The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

ORLANDO, Fla.(AP) — The number of black athletes getting diplomas across all NCAA Division I sports jumped 24 percentage points from 1984 to 2004, marking big gains for a demographic that once recorded just 35 percent graduation success, according to a study released Thursday.

Black athletes were at least 15 percent more likely to graduate if they entered college in 1998 instead of 1984, according to the report by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

“The most encouraging thing is finally it’s narrowing,” Lapchick said of the racial performance gap. “This is something I’ve been writing about for so long, and it’s been the most discouraging thing about athletics and academics — that gap has been persistently wide, and has in some cases gotten wider.”

Lapchick also noted that black athletes continue to graduate at higher rates than black students in general. Forty-three percent of black students in general graduated, compared with 59 percent of black student-athletes. (more…)