• Statewide
• Broward County
• Dade County
• Duval County
• Hillsborough County
• Orange County
• Palm Beach County
• Pinellas County
• Polk County

Inequities in Graduation Rates

Florida's graduation rates for male students are improving. Nevertheless, Black male students in Florida in 2005/6 graduated at significantly lower rates than the national average, as they had in 2004/5, as did the state's White male students. Therefore, the racial gap is narrower in Florida than the national average. Between 60% and 70% of the Black male students in the largest Florida districts do not graduate with their class.

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

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Evidence of Inequities

NAEP Grade 4 Reading results for Florida are slightly above those for the nation as a whole for both Black and White, non-Hispanic male students.

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

By Grade 8, Reading results for Florida are below the national average; twice the proportion of the state's Black male students read at less than the Basic level than is the case for the state's White male students, and virtually none reach the Advanced level.

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

Nearly five times the proportion of Florida's Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 4 Mathematics as the state's White, non-Hispanic male students. Both groups are above national averages.

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

By Grade 8, scores are no longer above national averages; more than half of Florida's Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 8 Mathematics and only one percent 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

The number of out-of-school suspensions given to Black male students in Florida was equivalent to twenty-one percent of Florida's Black, non-Hispanic male student population. The number of out-of-school suspensions given to White male students in Florida was equivalent to ten percent of the state's White, non-Hispanic male enrollment in the 2004/5 school year, as reported to the Office of Civil Rights of the U. S. Department of Education. In proportion to enrollment, half again as many Black male students were expelled as were male White students.

Less than one-third the percentage of Black male students were admitted to district Gifted and/or Talented programs as White male students, while more than three times as many were classified as Mentally Retarded. If Black male children had been admitted to Florida's Gifted and/or Talented programs at the same rate as White male children, at least 10,000 more would have been in those programs.

More than five times as many White male students were allowed to take Advanced Placement Mathematics classes and four times as many were allowed to take Advanced Placement Science classes as Black male students, given their respective shares in the student population.