“Public Education and Black Male Students” is available from the Schott Foundation for Public Education.
Only 45 percent of the country’s African-American male students graduate in four years, compared with 70 percent of white male students, according to a study by a philanthropic group.
The Schott Foundation for Public Education, based in Cambridge, Mass., found a slight improvement since its last study of the issue: While 55 percent of black males in the class of 2004 did not graduate in four years, that figure was 58 percent for the class of 2002.
The new study looked at how states and districts stack up in graduating black and white male students. Among the worst state rates were in Florida, which graduated only 31 percent of its black male students in four years, and in Nevada, which did so with 32 percent. Arizona had the highest rate, 85 percent.