College Board Finds Minority Men Continue to Lag Academically

The College Board is releasing two reports today on the crisis facing young black and Latino men, who, the reports find, continue to be measurably less educated than minority women and white men.

According to the reports, 16 percent of Latino and 28 percent of African-American men  ages 25 to 34 had obtained an associate’s degree or higher as of 2008, while the comparable figure for white men was 44 percent and for Asian men,  70 percent.

The report also said that foreign-born members of those lagging minority groups were more likely to drop out than those born in the United States, especially in the case of Hispanics. While the total dropout rate for male Latinos is 20 percent, the foreign-born dropout rate is 14 percentage points higher.

“The Educational Experience of Young Men: A Review of Research, Pathways, and Progress” draws on statistics from the Census Bureau and other research documents, highlighting the need for change in the education sector. The report often compares the statistical success of men versus women. In almost every case, women are shown to have received more education.

The data about Asian/Pacific Islander men is particularly noteworthy. The authors cite the “model minority myth”— the assumption that a minority group is the superior, or “model,” group — and then challenge it, emphasizing that Asian men face problems similar to those of other minorities.

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