Report ranks Winthrop second highest for minority student graduation rate

A report from the national non-profit organization Education Trust has ranked Winthrop University as second among top-performing schools in graduation rates for minority students, school officials said Friday.

Winthrop President Dan Mahony said in a statement released by the school that Winthrop’s inclusion as a top-performing institution for black student success is positive.

It comes at a time when the university has a focus on increasing overall student retention and graduation rates, including those of minority students, he said.

“When we announced our Winthrop Plan last fall, we made supporting inclusive excellence and increasing retention and graduation rates among our top priorities,” Mahony said in a statement. “The recognition from Education Trust is an affirmation of our efforts, and the Winthrop Plan will help us to build on this success.”

Of Winthrop’s approximately 5,000 undergraduates, about 30 percent are black, the school said.

A report from Education Trust showed the six-year graduation rate for black students at Winthrop is more than 3 percentage points higher than for white students.

The graduation rate for Winthrop black students for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 academic years averaged 56.2 percent, the study says.

Georgia State was the top performing school, according to the study, with a graduation rate for black students more than 6 percentage points higher than for white students at the Atlanta school.

Education Trust said nationally, only 41 percent of black students who start college as first-time, full-time freshmen earn a degree within six years, a rate that is 22 percent lower than that of their white peers.

The school was cited in 2010 in a report called: “Big Gaps, Small Gaps: Some Colleges and Universities Do Better Than Others in Graduating African-American Students.”

The Education Trust is a national non-profit advocacy organization that promotes academic achievement, particularly for students of color and low-income students.

This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 5:14 PM with the headline "Report ranks Winthrop second highest for minority student graduation rate."