Nationwide, the graduation rate for (black males) is a paltry 47 percent. And in some major cities, it’s perilously low—in New York City and Philadelphia, for example, only 28 percent of black males complete high school on time.
New York state has the worst overall graduation rate for black males at 25 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, amongst states with at least 100,000 black male students in their public schools, New Jersey is able to get nearly 70 percent of these kids through high school on time.
So says a 50-state study published by the Schott Foundation for Public Education. The 47% figure represents those students in ninth grade that graduate with their cohort four years later. If you include those students that receive a GED or otherwise eventually graduate, this number would no doubt be higher. But for comparison sake, the White male “on time” graduation” rate is 78%. One ray of hope is that school districts in Newark and Montgomery County, Maryland are graduating Black males at a rate that is closer to the White male average of 78%. Strangely, Florida cities are among the worst performing in graduating Black males on-time:
- The districts with the lowest graduation rates for Black male students are Pinellas County, Fla. (21%); Palm Beach County, Fla. (22%); Duval County, Fla. (23%); Charleston County, S.C. (24%) and Buffalo, N.Y. (25%).
- Dade County, Fla.; Cleveland, Ohio and Detroit, Mich. also have notably low graduation rates for Black male students – each at 27 percent.
via Good Magazine Blog.
Without getting into a dated structure vs. agency argument, I’d like to hear your thoughts about what accounts for these low rates (and how we can begin to increase them)?
Comments 3
TALANI — August 18, 2010
CONDENSED VERSION:
Unfortunately, this genocide has many unseen hands but the root of the problem is the family nucleus. As a child of urban america I speak with first hand experience. If you analyze the geography of the above list - ALL are depressed socioeconomic cities. Without seeing any official data, high probability of : high teenage pregnancy rate, high crime rate, high unemployment rate, single mother households, parents with none or low secondary education. The greatest building block towards the solution for these young men is they need a....FATHER, not a father figure but a father fully engaged living in the household. A mentor, role model, uncle, etc...is artificial not natural, nothing replaces a FATHER.
Without the head (father) the body (family) will die.
against sexism — August 21, 2010
No, the greatest building block toward the solution is a real infrastructure that gives young people a legitimate and real chance at a dignified and respected position in their world (not just to a dead-end, minimum wage job located some distance from their home with few transportation options to it), and schools that have a real track record of leading to those positions, for most of those who complete it. Without that as a realistic possibility, being a gangster IS going to look at least sexy and interesting and full of possibilities....and the cycle will continue.
jose — August 22, 2010
Is it possible that both of you have some nugget of truth in your analysis? Father or not, having two incomes in a household is strongly correlated with not being in poverty. At the same time, a two parent household with a strong male role model is hard pressed to guide a young person through a broken system.