A new analysis of nationally representative data finds placing average students in the nation’s best colleges and universities will increase their rate of graduation by 26 percent.
“The theory that an average student, including minority students, will be overmatched at a selective university and will do poorly is empirically unsound,” according to a new analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (Georgetown Center). In fact, all students with above average test scores will succeed at a higher rate at selective colleges than open-admission colleges.
“We’re holding qualified students back, particularly minorities, saying they can’t succeed when in reality, they indeed can,” said Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center.
“The misconstrued belief that students with low test scores won’t succeed leaves behind half a million high school students every year who graduate in the upper half of their high school class but do not graduate from college,” said Jeff Strohl, director of research at the Georgetown Center. “And nearly half are minority students who would have been successful at selective institutions.”
To read more, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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