in the U.S. have a college degree or credential.
- Financial aid and programs like free or reduced college are some of the biggest contributors to closing the education attainment gap between students of color and white students.
- First-generation status, income level, ruralness, and systemic injustices, prejudice, and racism in the educational system all contribute to why students of color attain degrees at a lower rate than white students.
States with some of the largest Hispanic, Black, and Indigenous populations have been slowly closing the college degree/credential attainment gap between these groups and their white counterparts.
Over the last 15 years, college attainment across all races has increased. Still, states have more to do to support and educate students who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).
Lumina Foundation last month released its analysis of 2023 data, highlighting that almost 55% of working-age adults (ages 25-64) in the country have degrees or credentials.
Black attainment of these credentials has increased by 37% over 15 years. Hispanic and Latino/a attainment has risen almost 50%, and American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) attainment has grown the smallest: a 17% increase.
BestColleges spoke with Courtney Brown — Lumina’s vice president of strategic impact and planning who also oversees the Stronger Nation Report — to learn what barriers are holding back BIPOC education attainment and how states are slowly increasing the number of BIPOC students earning degrees and credentials.
Black, Hispanic, and AIAN Attainment and State Efforts to Close the Gap
BestColleges looked at the states with the highest Black, Hispanic, and AIAN populations and smallest education attainment gaps with their white counterparts — Georgia, Florida, and Oklahoma, respectively.
Here are some highlights and the efforts these states are making to expand education..
Black Degree/Credential Attainment
Out of the states with the largest Black populations, Georgia has the smallest gap between Black education attainment at 40% and white education attainment at 49%.
Brown told BestColleges that Georgia has done an excellent job at pursuing ways to close the attainment gap.
“Georgia is a really interesting one because, for years, Georgia State (University) has been an institution people talk about all the time because of the amazing work they have really done to close gaps to increase not just access but completion, especially for Black students,” Brown told BestColleges.
“So it’s a really extensive kind of Rolls-Royce of the predictive analytics programs, but it’s taken years for them to really put that together because they saw this need, and it’s really paid off.”
For example, Georgia State University uses predictive analytics to find and support students who may be struggling and has an advisor reach out to them to help them complete their education. According to the university, degree attainment for Black students has increased 103% over the past seven years, and it has “eliminated achievement gaps.”
Hispanic Degree/Credential Attainment
Despite having the highest Hispanic population and the largest concentration of Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), California has the fifth lowest Hispanic attainment rate in the country.
However, Brown emphasized the progress California has made since 2009. Only 15.6% of the Hispanic population had a degree or credential; 14 years later, in 2023, that number increased to 24.1%.
According to an October UnidosUS report, Hispanic students are struggling to pay for college and to access food, which is causing some to leave college or to, at least, consider it. Depending on citizenship status, some may also not have access to federal financial aid.
“The vast majority are balancing work and school, and a concerning number lack access
to affordable and nutritious food,” the report says. “As a result, they feel overwhelmed, with a large proportion reporting that they have considered dropping out.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to invest $100 million in career education and over $300 million in the state’s community colleges. In 2023, he signed a law to grant in-state tuition to Mexican students who live within 45 miles of the California-Mexico border, up to 150 students per eligible college.
AIAN Degree/Credential Attainment
Oklahoma has the smallest gap between AIAN and white education attainment. Still, AIAN attainment nationally is the lowest out of all races. Since 2009, the gap hasn’t closed much, with a little less than 4 percentage points of growth.
Oklahoma has a few initiatives benefiting Native American students. In January 2024, Northeastern State University and Tulsa Community College partnered to help Native students transfer. Mid-America Christian University waived 30% of tuition for eligible in-person and online Chickasaw Nation students about six months earlier.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the University of Oklahoma $16 million to train medical students from tribal and rural communities.
California has the highest AIAN attainment rate. The University of California system also offers free tuition for Native American, American Indian, and Alaska Native tribes through the Native American Opportunity Plan.
Barriers to BIPOC Students Earning Degrees
Closing the attainment gap doesn’t have a single solution. Brown said there are lots of different factors that intersect to affect BIPOC populations, including:
- First-generation status
- Income level
- Ruralness
- Systemic injustices, prejudice, and racism in the educational system
Brown said BIPOC students are more likely to be in underfunded communities and schools. And, when compared to students from well-funded schools, they may not have the same access to dual enrollment courses, Advanced Placement courses, academic counseling, extracurriculars, and internship opportunities.
There also may be cultural barriers like being a long distance from family and feeling isolated in a college of students and faculty who don’t look like them.
BIPOC students interested in pursuing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers also face stereotypes that they “aren’t meant for STEM” since those employed in STEM fields are predominantly white.
How to Close the Attainment Gap
Some of the most significant ways that states like Georgia and New York are bridging the gap are by making college more affordable and accessible by providing free tuition to students from families with lower incomes.
However, increasing aid is far from the sole solution. Brown said colleges need to consider housing, food, and childcare costs in addition to the lost income while not working during a degree program. She also suggested that a better job must be done to inform students and their families about financial aid available to them.
Brown is optimistic that states will continue to close the gap as time goes on.
“The nation has made tremendous progress over the last 15 years. Every type of person has increased attainment, whether they’re Black or brown, rural or urban, or low income. And it is because of the work that states have done across the nation to really dig down and think about this.”