Take action for Black learner success!
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Join One Million Voices for Excellence in Education
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Educators and policymakers: lead and LEVEL Up
The barriers to college access and opportunity are systemic. The solutions must be as well.
New Publication! It’s Time to Get REAL: A Playbook to Demand Black Learner Excellence
This playbook is a call to action for key players—postsecondary institutions, state policymakers, federal policymakers, and community and business leaders—to uphold practices and policies that reinforce the value proposition of higher education for Black learners. It is a tool for all to use in their respective realms while elevating Black student voices. Each stakeholder group plays an important role in increasing postsecondary access and outcomes for Black learners.
Since 2011, Black student college enrollments have been declining steadily, particularly at community colleges, which have historically represented a critical access point for Black learners as relatively affordable, open-access institutions. The ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ health, safety and economical security have only accelerated these declines.
Alarmingly, over the last 20 years, the nation has lost 300,000 Black learners from the community college system, with participation rates among Black students lower today than they were 20 years ago — a documented and drastic decline in access and enrollment long before the wide-reaching effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. When looking across all sectors roughly 600,000 Black learners have disappeared from American higher education, threatening both their personal economic success and the success of the communities they enrich.
Decades of Progress in Educational Opportunity and Economic Mobility Have Been Erased.
Black community college enrollments dropped by 26% from 2011-2019. This 26% drop represents a pre-pandemic loss of almost 300,000 students. Adding in the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black community college enrollment in 2020 dropped by another 100,000 students, an enrollment level similar to enrollments in 2000-01. Taking into account available public data since 2020, declines today are closer to a 44% drop nationally in Black community college enrollments.
