LA. Admission Standards Threaten Black College Enrollment

BATON ROUGE - New admissions standards for state universities in Louisiana may have a major negative impact on black enrollments in higher education in the state, the online Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reports.

The new standards, scheduled to be in effect next year, require applicants to score 20 on the American College Testing Program's ACT college entrance examination or have a minimum 2.0 grade point average in 19 core high school courses.

The average ACT score for black students nationwide is 16.9. For students at historically black Southern University at New Orleans, the average ACT score is 15.5 percent.

Some 63 percent of students at SUNO need remedial courses. But new standards that go into effect in 2014 require that any student needing remedial work to enroll at community colleges.

According to state education officials, 15 percent of all students who enrolled at a four-year college in 2009 would not have been allowed to enroll under the new standards. For blacks, 35 percent of the first-year students at state-operated four-year colleges and universities would have been denied admission under the new standards.