Graduation gap rising between white and black students

A half-century after the U.S. Supreme Court decried "separate and unequal" public schools, a 21-percent graduation gap is rising between white and black male students across the U.S.

"The American educational system is creating a chasm of denied opportunities and contributing to the further devaluation of an entire population," the Schott Foundation for Public Education report said in a report released Wednesday.

The gap was a 19-percent graduation gap in school year 2009-2010, rising to 21 percentage points in 2012-2013.

New York City has a 29-percent difference, and the gap is even higher in the District of Columbia, where it is 50 percent.

In Mississippi, that gap is 12 percent.

The state's 51 percent graduation rate of black male students, however, remains one of the lowest in the nation, according to the report.

Only two states were lower — Nebraska at 50 percent and New Mexico at 40 percent.

In contrast, the graduation rate of black male students in Tennessee and New Jersey surpass 70 percent.

In Jackson Public School District, only 28 percent of black male students graduate.

The report concluded that black male students are penalized with higher out-of-school suspension rates, despite no evidence of higher rates of school misbehavior.

These students have less access to Advanced Placement enrollment in the schools that mainly serve African-American students.

These students are also penalized by "opportunity gaps and lack of resources in early school years, (which) put these students at a disadvantage."

Districts with little money may lack libraries, art programs, music programs and science labs as well as enough textbooks and computers to help youth succeed, the report said.

In three states, black male students were more likely to graduate from high schools than their white students, according to the report. These states — North Dakota, Vermont and Maine — have small black populations.

"This underscores the fact that when black males are given access to schools and resources similar to those given to white males, their performance levels improve," the report said.

Nationwide, the graduation rate for Latino male students was 65 percent, compared to 80 percent for white male students.

Harvard University's Shorenstein Center pointed out that one factor influencing the graduation rate is the number of juveniles locked up in detention facility — 70,000 nationwide, with 68 percent of those minorities.

The United States' rate of incarcerating youth is five times higher than the next developing country, South Africa.

A report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that taxpayers spend up to $88,000 a year to keep a juvenile behind bars.

Incarcerating youth decreases the chances of graduating from high school as much as 39 percentage and increases the chances of incarceration as an adult by as much as 41 percent.

"Once incarcerated," the Casey report said, "juveniles are unlikely to ever return to school."