Separate & Unequal: How Higher Education Reinforces

the Intergenerational Reproduction of White Racial Privilege

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More African Americans and Hispanics are going to postsecondary institutions,

but it is a good news-bad news story.

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The good news is that the percentage of African-Americans and Hispanics are enrolling in postsecondary has dramatically increased.

SOURCE: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforceanalysis of IPEDS data; various years.

The bad news is that there are two separate postsecondary pathways.

The vast majority of white freshmen are going to the 468 most selective four-year colleges.

African American and Hispanic freshmen on the other hand are primarily attending under-resourced two- and four-year colleges.

SOURCE: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforceanalysis of IPEDS data; various years.

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These Separate Pathways Lead to Unequal Educational and Economic Outcomes

Whites have an advantage over their African-American and Hispanic peers since they attend colleges with greater financial resources and higher completion rates.

As a result of attending more selective colleges, whites have higher rates of graduate school enrollment and advanced degree attainment, as well as higher future earnings, even among equally qualified students.

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Whites are attending colleges that spend almost five times as much on instruction as open-access two- and four-year colleges, which African-Americans

and Hispanics disproportionately attend.

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Whites also attend colleges in which graduates have higher predicted earnings than the colleges their African-American and Hispanic peers attend.

Workers with professional degrees earn more over a lifetime than workers who dropped out of college.

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The Inequality In The Postsecondary System

Also Carries Over To The Labor Force

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In the United States, parents’ education plays a large

influence on their children’s educational attainment and Whites are twice as likely as African Americans and three

times as likely as Hispanics to complete a BA or higher.

SOURCE: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce calculation using NCES – Barron’s Admission Competiveness Index Data Files.

Your Parents’ Past Can Affect Your Future

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The Unites States is currently stuck in a cycle in which whites take one educational path, while African Americans and Hispanics take a different one.

These different paths result in unequal educational opportunities that also lead to lower wages for African Americans and Hispanics. Separate paths, combined with both unequal outcomes and low social and economic mobility in the United States has led to the intergenerational reproduction of white racial privilege.

So What Does It All Mean?

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Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce

Full Report and Executive Summary are Available:http://cew.georgetown.edu/separateandunequal

Questions?cewgeorgetown@georgetown.edu

For Media Inquiries:ap672@georgetown.edu

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