By the way, there is some controversy over what the actual high school dropout rates are. Some methodologies find much higher dropout rates than these here. I don’t know enough about the issue to tell you what the right numbers are, though.

On some level I agree with you, and the crisis is much greater for the 1.5 generation (which would be the children of immigrant parents), and the 1.0 generation which would be the foreign born). However, even the 18 percent figure you cited is well above the other racial groups, which to me constitutes a crisis. That’s close to 1 in 5 not completing high school.

I should also let you know that the 16-24 data is not posted in a graph but in the link.

 I couldn’t find it.  But let me elabortate a little here.  High self esteem means that Black males (on the whole) feel good about themselves, but the studies also find that African Americans have much lower self efficacy.  Self efficacy refers to a persons belief in his or her ability to control their life and the environment.  What good is it if people feel good about themselves, if they don’t feel they can change their circumstances.  I think we should focus more on increasing the self efficacy of Black men and boys.  I’d have to think for a while about exactly how I would do that, but I think that is more important.

Here’s a quote from the relevant paragraph….”It should be noted that African-American student-athletes, including revenue sport student-athletes, graduate at a higher rate than African-Americans who are not student athletes. African-American student-athletes as a whole graduate with a nine percent margin (52 percent vs. 43 percent) over African-American students as a whole. The higher rate is true of male and female student-athletes alike. Male African-American student-athletes graduated at 48 percent vs. the 36 percent for all male African-American students. African-American female student-athletes graduate at a 63 percent rate vs. 47 percent for African-American females in the student-athlete body as a whole.”

These findings really are not new–I been using similar data in my class from the mid 1990s.

I also take exception to Brandon’s point that athletes “have lower standards.” Here’s good quote from the 11/5/2004 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education about student athletes,

Current freshman and sophomore athletes are now subject to somewhat more stringent standards for their college course work as well. To be eligible to compete as juniors, they will be required to have completed 60 percent of their degree requirements; as seniors, 80 percent; and as fifth-year players, 100 percent.

Colleges must release graduation-rates for students and athletes under the Student Right to Know Act of 1990. This year the NCAA took over from the Department of Education the responsibility of collecting data directly from its members, allowing it to publish some information about individual athletes that was suppressed in last year’s report. Coaches have complained for years that graduation rates are an unfair measure of whether their athletes are actually getting an education. They point out that athletes transfer often, and that each transfer counts against the graduation rate at the college he or she leaves.

However, athletes who transfer earn degrees at roughly the same rates as those who remain at the same college for their academic careers. The NCAA’s data show that 60 percent of the athletes who originally entered college from 1995 to 1999 and who transferred eventually earned degrees. Within that group, 45 percent of male basketball players and 53 percent of football players graduated on time.

Athletes also have two key advantages over other students in their efforts to earn degrees. First, only athletes on scholarship are included in the rates, and the scholarships relieve them of the financial pressure that forces many students to leave college. And second, athletes at Division I institutions get extensive tutoring and academic advising, helping them to choose classes and majors that best fit their athletics schedules.

The article does point out the poor graduation rates of male atheletes in a few sports (football and basketball in particular), but the standards for student athletes are actually higher than they are for non-athletes. You might be able to argue that some professors given preferential treatment to big time athletes or you might be able to argue that the tutoring and academic counseling system coddles athletes, but in terms of grades and credits, the standards are higher.

Would you happen to have the citation for that handy? I’d like to do a post on my blog about perceptions and reality of graduation rates and race in football.

I don’t know what it looks like for child immigrants as opposed to adult immigrants, but in any case an educational crisis for immigrants is a different phenomenon from an educational crisis for natives, so I think it’s important to make that distinction.

“Also, is there any evidence that the three boys mentioned in the article really are largely alike in intelligence, talent, and character, or is that just pure speculation on the part of the reporter?”
Obviously, they are not three real people, but of course, there is some variation “intelligence, talent, and character.” However, I would argue that those things need to be nurtured, and Black boys are not having them nurtured like their counterparts.

Also, is there any evidence that the three boys mentioned in the article really are largely alike in intelligence, talent, and character, or is that just pure speculation on the part of the reporter? He seems to be implying that all black males are more or less interchangeable, and that individual variation in intelligence has a negligible impact on incarceration and educational attainment.

Gradutation rates for football and men’s basketball are far below average graduation rates, while for all other sports, both men’s and women’s, graduation rates are significantly above average.

However, almost 50% of colege football players are black, and I imagine the numbers are similar for men’s basketball (and that both football and men’s baskbetball rates are above the average black attendence rates at all but historically black colleges).

Without having any numbers to back me up, my assumption is that at schools with football teams, there is a strong stigma for black men of being on campus for sports rather than for an education, even for students who are not on athletic scholarship. I wonder what impact this has on graduation and attrition rates for those student-athletes.

I also wonder if it’s possible to disaggregate the student athletes from the student non-athletes, to see what the differences are for black men in particular; it could be that football and basketball programs have a positive effect on black student-athlete graduation rates (as they do for most student-athletes), or it could be the reverse.