Date of Award
Summer 2024
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education Policy, Planning, and Administration
Committee Chairperson
Heather Schugar, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Jeffery Osgood, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Zeinab Baba, Dr.P.H.
Abstract
The equity gaps in educational outcomes between Black students and their white counterparts have been a long-standing issue in higher education (Bensimon, 2005; Cahalan et al., 2021; NCES, 2022a; NCES, 2023b). Prior research on student retention and graduation has tended to take a deficit view of the gap and focused on student characteristics (e.g., demographics, pre-college experiences, grit or resilience, course grades, program participation). This study uses an equity-minded lens that locates the problem of disparate outcomes in six-year graduation rates between Black and white students within the policies and practices of institutions. In this study, I focused on the performance of public, four-year universities given their mission and the proportion of Black students seeking bachelor’s degrees that attend public versus private and for-profit institutions. I found the institutional characteristics, institutional demographics, institutional instructional measures, and institutional fiscal measures were all significant in predicting whether public four-year universities had eliminated the Black-white equity gap in six-year graduation rates. Rather than focusing on the pre-college experiences of Black students, the public universities should look at the ways their own policies and practices continue to produce racial stratified results that reinforce the social status quo.
Recommended Citation
Yannick, Lisa, "Institutional Factors Associated with Closing the Equity Gap in Six-Year Graduation Rates at Public Four-Year Universities" (2024). West Chester University Doctoral Projects. 266.
https://digitalcommons.wcupa.edu/all_doctoral/266