"A new report by the Center for American Progress suggests that the educational and economic progress of black families is being hindered by racial gaps in the accumulation of wealth," The Chronicle of Higher Education reports. "The report, 'Wealth Mobility and Volatility in Black and White,' says it is important to examine wealth - and not just income - in studying economic mobility, partly because college costs have risen enough to make family-wealth levels key determinants of who can afford a higher education. At the same time wealth helps determine education access, education access plays an indirect role in the attainment of wealth by being correlated with the incomes of parents and the future earnings of children."