{"id":15689,"date":"2025-04-10T15:22:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=15689"},"modified":"2025-04-10T15:22:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T15:22:54","slug":"college-dei-probes-undermine-black-high-school-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/10\/college-dei-probes-undermine-black-high-school-success\/","title":{"rendered":"College DEI Probes Undermine Black High School Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump-era investigations are casting doubt on Black Achievement. However, educators say the myth of lower standards is not just wrong \u2013 but dangerous<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Quintessa Williams, Word In Black<\/em>
\nGuest Column<\/em><\/p>\n

When the Department of Education announced last month that they would investigate admissions practices at 50 of the nation\u2019s elite colleges and universities, it declared that school DEI policies exclude qualified white and Asian college-bound students from campus.<\/p>\n

Implied but not stated in the directive, experts say, is an assumption: that other minority high school seniors who\u2019ve earned seats at top schools\u00a0probably don\u2019t deserve them<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 especially if they\u2019re Black.<\/p>\n

For Black students, who often have to fight uphill battles just to get accepted into America\u2019s top universities, the assumption that admissions standards have been lowered just for the sake of diversity is not just harmful but false. That\u2019s because the number of Black high school graduates has ticked up in recent years, along with the percentage of Black students who qualify for admission to elite institutions of higher education.<\/p>\n

Bottom of Form<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see time and time again that whenever forward progress is made in addressing systemic challenges, there\u2019s a backlash,\u201d says Alaina Harper, EdD, college admissions expert and executive director at\u00a0OneGoal<\/a>\u00a0in New York, a nonprofit organization that helps high school students of color pursue their postsecondary aspirations. \u201cThe idea that standards must be lowered for our students to succeed is highly inaccurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where\u2019s the Credit for Graduation Gains?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In recent years, Black students have made steady progress in high school graduation rates.<\/p>\n

In the 2010-11 academic year, around 74 percent of Black public high school students graduated on time, but within a decade the percentage\u00a0had climbed to 81 percent according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The seven-point gain is the largest improvement among any racial group over the same time frame, yet critics continue to suggest it\u2019s due to \u201csoftened\u201d academic standards, not hard work.<\/p>\n

But experts point to schools in majority-Black cities and districts that have invested in new approaches to teaching and learning \u2014 not shortcuts.<\/p>\n

For example, the public school system in Atlanta, where more than 70 percent of students are Black, has a graduation\u00a0rate of 86.2 percent. In suburban Dallas, the DeSoto Independent School District, which is predominantly Black, the graduation rate is around 93.2 percent. The school district in Prince George\u2019s County, Maryland, whose population is majority Black, had a graduation rate of 84.7 percent.<\/p>\n

None of those districts lowered standards to get there, Harper says. They added support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that our Black students lack potential,\u201d Harper says. \u201cIt\u2019s that they lack access. The support and opportunities available to them are not equally distributed.<\/p>\n

Deeper than DEI<\/strong><\/p>\n

Improved high school graduation rates notwithstanding, Black students are still significantly underrepresented on college campuses. In 2022,\u00a0just 36 percent of Black 18- to 24-year-olds<\/a>\u00a0were enrolled in college; since 2010, Black college enrollment has declined 23 percent, according to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute.<\/p>\n

Harper says that many Black students never get the chance to fully pursue their goals due to a lack of resources and funding in K-12 schools to guide them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re more likely to see Black students in schools with limited access to college and career instruction, or academically rigorous coursework,\u201d Harper says. \u201cThey also face financial barriers that make college feel out of reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data tells part of the story. According to The Education Trust, a nonprofit, predominantly Black K-12 public-school districts\u00a0receive $2,200 less per student<\/a>\u00a0than majority-white districts. That funding gap plays out in fewer counselors, outdated textbooks, and less access to advanced coursework \u2014 all of which weaken college readiness.<\/p>\n

The Toll Suspicion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even when Black students beat the odds and make it to elite colleges, doubt is never far behind. The common assumption among some white professors, classmates, or school officials \u2014 that a Black student on campus got there because of preference, not performance \u2014 adds a psychological burden, especially in predominantly-white, academically competitive spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot let our young people internalize the message that they don\u2019t belong,\u201d Harper says. \u201cWhen students constantly feel like they have to prove they earned their spot, it\u2019s exhausting,\u00a0 and unfair.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adding an extra layer of stress is what social psychologist Claude Steele\u00a0calls \u201cstereotype threat\u201d<\/a>: the fear of confirming racial stereotypes, an anxiety which can undermine academic performance. In highly-regarded, predominantly white schools already short on support for Black students, the emotional toll can become even heavier.<\/p>\n

Reframing the Conversation<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the Trump administration\u2019s anti-DEI rhetoric escalates, Harper says, it\u2019s time for higher-education institutes to ask more incisive questions \u2014 not about who\u2019s getting ahead, but about who\u2019s being left behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need scalable, evidence-based solutions that work for all students,\u201d she says. \u201cThat means integrating postsecondary advising into the school day, simplifying financial aid, and closing affordability gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

With college access shrinking and resources dwindling in Black-majority schools, Harper says we should stop asking whether students deserve opportunity and start asking why they keep being denied it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis narrative around who gets what and who deserves what\u2014it\u2019s not helping anyone,\u201d she says. \u201cWe should be focused on whether every student can access a career, earn a family-sustaining wage, and build a future they can see themselves in.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump-era investigations are casting doubt on Black Achievement. However, educators say the myth of lower standards is not just wrong \u2013 but dangerous By Quintessa Williams, Word In Black Guest Column When the Department of Education announced last month that they would investigate admissions practices at 50 of the nation\u2019s elite colleges and universities, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[288],"class_list":["post-15689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15690,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15689\/revisions\/15690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15689"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=15689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}