Indicators of Higher Education Equity in the United States: 2021 Historical Trend Report

Some key findings from the report include:

• Pell Recipients Tend to Be in Low Resourced Institutions. On average poor students attend institutions with far fewer resources than rich students. In 2018, 63 percent of Pell Grant recipients were in Broad Access colleges with average spending per FTE of $14,945 while 5 percent of Pell Grant recipients were in Highly Selective institutions with average spending of $52,111. In general, as selectivity increases, Pell receipt declines. [Indicator 3d(ii)]
• Race/Ethnicity Differences in Types of Colleges Attended. White high school graduates were over 3 times more likely to attend a Most or Highly Selective 4-year institution than Black high school graduates (17 percent vs.5 percent). [Indicator 2g]
• Inter-generational Black-White Debt and Wealth Gaps Have Life-Long Consequences. Starkly, 10 years after being awarded their bachelor’s degree, over one-third (37 percent) of Black bachelor’s graduates had negative net worth, and 29 percent indicated they had difficulty meeting essential living expenses in the previous 12 months. For White bachelor’s graduates, the comparable rates were 18 percent with negative net worth and 11 percent who reported having difficulty meeting essential monthly expenses. [Indicator 4e(vii]
• Presentation
• Shared Dialogue Discussion Guide
• Data/Charts