The racial achievement gap continues in spite of all the attention paid in recent years to evening up the outcomes. Indeed, the main reason why No Child Left Behind passed with bipartisan support several years ago was precisely because of its goal of closing the gap. A new study, by the Schott Foundation for Public Education, of relative graduation rates for black and white males provides stark and dismaying evidence of failure. The study is here, and the chart below lays out the states with disturbing dicrepancies.
State Black Male/White Male Graduation Rates
Black Males White Males
Wisconsin 36% 87%
Nebraska 44% 87%
Illinois 40% 82%
Michigan 33% 74%
New York 39% 75%
Connecticut 51% 83%
Wyoming 41% 72%
Oregon 58% 89%
Indiana 43% 73%
Ohio 49% 79%
Overall, more than half of black males didn’t get diplomas with their peers in 2005-06. Schott attributes the problem to schools with high black enrollment having inferior resources and inferior teachers. When black students attend majority white and Asian schools, it notes, their performance goes up. “It is not a matter of the ‘benefit’ for Black students from sitting next to White students,” the study explains. It’s just that the more White and Asian students you have, the better the resources.
This explanation runs against the explanation, generally offered by education conservatives, that the culture and family life of African American students plays a large role as well, and that the education gap can’t be fully explained by economic differences.
Whatever the cause, however, these are stunning numbers.
