H.S. Graduation Rate in Detroit Only 20% for Black Males, And It's Even Worse for White Males: 17%
The chart above is from the recently released study "Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males.'' From the report:
1. The "good news" is that Detroit is one of the most successful school districts in the country at successfully getting black males to stay in school and graduate from high school at a higher rate than white males (see chart above). The bad news is that the high school graduation rate for black males in Detroit is only 20% (1 out of 5), and for white males only 17% (about 1 out of 6).
2. Michigan (33%) is the worst state in the nation when it comes to graduating black male students from high school (national average is 47%), and Detroit Public Schools (20%) has the second-lowest rate for big-city school districts (Indianapolis is lowest at 19%).
3. North Dakota has the highest graduation rate for black males at 89% (versus 84% for white males), followed by Vermont at 88% (versus 75% for white males), and Maine at 85% (versus 75% for whites).
6 Comments:
Given how much extra money and effort is expended to help blacks graduate, blacks darn well should have better graduation rates.
"Detroit has high unemployment, high poverty and empty buildings noticeable even to a casual observer. As of the last census, in fact, Detroit had the highest unemployment rate, poverty rate and rate of persons receiving public assistance in the country. Although Detroit's economy has begun to look up, the City government needs to do everything possible to get out of the way of entrepreneurs seeking to make an honest living." - Dana Berliner
Nothing quite like government to make economic activity even more difficult.
So, why aren't these people graduating then, if things are so bad? Doesn't sound like there is much else to do. It doesn't sound like they are leaving school to get a job. Seriously, I thought when the local economy is bad, people would stay in free school longer? Could it be that (shock) the government not running the schools well!
> Doesn't sound like there is much else to do.
Sure there is. Play with their Wii's and watch TV. Actually working towards an education would be, well, "work".
I like the neologism the Schott people use. Black schools are inadequately "resourced", i.e. they don't have a bunch of whistles and bells. They lack language labs and computers, and musical instruments.
The reality is not that they get LESS money, in fact, they often get much MORE money, yet somehow it gets turned to junk, or p!ssed away, or stolen by administrators, or turned into security cop salaries, contraceptives, and video surveillance systems.
However, even when they do get "adequtely resourced" there is still no improvement. Read the story about the Federal Courts' takeover of Kansas City schools here:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-298.html
The Feds gave them massive new schools and books, not to mention a 13:1 class size and "resources" like archery, chess, dance, photography, Olympic swimming pools ,computer labs, TV studios, everything you could imagine.
And they still flunked out. It ain't the "resources" or the cash. It's the people.
Oops, these data might have a fundamental problem that renders them invalid. "Graduation Rate" here includes any student who ever attended DPS, including those whose parents fled to the suburbs or managed to get them into an area charter or private school. For these data to validly describe the "Graduation Rate", they must exclude such students.
So: What is the rate of Detroit residents who have a HS degree? What fraction of DPS students actually "drop out" (stop attending school altogether, never failing to receive a degree while continuing to reside in Detroit)?
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