African American males, from elementary school to high school, are struggling academically. This has been confirmed in a new report outlining suspension rates of African American males. According to a national study co-written by Daniel J. Losen, a senior associate at the Civil Rights Project at the University of California Los Angeles, and Indiana University Professor Russell Skiba, there is a growing disparity with respect to the treatment of white and nonwhite students in terms of suspension.
Using U.S. Department of Education data on suspensions, the findings support that black males in middle school are suspended at higher rates than white students. The study also reported that Palm Beach County ranked No. 1 among 18 large, urban school districts nationwide in terms of the frequency with which it suspended black male middle school students in 2006. Fifty-three percent have been suspended at least once. Milwaukee was second with 51 percent. Other cities, including Atlanta, reported suspending more than 35 percent of African American male middle school students during the same time period.
The national sample was comprised of more than 9,000 middle schools. The study also observed that 28.3 percent of black males, on average, were suspended at least once during a school year, This is a rate almost 3 times the 10 percent recorded for white males in middle school. African American females of the same age group were suspended more than four times as often as white females (18 percent vs. 4 percent).
The study suggests that as a result, many African American male students miss valuable class time during the middle school years, a critical period in their academic and social development. The report, titled “Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis,” found that 175 middle schools in these districts suspended more than one-third of their black male students. Eighty-four schools suspended more than half the black males enrolled.
The report confirms what many have suspected for years. In Nashville, Tenn., nine metro middle schools have suspended more than 50 percent of African American males, mainly ages 9 through 12, according to Vanderbilt University psychologist and human development specialist Maury Nation. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
