Annie
Diamond Member
- Nov 22, 2003
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Culture seems to be playing a large part:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/education/09gap.html?_r=2&hpw
Note that the Times is careful to not underestimate the fact that blacks have higher poverty rates and infant mortality rates. What is very troubling is that this report does seem to give a glimmer to what happens to black males in universities and why so few get to that point in the educational system, regardless of socioeconomic factors.
Black females do not have the same pull down of grades, when socioeconomic factors are considered. Thus any 'genetic arguments' seem to be a non-starter, (got that Storm Front brigade?)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/education/09gap.html?_r=2&hpw
November 9, 2010
Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected
By TRIP GABRIEL
An achievement gap separating black from white students has long been documented a social divide extremely vexing to policy makers and the target of one blast of school reform after another.
But a new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known.
Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.
Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences: poor white boys do just as well as African-American boys who do not live in poverty, measured by whether they qualify for subsidized school lunches.
The data was distilled from highly respected national math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment for Educational Progress, which are given to students in fourth and eighth grades, most recently in 2009. The report, A Call for Change, is to be released Tuesday by the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for urban public schools.
Although the outlines of the problem and many specifics have been previously reported, the group hopes that including so much of what it calls jaw-dropping data in one place will spark a new sense of national urgency.
What this clearly shows is that black males who are not eligible for free and reduced-price lunch are doing no better than white males who are poor, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the council...
Note that the Times is careful to not underestimate the fact that blacks have higher poverty rates and infant mortality rates. What is very troubling is that this report does seem to give a glimmer to what happens to black males in universities and why so few get to that point in the educational system, regardless of socioeconomic factors.
Black females do not have the same pull down of grades, when socioeconomic factors are considered. Thus any 'genetic arguments' seem to be a non-starter, (got that Storm Front brigade?)