• Statewide
• Kansas City
• St. Louis

Inequities in Graduation Rates

Black and White male students in Kansas City in 2005/6 graduated at lower rates than the national average; White male students at less than half the national rate.

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 Kansas City public schools was equivalent to fourteen percent of Kansas City's Black, non-Hispanic male student population and the percentage of out-of-school suspensions given to White male students in Kansas City was equivalent to less than one percent, in the 2004/5 school year, as reported to the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education. Sixty Black (and no White) male students were expelled from the Kansas City schools.

Black, non-Hispanic male students were classified as Gifted/Talented less than half as often as White non-Hispanic male students in the Kansas City public schools and no White male students were placed in Mental Retardation classifications. If Black male students had been admitted to Gifted/Talent programs at the same rate as White male students, at least an additional 2,000 would have had that opportunity.

Proportionate to enrollment, approximately three times as many White male students as Black male students in the Kansas City public schools in 2004/5 were allowed to participate in Science Advanced Placement courses. Ten Black male students and no White male students were reported as participating in Advanced Placement Mathematics.