Michigan Has the Nation’s Widest Racial Gap in Academic Achievement Among Black Males
Larry L. Rowley, an assistant professor of higher education and Afro-American and African studies at the University of Michigan, has sounded the alarm on the status of black males at all levels of education. His research shows that only 33 percent of black males in the state of Michigan graduate from high school. This is the lowest rate in the nation. Furthermore, he notes that the white male graduation rate in the state is 74 percent. This produced the largest racial gap in high school graduation rates in the nation.
Professor Rowley states that black males “are underperforming at alarming rates across the K-12 educational pipeline as well as in their college attendance and completion rates. This is a national crisis.”
Rowley works with the university’s Black Male Project which seeks to identify the factors that result in lower academic achievement by black males, to boost black male self-esteem, and to provide mentors and role models for young black males.
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