The racial and ethnic makeup of the United States has undergone dramatic changes in just the past 20 years. That diversity comes with a host of benefits at all levels of education and in the workforce. Moreover, the current and future health of our nation—economic and otherwise—requires that the whole of our population have equitable access to sources of opportunity.
Chief among such sources of opportunity is higher education. It is therefore imperative that educators, policymakers, community leaders, the media, and others have access to timely data on one of the most salient predictors of higher education access and success in this country: race and ethnicity.