Task force aims to increase black males’ graduation rate

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Wendy Webb

By Denise Dick

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

youngstowN

The city schools will participate in a statewide task force aimed at increasing the high school graduation rate of black men.

Superintendent Wendy Webb said the district was asked to be on the task force, along with several other school districts, with a goal of increasing that rate over five years.

A report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education found that Ohio’s 2007 to 2008 graduation rate for black men was 41 percent, compared to 78 percent for white men. Nationwide, the numbers are 47 percent for black men and 78 percent for white men.

The Schott Foundation, based in Cambridge, Mass., advocates fully resourced high quality pre-kindergarten through 12-th grade public education.

Samuel Gresham, executive director of the Ohio Commission of African- American Males, said his organization called for the formation of the task force.

“We looked at graduation rates in 14 target cities we’re working with, and we concluded that the Schott Foundation was correct,” he said.

The graduation rate for black males was significantly lower than that of their peers, Gresham said.

For 2008-2009, the city’s school’s graduation rate for black males was 54 percent, Gresham said.

The rate was about 64 percent in 2007-08 and in 2006-20, it was 63 percent.

The latest report card from the Ohio Department of Education shows that the city schools’ overall graduation rate was 58 percent for 2009-10.

Gresham said all of the state’s public universities and the superintendents for the larger public school districts were asked to participate on the task force. He’s waiting for responses.

The plan is to form the group within 45 days and then to identify resources to help it achieve its goals.

The commission, through its research, has identified schools in the state and across the country that have been successful, and the task force will visit those schools to determine if the practices there can be replicated in other districts.

The Dayton public schools, with its black male graduation rate of just-less than 80 percent for 2008-09, is one of those successful districts, the executive director said.

“Based on state data, there are schools that are better than 80 percent and are large, urban school systems,” Gresham said.