A new study graded every public college and university in the United States based on how the way they care for their black students.

The results were released in a report card created by University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Each school received a letter grade based on the following criteria:

How the school’s black student population matches their state’s 18-24 population
If the number of black women and men enrolled at the school matches that of other racial and ethnic groups
The black student graduation rate and whether its comparable to the school's general graduation rates
The black student to professor ratio

Each state also received a grade that was the average of the grades of all of its public institutions of higher learning. The highest-ranking states were Massachusetts, Washington and California; Louisiana, Nebraska and North Dakota were the worst.

The report noted major disparities. Black people make up 14.6 percent of 18-24-year-olds but only make up 9.8 percent of the U.S.' full-time college undergraduate students. Black students are under enrolled at three-fourths of public institutions relative to their state’s population.

At 41 percent of the schools, one-third or fewer of their black students graduate within six years.

The authors found there is also a shortage of black instructors. For every black instructor, there are forty-two black undergraduates. Forty schools have no full-time black faculty at all, and on 44 percent of campuses, there are 10 or fewer full-time black faculty members.

Shaun Harper, the center’s director, believes the institution are to blame.

“I think that this makes painstakingly clear that the failure is systemic. That it’s not just a handful of institutions,” he said.

The report card made several recommendations for improvements, including hiring more black recruiters and instructors, widening the net of high schools used for recruitment and creating more initiatives to combat racism.

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