Despite notable gains, report finds black male students still imperiled
Baltimore has been celebrating in recent weeks statistics that show the district's black male students have made notable gains in achievement, and were even the driving force behind the district's record graduation rate (66 percent) and low dropout rate (4 percent).
But, a new report released today by the Council for Great City Schools -- an organization composed of leaders from large, urban districts -- shows that black male students nationwide are still in an academic crisis when compared to their white counterparts.
The findings were released today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and city schools CEO Andres Alonso was in attendance. The report calls on officials all the way up to those in the White House to address what they deemed a "national catastrophe" taking place around the country.
Some highlights of the findings were:
- In readiness to learn, black children were twice as likely to live in a household where no parent had full-time or year-round employment in 2008. And in 2007, one out of every three black children lived in poverty compared with one out of every 10 white children.
- The first analysis of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) -- which city students participate in -- revealed that in the 2009 fourth-grade reading assessment only 12 percent of black male students nationally and 11 percent of those living in large central cities performed at or above proficient levels, compared with 38 percent of white males nationwide.
- In eighth grade, only 9 percent of black males across the country and 8 percent living in
large cities performed at or above the proficient level in reading, compared with
33 percent of white males nationwide. Math results were similar in both grades. - In black male achievement in selected big city school districts, 50 percent of fourth and
eighth grade black males in most urban districts and nationwide scored below basic levels.
Baltimore belongs to the Council of Great City Schools and was recognized for its recent accomplishments Tuesday.
But this report brings us back down to earth in realizing that the achievement gap for poor, black students and their counterparts remains far too wide, and too many are still falling through the ever-growing cracks.
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
One might wonder how the counties around us are doing with this same demographic. I believe that few people know how, on a system level, to address the needs of this population, or for that matter other high risk groups. In the "good/bad" old days, we in the city used to be held in contempt by those in the surrounding counties as being unable to teach any kids (based on test scores) when in fact I think that now we can compare similar groups with our compadres in the county, we see that while they are good at teaching some groups, systemically, few are good at teaching other groups.
So now the question is what is to be done? This same question comes up when I talk with private school educators - who often point to the low outcomes in public schools. The implication being that if they were put in the public school classroom the results would be better. I think that's a load and that in fact they should be proud of the fact that they get great results with the populations they work with (some who deal, like Odyssey or Children's Guild, with difficult populations). Of course kids don't only belong to one group, but are often part of many different groups (boys, special edu, specific socioeconomic groups and so on) and there in lies the rub.
Comments? Thoughts?
Posted by: Interesting Observations | November 9, 2010 5:26 PM
There are a ton of dropouts still on the rolls of City Schools. We just don't drop anymore. Each kid is worth thousands dollars from the state. It's a criminal scam that is underway as the city over reports it's enrollment.
Posted by: would love to have a real paper | November 9, 2010 6:50 PM
I read the good news statistics about the Baltimore male dropout rate. However, this is contradicted by my daily experience of traveling through the city. I have a hard time accepting the party line. If a student shows up in school only occasionally is he really not a dropout? Can the Sun audit these data in any way?
Posted by: Guide for the Perplexed | November 10, 2010 7:53 AM
"national catastrophe" taking place around the country.
Where have these people been the last 100 years? Why should we act surprised when somebody tells us what we already know. This is not about achievement but about control. Are they throwing out some bad news just as RTT to starting to lose steam to try to justify the move toward privatization of education?
But wait a minute, isn't the Council made up of modern day reformers who advocate that the socio-economic status of a child does not or should not determine their educational outcomes. So why talk about poverty if it isn't a factor?
No, I predict that in a couple of years they will use this as the benchmark to claim success of their current reform methods. How they and they alone saved us from this "national catastrophe".
PLEASEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Posted by: OverTheTop | November 10, 2010 11:50 AM
Don't believe everything you read! We still have a dropout problem, it's just been turned into an attendance problem. We all have students on roll who have never attended class, or who come once every few weeks. We have been given the charge of retaining students, but to what end? Are they making progress toward graduation or are they coming to school once a month to get their free bus tickets? If we really mean to retain students, we need to do more for them than just keep them on a list, we need to find ways to engage them in the education process and, believe me, the "teach to the test" climate is NOT the way to do it.
Posted by: avalon | November 14, 2010 4:21 PM