Shifting Narratives: Centering Race in Defining and Measuring College Value

Current assessments of college value fall short of centering race in its measurements by ignoring the unique economic conditions students of color face. To support ongoing advocacy for equitable investments in both students of color and institutions serving the largest shares of racially marginalized students, in its latest analysis, The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) introduces a new metric, Race and Economic Mobility (REM), which captures economic outcomes by institutions' composition of racially marginalized students. TICAS' analysis found that students who attended colleges that serve greater shares of students of color earn less in income 10 years after graduation than their peers who attended colleges with fewer shares of students of color. Even more alarming, at colleges serving the largest share of Black students, students owe more in student loans than they originally borrowed.