Only 41 percent of African-American male students in public schools graduate with their high school classes, compared with 70 percent of non-Hispanic white male students, a study has found.
“Public Education and Black Male Students: A State Report Card,” is published by the Schott Foundation. ()
The study by the Cambridge, Mass.-based Schott Foundation for Public Education tracked graduation rates in each state, calculating what portion of its entering freshmen graduated four years later, in the 2001-02 school year.
The states with the lowest black male graduation rates were South Dakota, with 25 percent, and Maine, with 24 percent. Those with the highest were Wyoming, with 86 percent, and Utah, with 87 percent.
Much of the problem is concentrated in a few large cities. New York City and Chicago, which enroll 10 percent of the country’s African-American male students, fail to graduate more than 70 percent of those students with their entering classmates, according to the report.
