DO BLACK-STUDENTS LEARN MORE AT HISTORICALLY BLACK OR PREDOMINANTLY WHITE COLLEGES

This study investigated the relative freshman-year cognitive impacts on black students of two historically Black and sixteen predominantly White colleges. Controlling for individual precollege ability, average precollege ability of the students attending each institution, gender, socioeconomic origins, academic motivation, age, credit hours taken, and place of residence, there was a general parity between Black students attending historically Black colleges and their counterparts at White institutions in standardized measures of reading comprehension, mathematics, critical thinking, and composite achievement.