State report shows which students are lagging behind at Texas colleges

AUSTIN (Nexstar) -- The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board released its inaugural study on the impacts of Senate Bill 17, which outlawed the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices (DEI) on public colleges and universities.

Universities across the state closed DEI offices this year and fired staff to comply with the new law that went into effect in 2024. The study released by the THECB on Sunday doesn't show the impact SB 17 had this year because it is only looking at data from 2022 and 2023. The board will treat the data in this initial study as a baseline moving forward. It plans to release a study on the impact of the bill every two years.

The report looks at six metrics: application rate, acceptance rate, matriculation rate, retention rate, grade point average and graduation rate. Critics of the law point to the data in this study as proof that DEI offices are needed on college campuses, while the author of the bill itself says it's proof DEI is the reason some groups are lagging behind their classmates.

A gap in our graduation rate and GPA

What the report did show is that in the past two years there was a gender gap and a race gap when it comes to student success. According to the report, "female students continued to graduate at higher rates than males" at four-year and two-year public institutions

The table below breaks down the graduation rate at four-year institutions between men and women at different time frames:

Time Frame	Female	Male
Four-year graduation rate	50%	38%
Five-year graduation rate	65%	55%
Six-year graduation rate	70%	60%

Breaking the graduation rate down by race and ethnicity shows an even more apparent gap between African American students and their fellow students. At four-year institutions, only 29% of African American students graduated in four years. Compare that to Asian students whose graduation rate in the same time span was 64% in 2023, according to the report. White students graduated at a rate of 53% in the same period.

Critics of the law said they are happy the state collected this baseline data, because they believe things will get worse. "It's very sobering to look at this data and know that it will likely change in the coming years when they review it again," Emily Witt, a media strategist with the Texas Freedom Network, explained.

She believes the data proves critics' point that DEI offices are needed on college campuses. "We have to make an effort to build connection and community and give first-generation students, and students of color, and students from black communities, places where they can access resources that are for them."

However, Sen. Brandon Creighton, who authored the law, said the data in this report actually proves DEI was ineffective. He said the numbers show African American students were falling behind even when DEI offices were already in place.

"We saw that across the state of Texas the diversity, equity, and inclusion offices were taking us backwards," Creighton explained. He said he wants to use the money that once hired DEI employees on college campuses and funnel it into resources for students.

Time Frame	Asian	White	Hispanic	African American
Four-year graduation rate	64%	53%	38%	29%
Five-year graduation rate	79%	69%	55%	43%
Six-year graduation rate	84%	73%	60%	48%

The report also looks at the grade point average for students. There is a small gender gap showing a higher rate of female students holding a GPA higher than a 2.0. However, only 77% of African American students held a GPA over 2.0 at four-year institutions, while white, Hispanic, and Asian students outpaced them at 91%, 82%, and 93%, respectively.

What to expect moving forward

The board concluded the study needed to break down student success rates by both gender and race at the same time. The study said this will provide a more granular analysis. The report also said the metrics do not show all the factors that may influence student success.