• Statewide
• Charleston

Inequities in Graduation Rates

Black and White students in South Carolina graduated at lower rates in 2005/6 than the national average. The racial achievement gap is narrower than the national average.

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 South Carolina are below average for those for the nation as a whole for both Black and White, non-Hispanic male students. Two-thirds of the state’s Black male students read below the Basic level at Grade 4.

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

At Grade 8 nearly half of the state’s Black male students read at less than the Basic level and virtually none reach the Advanced level.

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

More than one-third of South Carolina’s Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 4 Mathematics, four times as many as the state’s White, non-Hispanic male students.

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

By Grade 8, almost half of South Carolina’s Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 8 Mathematics and 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 South Carolina was equivalent to twenty-four percent of South Carolina’s Black, non-Hispanic male student population. The number of out-of-school suspensions given to White male students in South Carolina was equivalent to ten percent of the state’s White, non-Hispanic 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, more than three times as many Black male students in were expelled as were White male students.

Black male students were admitted to district Gifted and/or Talented programs at approximately a quarter of the rate of White male students, while three times as many were classified as Mentally Retarded. Only slightly fewer Black male children were classified by the State of South Carolina as Mentally Retarded as Gifted/Talented. If Black children had been admitted to South Carolina’s Gifted and/or Talented programs had been admitted at the same rate as White male children, at least 12,000 more would have been in those programs.

Given their repective hare in the student population, four times as many White male students were allowed to take Advanced Placement Mathematics and five times as many were allowed to take Advanced Placement Science classes as Black male students.