Proficiency of Black Students Is Found to Be Far Lower Than Expected

(New York Times) — An achievement gap separating black from white students has long been documented — a social divide extremely vexing to policy makers and the target of one blast of school reform after another.  But a new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known.  Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

Read More…