MATTER
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THE SCHOOL YEARS<br />
BLACK STUDENTS OFTEN ATTEND<br />
HIGHLY SEGREGATED SCHOOLS<br />
THE PROBLEM<br />
Black children often begin kindergarten already behind. Yet, instead<br />
of organizing our K-12 school systems to ameliorate that problem,<br />
these children get less in school too. This is just the opposite of<br />
what our education systems should be doing. In this section,<br />
we describe the barriers and disparities currently faced by Black<br />
students, along with the resulting achievement gaps. In the next<br />
section, we turn to strategies for correcting these inequities.<br />
69% 66%<br />
TYPICAL BLACK STUDENT’S SCHOOL<br />
Challenging Learning Environments<br />
California’s Black students — along with Latino students — often<br />
attend highly segregated schools. The typical Black student attends<br />
a school where nearly 70 percent of his peers are Black or Latino,<br />
and just over 65 percent are poor. (See Figure 3.) Black and Latino<br />
students are also more likely than their peers to attend schools with<br />
low test scores and graduation rates. Indeed, an African-American<br />
student is eight times more likely to attend one of the state’s<br />
lowest performing schools than a White student. 10<br />
75% 71%<br />
TYPICAL LATINO STUDENT’S SCHOOL<br />
38% 39%<br />
TYPICAL WHITE STUDENT’S SCHOOL<br />
41% 44%<br />
TYPICAL ASIAN STUDENT’S SCHOOL<br />
% of Students that are Black, Latino<br />
or American Indian<br />
% Low Income Students<br />
FIGURE 3: Percentage of Black, Latino,<br />
and American Indian children, and<br />
percentage of low-income children, in<br />
schools attended by the typical student<br />
of each race in California, 2013<br />
Source: Adapted from report, Segregating California’s<br />
Future (The Civil Rights Project, 2014). 11<br />
12 THE EDUCATION TRUST–WEST | BLACK MINDS <strong>MATTER</strong> | OCTOBER 2015