Historically black college has a 15% graduation rate

Few American colleges would mark a 15% graduation rate as a turning point. But at Coppin State University, 15% is two points better than 2010’s rate. Coppin, a historically black institution founded in 1900 at what was then called Baltimore’s Colored High School, has the lowest graduation rate of any traditional public college in Maryland. In the past 10 years, the quotient has declined from the mid-20s to the mid-teens. Coppin has the lowest graduation rate in the state system partly because it attracts the least-prepared students. Three-quarters of those who enroll at Coppin require academic remediation. The University System of Maryland pledged to halve its graduation gap by 2015, which means narrowing the 21-point spread between completion rates for underrepresented minorities (e.g. blacks) and other students. Twelve percent of freshmen at the University of the District of Columbia graduate within six years, according to an analysis of completion rates for three recent class years. The graduation rate is 32% at Norfolk State University, 34% at Morgan State in Baltimore and 36% at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. All four are historically black institutions.