A new report on minority achievement in higher education found that young men are graduating at lower rates than in previous generations.
According to the American Council on Education's analysis of 2008 data, 33 percent of men aged 25 to 34 hold postsecondary degrees, compared to 40 percent of men aged 55 to 64. Women, on the other hand, continue to exceed older generations in levels of higher education -- 42 percent of 25 to 34 year old females have a college degree, as opposed to 34 percent of those aged 55 to 64.
This pattern is consistent across ethnic groups, with the exception of Asian-Americans, for whom both younger men and women earn undergraduate degrees at higher rates than their older counterparts.
Center for Policy Analysis Director Bryan Cook told the Washington Post that men are not attending college at lower absolute levels than in the past, but that their achievement rates have remained flat, while those for women have grown.
By way of explanation, he said: "One of the things we know is that women need higher levels of education than men to earn the same salary. So you see women persisting in school and going further than men."
The report's determination of the growing gap in educational achievement between men and women echoes a number of others released recently, such as the Council of Graduate School's report that found women hold more PhDs than men.
Using data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics and the Census Bureau (and with monetary support from GE) ACE was able to detail minority trends in achievement at the high school and collegiate level. According to ACE, the report looks at completion of high school, enrollment in college, college graduation rates, and employment in postsecondary education.
The report is available for download from ACE's website for $30.00.
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