Black attrition in physician assistant training programs.

We report on correlates of attrition for Blacks and Whites in physician's assistant training programs. The data reveal an unusually high rate of attrition for Blacks (65 per cent) and, in particular, for Black males (59 per cent). This latter group, regardless of educational background and other potential predicators of educational success, encounters significant difficulty in the educational process. An understanding of this attrition phenomenon is useful for designing admissions policies which identify a larger percentage of low risk recruits to health professions education.