WASHINGTON — For decades, studies have consistently shown that Blacks lag behind Whites in education and employment, particularly among teens and young adults between age 18 and 24.
Using recent employment data in the context of the high school dropout crisis, the Urban Institute, a national public policy research organization, hosted a lively policy discussion Tuesday that examined the discrepancies in the time that it takes high school graduates and dropouts in that age range to connect to work or postsecondary learning opportunities. A panel of experts also discussed possible policy solutions.
The statistics came from a national survey of Black and White teens and young adults from 1997 to 2005. The young people were 15 to 17 years old when they were initially interviewed and 23 to 25 at the end of the study in 2005. In addition, they were virtually identical in measures such as neighborhood, family income, the number of parents in the household and their level of education, and youth engagement in risky behaviors.
“There’s a long legacy of disparity between Blacks and Whites,” said Marla McDaniel, a research associate at the Urban Institute. “Tracking the shifts and the growths and the narrowing of these disparities is a barometer for understanding how far we’ve come or how far we’ve yet to go.”
The median length of time that it took for Black and White high school graduates and White dropouts to attain full-time, steady employment for at least six months was one and a half years. For Black dropouts the median time was almost twice as long, at two and a half years.
When examining how long it took the youths to connect to school or work after age 18, McDaniel found that the period for high school graduates, regardless of race, was one month. Not surprisingly, the disparity was much greater for dropouts. White dropouts took three months after age 18 to connect to school or work, but for Blacks that period was five and a half months, or 83 percent longer.
Georgetown University public policy professor Harry Holzer, who also is an Urban Institute fellow, urged the importance of finding ways to keep young people in high school where they can earn a real diploma which holds more value than does a GED when seeking employment or postsecondary opportunities.
