• Statewide
• Birmingham City Public Schools
• Mobile County
• Montgomery County

Inequities in Graduation Rates

Male Black and White, non-Hispanic students in Alabama in 2005/6 graduated at lower rates than the national averages for each, as they had in 2004/5. The racial gap is narrower in Alabama than the national average; the graduation rate for White male students in the state is further behind the national average than is the graduation rate for male Black students. Three Alabama school districts enroll more than 10,000 male Black students: Birmingham City and Mobile and Montgomery counties. Graduation rates for male Black students in these districts vary from a low of 33% in Birmingham to a high of 47% in Mobile County. Mobile County schools have approximately equal numbers of Black and White students; Montgomery County schools have approximately three times as many Black as White students. There are very few White students in the Birmingham City schools. Both Black and White male graduation rates in Mobile and Montgomery counties have improved, while the rate for Black male students in Birmingham has declined.

The Benchmark for graduation rates of Black male students for states enrolling more than 10,000 Black students is 74% (New Jersey).

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Evidence of Inequities

NAEP Grade 4 Reading results for Alabama are very similar to those for the nation as a whole.

Percentages Of White and Black Non-Hispanic Male Students At Each Achievement Level, Reading, Grade 4, 2007

By Grade 8, Alabama’s male students have fallen behind those of the rest of the nation and nearly two-thirds of the state’s Black male students read at less than the Basic level, twice the amount as that for the state’s White male students. Virtually none of the state’s Black male students read at the Advanced level in Grade 8.

Percentages Of White and Black Non-Hispanic Male Students At Each Achievement Level, Reading, Grade 8, 2007

Fewer than half of Alabama’s Black male students score at or above the Basic level in Grade 4 Mathematics.

Percentages Of White and Black Non-Hispanic Male Students At Each Achievement Level, Mathematics, Grade 4, 2007

By Grade 8, nearly three-quarters of Alabama’s Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 8 Mathematics and virtually none reach the Advanced level.

Percentages Of White and Black Non-Hispanic Male Students At Each Achievement Level, Mathematics, Grade 8, 2007

The Benchmark for Black male students in Grade 8 Reading is Massachusetts, with 62% of Black male students scoring at or above Basic.

The Benchmark for Grade 8 Mathematics is Texas, with 63% of Black male students scoring at or above Basic.

Discipline, Special Education, and Advanced Placement Inequities

Nearly three times as many suspensions as a percentage of school population were given to Black, non-Hispanic male students than to White, non-Hispanic male students in Alabama in the 2004/5 school year, as reported to the Office of Civil Rights of the U. S. Department of Education. The expulsion rate, by percentage, was approximately four times the rate for Black as for White male students. (364 of the 140,000 male Black students were expelled, compared to 133 of the 230,000 White students enrolled, K-12.)

Approximately one-third of the percentage of Black male students were admitted to district Gifted and/or Talented programs as that for male White students, while more than twice as many were classified as Mentally Retarded. Thus, it appears that something on the order of 2,300 Black male Alabama students may have been inappropriately classified as Mentally Retarded. By similar reasoning, at least 6,000 Black male children in Alabama who would reasonably be expected to benefit from Gifted and/or Talented programs have not been given that opportunity.

In proportion to enrollment, five times as many White male students as Black male students were allowed to take Advanced Placement Mathematics and Advanced Placement Science classes in Alabama.