Race gap widens in behavioral problems
Jan 23, 2008 3:00 AM (3 days ago) by Leah Fabel, The Examiner
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The gap between black and Latino high school students and their peers in Montgomery County in behavioral problems and dropout rates continues to grow, according to a new study of the school system by the County Council.
In 2007, 14.8 percent of black high school students were suspended at some point during the year - a 4.1 increase since 2000. About 9.5 percent of Latino student were suspended in the past school year - up 2.1 percent since 2000. White students, though, only saw a 3.3 percent suspension rate in 2007, down from 4 percent in 2000.
While the dropout rate has remained around 1.5 percent for whites, it has increased among black students to 3.6 percent in 2007, up from 2.3 percent in 2002. Among Latinos, the rate has increased to 5.3 percent from 3.2 percent.
Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, formerly a member of the school board, said the data “opens the schools up to questions they’re not getting from their own board.”
School officials touted some good news in a new county study: the percentage of black students scoring higher than 1,100 on the SAT increased between 2001 and 2005 and a shrinking gap on performance on advanced placement tests. But even those positive numbers belied a substantial disparity.
The gap between black students and their white peers on SAT scores increased by 4.4 percent. Between Latinos and whites, the gap increased by 12.5 percent.
On AP tests while the gap narrowed, the baseline statistics still reveal a stratified system. Only 57.9 percent of black students who took the exams passed, compared with 78.7 percent of Latino students, 78.8 percent of Asian students and 84.7 percent of white students.
The county data shows black and Latino students in lower grades closing the gap even though black and Latino students falling farther behind when it comes to being ready to enter kindergarten.
“We’re right to be focusing on middle schools and early childhood education,” Jody Leleck, chief academic officer for Montgomery County Public Schools, said. Leleck said that one way to solve the problems in high schools today is by engaging the high schoolers of tomorrow.
The findings will be examined by the council in coming weeks as they prepare to vote this spring on an operating budget for fiscal 2009.
Ervin said Superintendent Jerry Weast can expect some tough questions.
“Jerry’s not used to questions he hasn’t planned to answer.”
Montgomery County’s racial achievement gap
Where it narrowed:
» Maryland state assessments used by No Child Left Behind law
» Completion of algebra by the end of 9th grade
» Math score of the pre-SAT, taken in early high school
Where it widened:
» Writing score of the pre-SAT
» Students identified as in need of special education
» 6th grade enrollment in advanced math
lfabel@dcexaminer.com
http://www.examiner.com/a-1174342~Race_gap_widens_in_behavioral_problems.html
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Black males’ low achievement could hurt economy Lawmakers encouraged by Deasy’s reforms Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007
Prince George’s County’s recent economic prosperity could be jeopardized unless African-American males, who make up a sizable portion of the future workforce, make greater strides in academic achievement, business advocates and educators say.
African-American males make up 39 percent of the county’s public school population, or nearly 52,000 students, and they have among the lowest rates of academic achievement.
These advocates say black boys need more focused support from the school system to be effective workers when they graduate from high school or are ready to attend college.
‘‘We are going to start seeing ourselves regressing [economically] if we don’t ensure African-American males are being educated in a way that would make them productive and effective members of the workforce and society in general,” said Orlan Johnson, a member of the Board of Regents for the University of Maryland.
‘‘You’re either growing or you’re dying.”
Johnson and other advocates say that the situation in Prince George’s includes some hopeful signs.
Standardized test scores have been climbing, albeit slowly for African-American males, and Schools Superintendent John Deasy is implementing a long list of reforms designed to aid all struggling students at all grade levels.
‘‘If you can start to make a difference there [in Prince George’s] you’ll start to make a difference overall,” Johnson said.
A state report released in December 2006 said black males need some of the most focused help that the state could offer to ensure they succeeded in school.
The report’s recommendations mirrored some of Deasy’s reforms, including making more rigorous courses accessible to black males and putting culturally sensitive teachers in classrooms to teach them. Another recommendation, same sex classrooms for African-American males, is similar to one of Deasy’s proposals for smaller learning communities that he has pitched to the county school board.
The report was produced after three years of research by a 49-member task force in conjunction with the Maryland State Department of Education.
Rushern Baker, an education consultant and task force member, said Deasy’s approach offered hope for black males after years of stagnation.
‘‘It’s a good news, bad news situation,” Baker said. ‘‘The bad news is... [African-American males] are the population that doesn’t appear to be achieving at any great rate. The good news is we have a superintendent who understands this. He gets it.”
Johnson particularly praised Deasy’s reforms, which include putting the strongest and most effective teachers in the schools that struggled the most to increase student achievement. Providing greater access to college-level Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs, another of Deasy’s reforms, was also a sign that things were turning around for African-American males.
The report says African-American males were still vulnerable because they were not achieving as quickly as either African-American females or other racial subgroups.
Those concerns still hold in Prince George’s, despite the recent progress.
On the High School Assessments, which are required by state law for graduation, black males passed at lower rates than black females and almost every other racial subgroup.
Of African-American males who took the algebra exam in the 2006 school year, for example, only 37.7 percent passed, almost 10 percent fewer than African American females.
Asian males passed the exam 71 percent of the time, and white males passed it 74.9 percent of the time.
While these rates of passing are low for black males, they have increased over the past four years and showed their largest increase in the 2006 school year.
Johnson said that if poor performance of African American males in school continued, it could mean that county businesses could have to go outside the state to bring in workers to compensate.
‘‘Or it could slow down businesses coming here,” Johnson said. ‘‘One of the first things they [businesses] want to know is what kind of workforce they’re going to have.
‘‘If they can’t find it here there are other jurisdictions that would be able to provide that.”
Training the county’s workforce to ensure Prince George’s holds on to its economic development gains is critical, said M.H. Jim Estepp, head of the Prince George’s Greater Business Roundtable.
He said the focus should be on all struggling students, and not just on African American males.
‘‘We want to lift these kids up,” Estepp, a former county council member said. ‘‘There are many in the business community and in the academic field that workforce development is a high, if not the No. 1 priority in the county.”
E-mail Guy Leonard at gleonard@gazette.net.
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