• Statewide
• Boston

Inequities in Graduation Rates

Black and White male students in Boston in 2005/6 graduated at lower rates than the national average, as they had in 2004/5, although each improved. The gap between them remains below the national average.  

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).

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Evidence of Inequities

NAEP Grade 4 Reading results for Boston are similar to those for the nation as a whole for both White, non-Hispanic and Black male students. More than half of Black male students in the district read below the Basic level at Grade 4, twice the rate for White, non-Hispanic male students in the district.

Percentages Of White and Black Non-Hispanic Male Students At Each Achievement Level (USA and State—2007, Urban—2005), Reading, Grade 4

At Grade 8 more than half of the district's Black male students read at less than the Basic level; virtually none reach the Advanced level.  

Percentages Of White and Black Non-Hispanic Male Students At Each Achievement Level (USA and State—2007, Urban—2005), Reading, Grade 8

Three times the share of Boston's Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 4 Mathematics as the district's White, non-Hispanic male students.

Percentages Of White and Black Non-Hispanic Male Students At Each Achievement Level (USA and State—2007, Urban—2005), Mathematics, Grade 4

By Grade 8, over half of Massachusetts's Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 8 Mathematics and one percent reach the Advanced level, compared with twenty percent of White, non-Hispanic male students in the district.

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

Discipline, Special Education, and Advanced Placement Inequities

The number of out-of-school suspensions given to Black male students in the Boston public schools was equivalent to eight percent of the city's Black, non-Hispanic male student population and the percentage of out-of-school suspensions given to White male students in Boston was equivalent to four percent, in the 2004/5 school year, as reported to the Office of Civil Rights of the U. S. Department of Education. Seventy-five Black (and five White) male students were expelled from the Boston schools.

White, non-Hispanic male students were admitted to Boston's Gifted and/or Talented programs at approximately four times the rate as that for Black, non-Hispanic male students and Black, non-Hispanic male students were placed in Mental Retardation classifications at under twice the rate for White male students. If Black male students had been admitted to the Gifted/Talented program at the same rate as White male students, nearly 500 more Black male students would have been in the program.

In proportion to enrollment, more than three times as many White male students as Black male students in the Boston public schools in 2004/5 were allowed to participate in Mathematics and Science Advanced Placement courses.