Between a Ball and a Harsh Place: A Study of Black Male Community College Student-Athletes and Academic Progress

This study examines to what extent differences exist in pre-college characteristics and academic performance between Black male student-athletes and their student-athlete peers at community colleges and 2-year colleges. Its results and conclusions are based on level of college readiness, credit hours completed, HPA, and degree completion for a single cohort of male and female student-athletes in a single state.

• Although athletics is seen as an avenue to access higher education for Black males, within this study, Black males were not overly represented within the sample size. Black males were mainly clustered within the sports basketball and baseball. Tweet
• Black males earned 72 percent of the credit hours they attempt, which was less than all other examined groups. Tweet
• Within Black males, those with low socio-economic status earned only 67 percent of credit hours attempted. Those with high socio-economic status earned approximately 82 percent of credit hours attempted. Tweet
• Approximately 14 percent of all Black males earned a certificate or degree, whereas the percentage of degrees earned for all Black females was twice as high (29.5 percent). Tweet