Everyone is aware of America's formidable black-white achievement gap. This new analysis by the Council of the Great City Schools underscores and magnifies the challenge of closing it. Instead of simply splicing achievement data by race, it adds gender into the mix, and so brings into focus the plight of urban black males?finding that they are worse off than ? well, anyone. Compared to white males, black males are about twice as likely to drop out of school, and six and a half times more likely to go to prison. Among the most distressing findings: Urban black males who are not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch (FRPL), i.e. not poor, do the same as or worse than white males who are FRPL eligible, i.e. poor. The report stresses the importance of providing greater support and guidance to black males?such as via mentoring networks and black male counselors in schools. Though a bit wishy-washy, these recommendations echo conclusions found in Rod Paige's recent book about the part that strong black role models could play in addressing the achievement gap. So why not incorporate them into the reform conversation? It's not as if we've cracked the code yet.
This piece originally appeared in this week's Education Gadfly. To subscribe to the Gadfly, click here.
?Amanda Olberg