Saving Black Boys
The elusive promises of public education
By Rosa A. Smith
Among the many children in America who are at risk and likely to lack success in school -- most often because they lack authentic educational opportunities -- the African American male student stands alone in terms of the accumulation of negative factors affecting his future. The evidence is startling, and the sum of all these negative factors alarming.
Special Education: Black boys in 2000-2001 made up 8.6 percent of national public-school enrollments. They constituted 20 percent of those classified as mentally retarded, 21 percent of those classified as emotionally disturbed, 12 percent of those with a specific learning disability and 15 percent of those placed in special education. Twice as many black boys are in special education as black girls, a fact that rules out heredity and home environment as primary causes and highlights school factors.
Expulsions and Suspensions: Despite representing only 8.6 percent of public-school enrollments, black boys comprise 22 percent of those expelled from school and 23 percent of those suspended.
Dropouts: While between 25 percent and 30 percent of America's teenagers, including recent immigrants, fail to graduate from high school with a regular high-school diploma, the dropout rate for African American males in many metropolitan areas is 50 percent.
Graduation Rates: Nationally, 50 percent of black males (as compared with 61 percent of black females, 80 percent of white males and 86 percent of white females) receive diplomas with their high-school cohort. In some urban districts, 30 percent of black males are in special-education classes, and of the remaining 70 percent, only half or fewer receive diplomas.
Juvenile Incarceration Rates: For whites under 18, 105 out of every 100,000 are incarcerated; for black youths the rate is three times as high, 350 per 100,000. More black males receive the GED in prison than graduate from college.
Unemployment: According to the 2000 census, the percentage of black youths 16 to 19 neither employed nor in school was 24.7 percent, nearly twice the national average for this age group and six times the national unemployment rate.
As a society, we don't like to talk about the magnitude of this failure. Ted Sizer, founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools, speaking at an Educators for Social Responsibility meeting about America's most vulnerable students, asked, "Why are we so silent on these questions? ... Why is the silence so pervasive?"
Click Here To Read Entire Article
Destee
The elusive promises of public education
By Rosa A. Smith
Among the many children in America who are at risk and likely to lack success in school -- most often because they lack authentic educational opportunities -- the African American male student stands alone in terms of the accumulation of negative factors affecting his future. The evidence is startling, and the sum of all these negative factors alarming.
Special Education: Black boys in 2000-2001 made up 8.6 percent of national public-school enrollments. They constituted 20 percent of those classified as mentally retarded, 21 percent of those classified as emotionally disturbed, 12 percent of those with a specific learning disability and 15 percent of those placed in special education. Twice as many black boys are in special education as black girls, a fact that rules out heredity and home environment as primary causes and highlights school factors.
Expulsions and Suspensions: Despite representing only 8.6 percent of public-school enrollments, black boys comprise 22 percent of those expelled from school and 23 percent of those suspended.
Dropouts: While between 25 percent and 30 percent of America's teenagers, including recent immigrants, fail to graduate from high school with a regular high-school diploma, the dropout rate for African American males in many metropolitan areas is 50 percent.
Graduation Rates: Nationally, 50 percent of black males (as compared with 61 percent of black females, 80 percent of white males and 86 percent of white females) receive diplomas with their high-school cohort. In some urban districts, 30 percent of black males are in special-education classes, and of the remaining 70 percent, only half or fewer receive diplomas.
Juvenile Incarceration Rates: For whites under 18, 105 out of every 100,000 are incarcerated; for black youths the rate is three times as high, 350 per 100,000. More black males receive the GED in prison than graduate from college.
Unemployment: According to the 2000 census, the percentage of black youths 16 to 19 neither employed nor in school was 24.7 percent, nearly twice the national average for this age group and six times the national unemployment rate.
As a society, we don't like to talk about the magnitude of this failure. Ted Sizer, founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools, speaking at an Educators for Social Responsibility meeting about America's most vulnerable students, asked, "Why are we so silent on these questions? ... Why is the silence so pervasive?"
Click Here To Read Entire Article
Destee