Barely 12 percent of black male fourth graders nationally and 11 percent of those living in large central cities performed at or above proficient levels in reading on the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This is compared with 38 percent of white males in that grade nationwide, according to a report from the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation’s urban school districts.
The study also reveals that among eighth graders, only 12 percent of black males across the country and 10 percent living in large cities performed at or above proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white males in that grade nationwide. The report is so grim that the Obama White House needs to get more involved, the council implores.
“At almost every juncture, the odds are stacked against these young men in ways that result in too much unfulfilled potential and too many fractured lives,” writes Michael Casserly, the Council’s executive director.
Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t stop there. The study also states that school-age black males are also more likely to be suspended, be held back a grade, and drop out of school than their white peers. As a study this summer by the Schott Foundation for Public Education pointed out, fewer than half of black males graduate from high school on time — if they graduate at all.
The report says the scholastic underachievement of black male youths is nothing short of a national emergeny that requires intervention from the highest levels of the U.S. government.
“The previous efforts to ring the alarm bell have too often fallen on deaf ears, and we thought that a White House conference would help both raise the visibility of the issues and aide in attempting to martial the public will to tackle it,” Casserly said. “This is not just an education issue, and it is not just an urban issue. It is a broader national issue that is going to require sustained and coordinated effort on the part of a lot of people, and we don’t expect the White house to solve this and other issues.”
–terry shropshire
