Moving Upward and Onward
Income Mobility at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Presenters from American Institutes of Research and Rutgers University discussed the value of historically black colleges and universities to both students and to the field of postsecondary education. Presenters provided an overview of their research on how predominantly white institutions and HBCUs impact graduates’ economic mobility. Their recent study compared the income of recent college graduates to parents’ incomes and found that HBCUs do a better job of helping low-income students progress into the middle class. Results showed that nearly 70% of HBCU students attain at least middle-class incomes, and most low-income HBCU students improve their long-term economic position. Reasons for their findings, as well as how all postsecondary institutions can work to improve the economic mobility of their graduates, were discussed.
Recorded on January 21, 2020
Presenters
Robert Nathenson is a senior
researcher at the American Institutes for Research. He has
expertise in experimental and quasi-experimental design as
well as in the execution of rigorous econometric and behavioral
science techniques to applied policy questions in postsecondary
education, K-12 education and health. His research focuses
on questions of access, persistence, affordability, student loan
debt, and mobility for minority and low-income populations.
Gasman is the Samuel DeWitt Proctor
endowed chair in education and a distinguished professor at
Rutgers University. She also serves as the the executive
director of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for
Leadership, Equity, and Justice at Rutgers University as well as
the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. Prior
to joining the faculty at Rutgers University, she served as the
director of the Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions.
She is one of the leading authorities in the country
on historically black colleges and universities.
Moving Upward and Onward: Income Mobility at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Recorded on January 21, 2020