LMU Among Universities Best at Graduating African-Americans, Hispanics

Loyola Marymount University has once again been lauded by The Education Trust as a university that is among the best in the nation at graduating African-American and Hispanic students, with rates far exceeding the national averages.

The twin reports released this week by the trust highlight survey results for graduation rates in 2010, examining how well colleges and universities fulfill the promise of higher education for African-American and Hispanic students recruited to campuses around the country.

“Graduation rates for African-American and Hispanic students from colleges nationwide are generally much lower than for their white peers. However, LMU has bucked that trend and has proven that low graduation rates for its minority students are not inevitable,” said Mary Nguyen, a spokeswoman for the Education Trust, an education advocacy organization based in Washington D.C.

LMU was praised by the trust two years ago in its initial studies of the nationwide disparity in graduation rates for minorities, listing LMU among a dozen universities with the best graduation rates in study year 2004 for Hispanic and African-American students.

The current reports show that at LMU the six-year graduation rates in the study year of 2010 were almost identical for these two minority groups and their white counterparts. The white student graduation rate at LMU was 79%; the African-American rate 78%, and Hispanic student rate 79%.  Those rates far exceed the national averages for private nonprofit schools, which were white students (68%), African-American (45%) and Hispanic (61%).

The reports also show that LMU graduation rates have improved between the first study of 2004 graduates and the current study period of 2010. The graduation rates for whites improved by 6 percentage points to 79%, for African-Americans by 13 percentage points to 78%, and for Hispanics by 4 percentage points to 79%.

The Education Trust is a privately funded nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the opportunity and achievement gaps experienced by young people from low-income families or who are African-American, Hispanic or American Indian.   Foundations supporting The Education Trust include: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.