The enrollment of minority students at American universities and colleges increased by 49 percent from 1994 to 2004, an American Council on Education report finds. Hispanics saw the greatest increase in enrollment of all minority groups, with a 73 percent increase over this 10-year period. The number of white students enrolled at colleges over the same time period increased only 6 percent. But the class participation rate for minority students, which is representative of those 18- to 24-year-old high school graduates enrolled at colleges, continues to lag behind the class participation rate of white students. Between 2003 and 2005 the class participation rate for white students was 48 percent. It was 41 percent for black and 37 percent for Hispanic students.
Since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted in 2002, America's public school children are scoring progressively higher in math, according to test results released Tuesday. Students' performance in reading scores, however, has not improved significantly, actually declining among eighth graders, The New York Times reported. President Bush praised the results, which he used as evidence proving that the No Child Left Behind Act is working. Critics of the law, however, argue that scores rose faster before the law was enacted. The test results also show that there has been little progress made in narrowing the gap in academic accomplishment between white and minority students. The results were based on math and reading tests given to 700,000 fourth and eighth graders earlier this year.
Rhode Island College settled a lawsuit Tuesday with the its Women's Studies Organization over the removal of the group's signs by the college president, according to the Associated Press. The signs, which said "Keep Your Roseries Off Our Ovaries," were posted at the public institution's entrance road in response to pharmacists in the area refusing to distribute "morning after" medication for moral reasons. The terms of the settlement stated that the college pay the organization $11,350 and revise its policy on signs posted on or around campus. The revised policy states that all signs on college roadways must pertain to the college or offer directions to the college.
