Opinion: Black High School Dropout Crisis Calls for New Approach

(Sept. 3) -- A generation of black men run the risk of not being qualified to operate an on/off switch. That's almost no exaggeration.

In the 2010 "Yes We Can: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males," the Schott Foundation reports that the overall 2007-08 graduation rate for black males in the U.S. was only 47 percent. And in about half the states, black male graduation rates fell even below that paltry figure.

It's a sad irony, given that our nation's first president of color's intellect was heralded as a major factor in his ascension to the most powerful office in the world in such a short period of time.

Instinctively, many have faulted the public school system for the conundrum.

Among the reasons reported as to why so many black males are falling behind: insufficient access to high-quality preschool education; watered-down curricula for disadvantaged students; large classes, short days and no weekend or summer programs; few social and health services; outdated and overcrowded facilities; inexperienced and ill-trained teachers.

There are also disparities in the way white and black males are treated in schools.

The study finds that white male students are more than twice as likely as black males to be placed in gifted/talented programs, while black students are more than twice as likely to be classified as mentally retarded. (Despite the fact that the percentages of students from all groups are approximately the same at each intelligence level.)

And more than twice as many black male students receive out-of-school suspensions and three times as many expulsions as do their white counterparts.

After the Schott report came out, Education Secretary Arne Duncan vowed that the administration's education agenda would address the current crisis and fight to turn the nation's failing schools around.

Duncan said: "With $4 billion available for these turnarounds, we have the resources to transform these schools from dropout factories to college graduation academies. Our agenda also includes new resources to support states' efforts to build data systems that measure whether students are on track for graduation -- and how to help them if they're not."

The resources are there, but the government needs to spend them more wisely.

Spending millions to gather data to tell us what we already know won't solve the problem. Neither will forcing school districts to boost standardized test scores, as it's already been proved that statistics can be toyed with.

This complex plight requires multifaceted solutions.

Teachers and the school districts that employ them can't be responsible for all of the societal ills that contribute to high dropout rates.

Factors outside of school -- including but not limited to poverty, crime, lack of health care -- hinder many students. For some cash-strapped families, the earlier a teen can work, the better it is for the family, forcing education to the back burner.

Joint programs that address these woes have to be developed if lasting change is to be made.

Speaking of changes, one in attitude from both parents and students living in communities plagued with a high number of dropouts is required.

Somewhere along the way, the allure of stupidity became more attractive to a number of black males than being educated.

It's an unfortunate mindset to have, but unless school officials push themselves to give black males substantive educational opportunities, and their parents push them to seize those opportunities, it's not likely to change.