The color of the student body at Metropolitan State College of Denver is a close reflection of the metro-area population, but minorities aren’t doing as well as whites in the classroom, a new study shows.
Almost one-third of the grades black students receive in general studies courses – such as English, reading and math – are Ds and Fs. That compares with about one-fourth of the grades for Latinos and less than one-fifth for whites.
And even among students with similar high school grades and test scores, minorities at Metro State have lower grade-point averages than whites.
The mean grade-point average for black students is 2.56, compared with 2.84 for Latinos and 3.04 for whites, the study released Wednesday said.
“That, I think, is really disturbing,” said professor Shawn Worthy, a team member for the “Equity Scorecard Project.”
The project, initiated by the University of Southern California Center for Urban Education, began with 14 California schools that examined racial inequities on their campuses. The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education chose Metro State and Fort Lewis College in Durango to pilot the project in Colorado.
Fort Lewis College hasn’t finished its report.
Metro State’s report did not investigate reasons for the disparity, but Jere Mock with the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education said minority students from low-income, disadvantaged backgrounds “may not have the same level of academic preparation” as other students. Also, the climate on campus might make them uncomfortable, she said. “Students may not feel valued,” she said. “They may not see themselves reflected in the faculty and the administration.”
Metro State doesn’t have much disparity when it comes to access for minority students, its report says.
The downtown college, which has the most ethnically diverse student body of any four-year college in Colorado, is 6 percent black, 12 percent Latino and 70 percent white. The seven-county metro area has a similar makeup except for the Latino population, which is 19 percent. The report said the college should increase its Latino population to align with census data.
Black and Asian students are nearly three times more likely to need remedial courses in writing, the report says.
Metro State doesn’t offer remedial courses – students take them at the Community College of Denver, which shares the Auraria campus. Students going to the community college for those courses often feel disconnected from Metro State, said president Stephen Jordan.
Metro students will be grouped in the same remedial classes so they feel connected to the college, Jordan said.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
