Why Black College Football Players Fall Behind In Education

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- New research raises concerns about low graduations rates for black college football players. Host Michel Martin finds out more from education reporter Emily Richmond, and professor Shaun Harper of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This is TELL ME MORE from NPR News. I'm Michel Martin. We're going to spend some time today talking about some important issues in the world of sports and entertainment. We'll talk about how and why it's becoming clearer that head injuries are not just a problem in football.

But first, we want to talk about college football. There are three new reports out now, which raise troubling new evidence about a wide achievement gap between white college football players and their African-American counterparts. We wanted to talk more about this so we've called on Emily Richmond. She wrote about these studies in a recent piece for The Atlantic. Welcome back, Emily Richmond. Thanks for joining us once again.

EMILY RICHMOND: Oh, it's my pleasure, Michel. Thank you.

MARTIN: Also joining us is Shaun Harper. He is an associate professor and executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education. That's at University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. That center published one of those reports that we're going to talk about titled "Black Male Student-Athletes and the 2014 Bowl Championship Series." Professor Harper, welcome to you. Thank you for joining us.

SHAUN HARPER: Thanks so much for having me.

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