Dealing with low black male grad rates |
On Board Online • October 15, 2012
By Gayle Simidian
Research Analyst
New York trails other states concerning black male graduation rates with an alarming 37 percent for 2009-10, according to a new report from the Schott Foundation, The Urgency of Now: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males.
In Rochester City School District, the rate is a mere 9 percent, according to the report.
Black male graduation rates improved from a dismal 42 percent in 2001-02 to 52 percent in 2009-10, the report said. The difference in graduation rates of black males and white (non-Latino) males during that time only amounts to a slight improvement of 3 percentage points.
While North Carolina, Maryland, and New York all have high black enrollment rates, the graduation rates in North Carolina and Maryland are much higher.
The report criticizes New York as favoring standards-based reforms over “support-based” ones like those employed by the Montgomery County school district in Maryland and Cumberland County district in North Carolina.
For example, personal education plans are used in North Carolina to give at-risk students more targeted assistance to achieve academic success such as “…smaller classes, alternative learning models, tutors, mentors, extended learning time and summer school, provided to the student at no cost.”
The report contrasted this with policies used elsewhere that tend to result in disciplinary actions. Two widely-used practices that hinder progress are “pushout” and “lockout” practices, the report said.
Data from a Center for Civil Rights Remedies initiative, part of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, shows that “…across the nation nearly one out of every six African American students (17 percent), and one in 14 Latino students (7 percent) in the state sample were suspended at least once in 2009-10, compared to one in 20 white students (5 percent).”
States with the highest black student suspension rates include Illinois and Michigan, while the lowest include Vermont and Montana. The report emphasizes that suspensions just maintain or increase the achievement gap. “Lockout” policies such as barriers to “high quality early education,” lack of the whole child approach to education, and “education redlining,” a metaphor used by the foundation to describe inequitable practices that bar learning opportunities for many urban and rural students also contribute to this cyclic problem.
The foundation recommends practices to promote greater academic opportunities for at-risk youth like “…conduct resource distribution analyses…” to address deficiencies and redirect resources to “…community school models.”
In addition, support programs such as the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Campaign for Grade-Level Reading targets areas of reading achievement that are conducive to change through a community response. “The Readiness Gap” addresses financial disparities, “The Attendance Gap” addresses absenteeism, and “The Summer Slide” addresses June through August learning lags.
Finally, adopting Personal Opportunity Plans as touted by the National Opportunity to Learn Campaign, can link school-parent-community partnerships to give students who demonstrate deficiency of one grade level in math or reading multi-faceted help within educational, health, and social contexts (see www.otlcampaign.org/personal-opportunity-plan).
To read the report, go to www.blackboysreport.org/.