• Statewide
• Indianapolis

Inequities in Graduation Rates

There is no racial gap in Indianapolis. Black and White male students in Indianapolis graduated at the lowest rates for all urban districts in 2005/6 and these rates are declining. Unlike some other districts with extraordinarily low White, non-Hispanic male graduation rates, Indianapolis does have a significant minority of White, non-Hispanic students. The graduation rate for this group is more than fifty percentage points lower in the city than in the state as a whole. Nearly four-fifths of the male students in Indianapolis do not graduate with their peers.

The Benchmark for graduation rates of Black male students for school districts enrolling more than 10,000 Black male students is 82% (Fort Bend, Texas).

Discipline, Special Education, and Advanced Placement Inequities

The number of out-of-school suspensions given to Black male students in the Indianapolis public schools was equivalent to thirty percent of Indianapolis' Black, non-Hispanic male student population and the percentage of out-of-school suspensions given to White male students in Indianapolis was equivalent to approximately half that, fifteen percent, in the 2004/5 school year, as reported to the Office of Civil Rights of the U. S. Department of Education.

White, non-Hispanic male students were admitted to Indianapolis' Gifted and/or Talented programs at a greater rate than that for Black, non-Hispanic male students and Black, non-Hispanic male students were placed in Mental Retardation classifications at a greater rate than that for White male students.

Five (of nearly 12,000) Black male students in the Indianapolis public schools in 2004/5 were allowed to participate in Mathematics Advanced Placement courses and none were in Science Advanced Placement courses.