There Is a Wide Discrepancy Among the States in High School Graduation Rates for Black Male Students

When we consider the large gender gap in African-American higher education, it is important to note that the gender disparity in black education begins way before the college years. A new report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education finds a serious crisis in the secondary education of black males. Nationwide, only 47 percent of black males are completing high school. For whites, the rate is 75 percent. Thus, there is a 28 percentage point gap between black and white males in high school completions.

In some states black students do quite well. In North Dakota, 89 percent of all black males graduate from high school, the highest rate in the nation. In Vermont and Maine, the black male high school graduation rate is 85 percent or more. Of course, there are very few black students in these states.

But also encouraging is the 81 percent graduation rate for black male students in Arizona and the 74 percent graduation rate in New Jersey, two states with large numbers of black high school students.

At the other end of the spectrum, Michigan has the lowest high school graduation rate for black male teenagers. There, only one third of all black males graduate from high school. The black male high school graduation rate is below 40 percent in Wisconsin, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, and New York.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.