• Statewide
• Buffalo
• New York City
• Rochester

Inequities in Graduation Rates

Black male students in New York graduated at lower rates in 2005/6 than the national average, while White male students graduated at the average figure for their group. The racial achievement gap is, therefore, greater than the national average. [1] The graduation rate for Black male students is slightly higher than half the Benchmark.

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 New York are above those for the nation as a whole for both White, non-Hispanic and Black male students. More than half 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 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

Nearly one-third of New York's Black male students score below the Basic level in Grade 4 Mathematics, five 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, more than half of New York'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 New York was equivalent to nine percent of New York's Black, non-Hispanic male student population. The number of out-of-school suspensions given to White male students in New York was equivalent to five 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, nearly four times as many Black male students were expelled as were White male students, although there were more than two times as many White as Black students in the state.

Black male students were admitted to district Gifted/Talented programs at approximately a fifth of the rate of White male students, while nearly three times as many were classified as Mentally Retarded. If Black male children had been admitted to New York's Gifted and/or Talented programs at the same rate as White male children, at least 7,000 more would have been in those programs.

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

Footnotes:

1. New York State enrollment and diploma data has been reported to the National Center for Education Statistics irregularly and is not considered as reliable as data from other states. The data presented here are best estimates, given the available data.