Leveraging Data to Close the Higher Education Opportunity Gap

Can we eliminate equity gaps in college success rates? For the past decade, Georgia State University has been at the leading edge of demographic shifts in the southeast. While doubling the numbers of non-white and low-income students it enrolls, the university has simultaneously committed to use data to inform systematic institutional change. In the process, Georgia State has raised graduation rates by 62 percent and closed all achievement gaps based on race, ethnicity, and income-level. The university now awards more bachelor’s degrees to African Americans than any other non-profit college or university in the nation.