DrBanneker
Space is the Place
Inspired by this post from @get these nets which talks about how the current Howard undergrad population is only 19% Black men.
I pulled some numbers I downloaded from Department of Education tables (which I have on my drive since they may disappear soon)
A lot has been discussed about male academic achievement and recent years and in fact, compared to the peak in 2010 which was the tops for all men, Black and White male undergraduate populations have fallen by about 25% each. White men actually declined close to 26% while Black men declined 23%.
What is interesting though is the reason for the college achievement gap in the Black population. It is not because Black women are heading to college in ever greater numbers. In fact, they have fallen too---Black womens' numbers enrolled in undergrad have dropped 21% over the same period---it is just they aren't collapsing as fast. Part of this is demographics due to smaller populations in the new generation but the only groups increasing in college numbers are Hispanics and Asians due to demographics.
What seems to be happening at HBCUs though is that Black women are pivoting harder to HBCUs since their numbers there have only fallen 13% vs 21% for all college Black women. Black mens' attendance at HBCUs fell 25% over the same period closely matching their fall in the college population in general. So part of the big gender gap at HBCUs is that Black men seem to be less keen to switch to HBCUs from PWIs. for whatever reason.
Lot of factors going on but also from 2010 to 2024, for example, Howard's tuition doubled from $16k then to $32k now. That is just tuition and no other fees.
Here is what is interesting though---the college problem is hard to fix but the HBCU problem isn't---and it might actually get better really quickly.
There are 840k Black men in college but only 76k at HBCUs. Given the attack on DEI and other policies, if HBCUs stand, only a shift of 10-20% of Black men at PWIs would completely eliminate the gap. Not trying to get Black men out of prestigious schools but the Black populations at some larger state and prominent private schools are more than adequate to fix the gender gaps at HBCUs. It may come to that.
I pulled some numbers I downloaded from Department of Education tables (which I have on my drive since they may disappear soon)
A lot has been discussed about male academic achievement and recent years and in fact, compared to the peak in 2010 which was the tops for all men, Black and White male undergraduate populations have fallen by about 25% each. White men actually declined close to 26% while Black men declined 23%.
What is interesting though is the reason for the college achievement gap in the Black population. It is not because Black women are heading to college in ever greater numbers. In fact, they have fallen too---Black womens' numbers enrolled in undergrad have dropped 21% over the same period---it is just they aren't collapsing as fast. Part of this is demographics due to smaller populations in the new generation but the only groups increasing in college numbers are Hispanics and Asians due to demographics.
What seems to be happening at HBCUs though is that Black women are pivoting harder to HBCUs since their numbers there have only fallen 13% vs 21% for all college Black women. Black mens' attendance at HBCUs fell 25% over the same period closely matching their fall in the college population in general. So part of the big gender gap at HBCUs is that Black men seem to be less keen to switch to HBCUs from PWIs. for whatever reason.
Lot of factors going on but also from 2010 to 2024, for example, Howard's tuition doubled from $16k then to $32k now. That is just tuition and no other fees.
Here is what is interesting though---the college problem is hard to fix but the HBCU problem isn't---and it might actually get better really quickly.
There are 840k Black men in college but only 76k at HBCUs. Given the attack on DEI and other policies, if HBCUs stand, only a shift of 10-20% of Black men at PWIs would completely eliminate the gap. Not trying to get Black men out of prestigious schools but the Black populations at some larger state and prominent private schools are more than adequate to fix the gender gaps at HBCUs. It may come to that.
