Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males

Given Half a Chance: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males details the drastic range of outcomes for black males, especially in many of the biggest U.S. cities.

Given Half a Chance also highlights resource disparities that exist in schools attended by black males and their white, non-Hispanic counterparts. The report documents that states and most districts with large Black enrollments educate their white, non-Hispanic children, but do not similarly educate the majority of their black male students.

Key examples:

• More than half of black males did not receive diplomas with their cohort in 2005/2006.
• The state of New York has 3 of the 10 districts with the lowest graduation rates for black males.
• The one million black male students enrolled in the New York, Florida, and Georgia public schools are twice as likely not to graduate with their class as to do so.
• Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wisconsin graduated fewer black males with their peer group than the national average.
• Illinois and Wisconsin have nearly 40-point gaps between how effectively they educate their black and white non-Hispanic male students.

These trends and others cited in Given Half a Chance are evidence of a school-age population that is substantively denied an opportunity to learn, and of a nation at risk.

The report was published by the Schott Foundation, an Open Society Institute grantee.

The executive summary is available below. For more information, see http://blackboysreport.org.

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