Improving Black Graduation Rates Is Mainly a Matter of Will, Report Says

By Peter Schmidt

Washington

Colleges already know how to close gaps in the graduation rates of black and white students, but too few have been willing to take the steps needed to do it, according to a report being released today by Education Sector, a Washington-based research group.

The report—based heavily on the graduation-rate data that the Education Department collects from colleges—says that, nationally, the six-year graduation rate of black students at four-year colleges is about 20 percentage