Black Male Achievement: The Facts

[Taken from the second edition of Empowering African-American Males: A Guide to Increasing Black Male Achievement]

Every 5 seconds during the school day, a Black public school student is suspended. Every 46 seconds during the school day, a Black high school student drops out. Every minute, a Black child is arrested and a Black baby is born to an unmarried mother. Every 3 minutes, a Black child is born into poverty. Every hour, a Black baby dies. Every 4 hours, a Black child or youth under 20 dies from an accident, and every 5 hours, a Black youth is a homicide victim. Every day, a Black young person under 25 dies from HIV infection and a Black child or youth under 20 commits suicide. (p. 1)

Marian Wright Edelman, The Children's Defense Fund

Black students, while representing only 17 percent of public school students, account for 32 percent of suspensions and 30 percent of expulsions. In 1999, 35 percent of all Black students in grades 7-12 had been suspended or expelled from school. The rate was 20 percent for Hispanics and 15 percent for Whites.

Black children are labeled mentally retarded nearly 300 percent more than White children and only 8.4 percent of Black males are identified and enrolled in gifted and talented classes.

Black males in their early 30s are twice as likely to have prison records (22 percent) than bachelor's degrees (12 percent).

A Black male born in 1991 (today's 7th grade student) has a 29 percent chance of spending time in prison at some point in his life. The figure for Hispanic males is 16 percent, and for White males is 4 percent.

A Black male is 700 percent more likely than a White male to be sentenced to a local, state, or federal prison.

Black males are imprisoned at a rate of 3,405 per 100,000 (3.4 percent); Hispanics at a rate of 1,231 per 100,000 (1.2 percent); and Whites at a rate of 465 per 100,000 (.465 percent).

17.5 percent of Black students, 13.2 percent of Hispanic students, and 9.3 percent of White students in grades K-12 were retained at least one grade.3

13 percent of Blacks ages 16-24 have not earned a high school credential. The rate for Whites is 7 percent.

30 percent of Black high school students have taken advanced mathematics courses compared to 45 percent of Whites.

5 percent of Black high school students take a fourth year of a foreign language with 2 percent taking an AP foreign language course.

12 percent of Black high school students take science classes as high as chemistry and physics.

27 percent of Black high school students take advanced English.

Black students take AP exams at a rate of 53 per 1,000 students. The rate for Hispanic students is 115 per 1,000 and for Whites is 185 per 1,000.

The average SAT scores for Black students is 433V and 426M; for Whites it is over 22 percent higher at 529V and 531M.

The average ACT score for Black students is 16.9; for Whites it is nearly 30 percent higher at 21.8.

The unemployment rate for Blacks ages 16-19 is 25 percent.

The unemployment rate for Blacks without a high school credential is 30 percent, 19 percent with high school but no college, 10 percent with some college but no degree, and 6 percent with a bachelor's degree.

The availability of student achievement data for public schools is greater than it has ever been. Thanks in part to the state and school accountability requirements under the; No Child Left Behind; legislation (www.ed.gov/nclb), increased state accountability standards, and organizations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (www.gatesfoundation.org), the Schott Foundation (www.schottfoundation.org), the National Center for Education Policy (www.cep-dc.org), and the Education Trust (www2.edtrust.org/edtrust/), student achievement and school performance data is available through multiple sources. Following is a step-by-step analysis of Black male achievement that any parent, clergyman, mentor, or advocate for Black males can follow. Understanding how Black males are faring in your state, local school district, and local schools is a critical step toward conceptualizing strategies and formulating action plans.