MCPS has the Highest Graduation Rate for African American Male Students

September 19, 2012

Montgomery County Public Schools has the highest African American male graduation rate among the country’s large districts, according to a national report released today (September 19, 2012).

The Schott Foundation for Public Education today released The Urgency of Now, its biennial report on the graduation rates of African American males. Using 2009-2010 data, the foundation calculated an African American male graduation rate for states and for the districts with the highest population of African American male students.

The report calculates MCPS’ African American male graduation rate at 74 percent, tied with Newark (N.J) Public Schools for highest in the nation. MCPS is far outperforming the state of Maryland (57 percent) and the nation (52 percent) and has shown dramatic improvement since the foundation’s last report. In 2010, the Schott Foundation calculated the African American male graduation rate for MCPS at 65 percent, which was fourth-highest in the nation.

The report identified the graduation rate gap between African American and Caucasian males for each state and each district with a large African American population. The gap for MCPS is 17 percentage points, which is a five percentage point improvement from the 2010 report (22 percentage points) and is much narrower than the state of Maryland’s gap (24 percentage points). Nationally, the gap is 26 percentage points.

Among the districts with the largest African American population, MCPS ranks 26th (tied) out of more than 50 districts included in the report. It should be noted that MCPS has the highest African American and Caucasian graduation rates among the districts in the report.

“The Schott Foundation report clearly shows that we are moving in the right direction and that the graduation rate gap is narrowing,” said Superintendent of Schools Joshua P. Starr. “The report also makes it clear that there is much more work left to be done to make sure all students are receiving an education that prepares them for graduation day and beyond.”

While the report focused most of its attention on African American males, it does provide some data on graduation rates for Hispanic male students. According to the report, the rate for MCPS Hispanic male students was 68 percent, higher than the rates for the state of Maryland (62 percent) and the nation (58 percent).

Read the report

Read the Schott Foundation press release

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