New York, NY, March 6, 2017 – A new report by the Education Trust that examines graduation rates for Black students ranks John Jay College of Criminal Justice number 3 in the nation among top-performing colleges and universities.
According to “A Look at Black Student Success: Identifying Top- and Bottom-Performing Institutions,” Black students, on average, graduate at a rate that is 22 percentage points below that of their White peers. There are only a few institutions nationally that buck this trend. John Jay is one of them. In fact, John Jay is one of only 10 institutions in the nation that had higher graduation rates for Black students than for White students.
“We are thrilled that John Jay is a leader among institutions across the country that are seeing tremendous success in promoting academic achievement among Black students. As we know, graduating from college is an important step toward social and economic mobility,” said President Jeremy Travis. “This report underscores our firm commitment to student success and diversity, and the effectiveness of our collective efforts. I am grateful to the collaborative work of our faculty and staff in Student Affairs and other areas of the College for this remarkable recognition.”
This report comes on the heels of another prestigious study that recognized John Jay for contributing to students’ economic mobility into the middle class and beyond. The report from The Equality of Opportunity Project lists John Jay in the top 10 nationally in intergenerational social mobility of students. A New York Times columnist writing about the study noted that “the City University of New York system propelled almost six times as many low-income students into the middle class and beyond as all eight Ivy League campuses, plus Duke, M.I.T., Stanford and Chicago, combined.”
Using graduation rate data from 2012 through 2014, the Education Trust researchers weighted three-year averages to account for the impact of year-to-year cohort size differences. “After conducting nearly a decade of research on high-performing universities, we know that institutions that have the most success set clear improvement goals, mine their data to help identify problems and refine practices, and optimize the use of whatever resources they have,” said José Luis Santos, Ph.D., vice president of higher education policy and practice at Education Trust.
The Education Trust is a national non-profit advocacy organization that promotes high academic achievement for all students at all levels, particularly for students of color and low-income students.
About John Jay College of Criminal Justice: An international leader in educating for justice, John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New York offers a rich liberal arts and professional studies curriculum to upwards of 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 135 nations. In teaching, scholarship and research, the College approaches justice as an applied art and science in service to society and as an ongoing conversation about fundamental human desires for fairness, equality and the rule of law. For more information, visit www.jjay.cuny.edu.
