A short exercise in middle school sets minorities on a path to college

Enlarge (credit: Austin Community College)

In the US, a college education makes a huge difference for most people. It opens up lots of career opportunities, many of them at higher than average pay. The better economic opportunities it provides are associated with things like better health and a longer life expectancy.

Unfortunately, the US population doesn't have equal access to college. Black people attend the most selective colleges in the US at one-fifth the rate of whites and Latinos at a third the rate of whites. There are a lot of systemic reasons for this gap—persistent poverty, poor access to good preparatory schools, discrimination, and more. A poor family moving to a wealthy neighborhood is enough to improve their children's college attendance rate.

But a team of psychologists has now found there may be an easier way of boosting kids' chances of attending a good school. It's a simple exercise that can be done a few times over the year during middle school. Despite their simplicity, these exercises stay with minority students for years and help them get to college at the same rate as whites.