The social cost of inadequate education of black males

Although there is a general concern about levels of educational achievement and attainment in the USA, the educational situation of black males is particularly worrisome. At almost every grade level black males are about one standard deviation below the nonHispanic, white student population in test measures of student achievement-about at the 16th percentile relative to the 50th percentile for the overall population. A recent study estimates that African-American males had a rate of graduation after four years of high school of about 48 percent in contrast with a 74 percent rate for white males and a 70 percent graduation rate for the overall population (Greene & Winters, 2006). The comparable figures for African-American females and for white females were 59 percent and 79 percent respectively.1 Gaps between graduation rates for black and white males among the states are also large and differ considerably among the different states (Holzman, 2006). For example, Florida and Nevada are reported to graduate less than one-third of their black males on schedule, and the graduation rates for black males are particularly low in the large cities.