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K-12 public schools have been under scrutiny for decades now due to lack lustre academic performances and student failures, most of whom are disadvantaged and poor. Added to this, another disturbing issue that has cropped up is the way students who do graduate from high school end up without a college degree.

Interestingly, a gap similar to that of public schools has been identified with many Hispanic and black students failing to graduate. Many schools however have woken up to this sad state of affairs and have stepped up efforts to fill the racial gap and enhance graduation rates. Some of them are even successful to a certain extent including the UNC Charlotte.

According to the Education Trust’s recent reports, racial gap has been successfully closed by a handful of private and public schools including the UNC Charlotte. Average of three year’s graduation rates were taken into consideration during this study. National average of whites graduating within six years is sixty percent. For Hispanics it is forty nine percent and for African Americans forty percent.

When President Obama spoke at the University of Texas, Austin last month, he reiterated on the importance of boosting graduation rates in colleges. He requested Americans to aim at gaining back world leadership in the field of higher education by 2020.

He stressed on how education was important for prosperity and said that success in a person’s life will now increasingly depend on higher education. A report on college graduation by the Lumina Foundation says that recovery of our economy is severely limited by lack of skilled and educated workforce.

This non profit organization in its report stated that efforts must be stepped up as early as possible to retain students and enhance graduation rate. Between the years 2007 and 2008, there has been but a very marginal rise in this rate after so many efforts.

It is the duty of every single school to follow the example of UNCC that invested a lot of energy and resources in a focused manner to ensure good results. Closing grad gaps is the urgent need of the hour for any kind of growth in our country.

In order to help students transition from school to college in a smooth manner, UNCC offers a summer bridge program said the Academic Services Associate Provost at the UNCC, Cynthia Wolf Johnson. This program named the Student Advising for Freshman Excellence helps more than a third of students by offering them support and academic counselling. Needs of the black male students are taken care of by the Building Better Brothers program.

Due to diligent efforts, schools such as the UNCC and Winthrop University, Rock Hill saw a steady rise in the number of graduating students. According to the Ed Trust’s report conclusion, UNCC and Winthrop are enough evidence that nothing is impossible to achieve if universities and colleges decide to do enough hard work that can enhance achievement of students, all students including the African Americans. This is the silver lining that we must hold on to and build upon to build a better future for America.