Black students face 'accumulation of disadvantage'

 Complete report

Since the 2001 enactment of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), considerable attention has been paid to the persistence of racial disparities in academic achievement. However, despite a series of reform initiatives, many children throughout the United States continue to under-perform on standardized assessments, and the effort to close the so-called achievement gap remains a national challenge. This is particularly true for many Black students, who with few exceptions, continue to perform at lower levels on most measures of academic achievement and attainment. While the issue has been the subject of several national studies and reports, viable evidenced-based solutions to the problem continue to elude educators and policymakers.

Findings

1. Place matters: Academic performance and health are highly correlated with where a child lives. Whether or not a child has access to healthy food, parks, clean air or good health services, has a profound influence on their academic performance and the quality of schools they attend.
2. The majority of Black students in LA County are enrolled in racially isolated (e.g. predominantly Black and Latinx students) schools located in impoverished communities. For many years, there has been no significant effort to promote racial integration in LA County schools.
3. Most of the schools where Black children are concentrated have limited resources despite having high numbers of very disadvantaged students (e.g. students in foster care, students who are homeless, in special education, etc.).
4. Key academic and school climate indicators illustrate distinct differences between Black students and students of other racial and ethnic groups.
   • Black students who graduate from high school eligible for admission to UC/CSU come from a small number of LA County high schools. With few exceptions, these schools are racially and socio-economically integrated.
   • The chronic absenteeism rate for Black students in LA County is 20%, disproportionately higher than for all other racial/ethnic groups.
   • Suspension rates for Black students in LA County have declined in recent years but at 6% it is disproportionately higher than for all other racial/ethnic groups.
   • A-G college readiness rates for Black students in LA County is 45 percent, disproportionately lower than for all other racial/ethnic groups.
   • Suspension rates for Black students experiencing homelessness is 6% higher than any other group of students.
   • Only 55% of Black male students with a disability in Los Angeles County graduated from high school on time.
   • According to the state enrollment report, 9,849 Black students enrolled in LA County schools in the 2005-2006 school year. According to the Four-year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate 3,234 African American Students were UC/CSU eligible in 2017-18, or 32% of the original kindergarten cohort from 2005-2006.
5. Social, environmental and health data reveals that Black children and families are more likely to be negatively impacted by their surroundings.
   • Districts that enroll the highest proportion of Black students have some of the lowest Human Development Index (HDI) scores in the County. Culver City Unified School District is an exception.
   • The asthma rate for Black children in LA County is 17.3%, almost three times higher than White children (6.1%). Black children in the Antelope Valley and the corridor from South LA to the Port of LA complex have the highest asthma rates.
   • 2% of children in the County had elevated levels of lead in blood (higher than 5 micrograms per deciliter of lead in the bloodstream). In South Central Los Angeles, 5.28% of children had elevated levels of lead in their blood.
   • More Black families are impacted by food insecurity than any other racial and ethnic group (18%).
   • Childhood hardships (e.g. incarcerated parents, homelessness, parental substance abuse, foster care placement) are disproportionately higher among Black students (12%).