The report, which provides a state-by-state breakdown of Black male graduation rates, should serve as a “barometer for where the country is at the moment,” said Pedro A. Noguera, an education professor and executive director of the Metropolitan Center at NYU.
And while high school graduation rates have increased overall, disparities have intensified, said Noguera, who suggested a need to look “beyond the data” and search for other factors that might be contributing to educational disparities along lines of race and ethnicity.
“It’s particularly important that we not simply look at the data but when we look at the data ask: Why is it that certain places like Montgomery County [in Maryland] have made so much progress and other places are lagging so far behind?” Noguera said.
The report—formally titled “BLACK LIVES MATTER: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males”—found that, at the national level, estimates for the 2012-13 school year indicate a national graduation rate of 59 percent for Black males, 65 percent for Latino males and 80 percent for White males.
“Since the Schott Foundation’s last report, the four-year Black male graduation rate has increased by seven percentage points, yet the graduation gap between Black and White males has widened, increasing from 19 percentage points in school year 2009-10 to 21 percentage points in 2012-13,” the report states.
In a conference call Tuesday, some journalists took the Schott Foundation to task on its figures and claims.
