Have you looked into the DEI grift industrial complex? People like Glenn Singleton have been making millions from taxpayers and school boards while worsening the achievement gap and dishonoring the name Glenn ;)
Though I have read about the large DEI subculture that has grown in the academy and elsewhere, I’ve yet to dig deeply into the topic. Thanks for asking.
A very interesting read. I wonder if you have considered the difference in racial attainment gaps between various countries? For example the recent UK Commission on Racial Equality (2021) had the interesting statistic that the US Black attainment gap was 8 x greater than the UK gap.
As the report notes, there are considerable differences between the two countries but nevertheless, it is a statistically significant gap.
The head of the Commission was Tony Sewell who founded the UK Generating Genius charity which has been focussed for the last 15 years on increasing Black and other people from disadvantaged backgrounds in STEM. It has been reasonably successful. Could the lessons learned from such a charity be put to good use in the US ? https://generatinggenius.org.uk/
Dr. Sewell is controversial now in the UK because of the report and his practical approach to the problem, but he does seem to be getting results.
Thank You for Your reply, M. Styles. That Generating Genius group looks really interesting. Too bad we don't have something like that in the States (AFAIK). TY again.
Sewell is a really interesting educator. A few years ago now, he remarked that he could be earning lots of money on the lecture circuit except he refused to accept that black people did not have agency to make both good and bad life choices. After I first learned about him, I happened to see a periodic table of black achievement that a friend posted in honour of Black History Month (must have been in 2017?) anyway, because of Sewell, I suddenly realized that table had omitted the obvious -- there were no black scientists or mathematicians listed. There have been a number who have made important contributions but they were overlooked/did not fit the narrative and thus the subtle message was -- STEM is not for black children. I thought and continue to think this sort of erasure is a huge shame and has unintended consequences. The West has a crying need for more STEM students, not less and STEM does lead to employment opportunities which can lift social mobility at a higher percentage than say a focus on rap or physical achievement -- the main point behind Generating Genius. Katharine Birabalsingh who is the current UK social mobility czar is also an interesting person to follow on twitter (@MissSnuffy) SHe is the head of the Michaela school in London and has been getting fabulous results for her students.
TY for this interesting story. I don't know the timeline exactly, but a decade or two from now the need for STEM personnel is gonna grow exponentially and most other jobs decrease by roughly same amount. I'm glad there are talented people working on it there. I wish I was sanguine about U.S. chances.
I reread M Creswell's article. (It was just as good as first time!) I keep coming back to the role of the family. Two parents. Books in the home. Hours on homework. I can't recall the other ones, and if they apply. I just dunno how You overcome that. And when people idolize the rich and famous and wanna emulate the celebrities, who's gonna tell them to quit playing basketball and hit the books? I recall Obama said something to this effect and he was attacked.
We in the Latino community face similar obstacles derived from different sources, though the results are the same. Latino students have long suffered (my belief) from the impact of bi-lingual instruction which was geared to steam line the entrance of native Spanish speakers to English language instruction. In many cases it did the opposite, relegating generations of Latino students to decades of sub par English proficiency. There grew over the decades an entire bureaucratic edifice supporting bi-lingual education with all the natural consequences that those edifices bring. Having witnessed personally the ability of immigrant Latino students to dive into the deep end of the pool and learn English quickly, out of necessity, I’ve found the bi-lingual edifice terribly consequential in a negative way to Latino educational excellence.
Thank you for your commentary which is timely as always and reminders for a distracted society always needed.
Thank you for this insightful piece. I hope all concerned take on board the important points and recommendations you made.
Btw, as a member of Braver Angels (www.braverangels.org), an organization dedicated to depolarizing our country, I was glad to see the topic of your next book and look forward to reading it.
The DIC has no interest in actually improving race relations, because the perception of poor race relations is what keeps its money and power flowing.
Nothing better explains the expansion of the definition of racism from bigoted behavior and thoughts to “systemic” racism (that can never be pinpointed or solved).
Well thought out and reasoned, but nothing new here. The same framing of the problem, and vague and general suggestions regarding "solutions." How, for example, would Prof. Creswell get "blacks to watch less tv, read more, respect uncool nerds, etc? How, specifically? Saying people need to take personal responsibility is all well and good, but I think the question at this point is: how do we support, encourage, and nurture our brothers and sisters to do that? Also, more and more when I read these essays, so often written by successful members of academia, I think that the discussion of college enrollment and college success is taking up way too much oxygen in the conversation. Academic achievement in college is the structure on top of the foundation of K-12 education, and I hope that Professor Creswell and the many other eloquent voices speaking to this issue from their spots in the academy begin to address that as well. These critiques aside, I thank Professor Creswell for the essay and for his work.
You are right: nothing new here. But as Samuel Johnson once said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
I also concede that I have no specific strategy that, once implemented, will get “blacks to watch less tv, read more, respect uncool nerds, etc.” We live in a free society in which people are allowed (with exceptions) to do what they want in their private lives without the government’s interference. People can watch television to their heart’s content. To remove this right would be to end our democracy.
I also don’t use the word “solutions.” As Thomas Sowell said many years ago, there are no ideal solutions, only trade-offs.
What I can do is to identify as clearly as I can the nature of the problem and its repercussions in order to foster greater public awareness. My goal is to nurture that awareness.
I equally concede that my focus is largely on college and university education. But the section in my article containing recommendations is directed squarely at the home life of students in K-12. As you correctly note, strengthening that early foundation is crucial for a successful adulthood.
Professor Creswell, thank you for responding, and for the Johnson quote! Your post was well reasoned and well argued (as I said in my original comment), and certainly met your goal of nurturing awareness. I agree that creating incentives for positive behavior for any person or group, and persuading and encouraging those behaviors, has been a challenge in every society, and it was perhaps unfair of me to lob that at you on the basis of reading this one post. I really appreciate the discussion, and I'm heartened by knowing minds and voices such as yours are at the front of it. Thanks.
Coming in very late to this discussion, I want to stress that there is a point at which black Americans will reach a level of individuation such that there cannot be a 'black' message. A fair look at history will always show that there is some fraction of a population that will care, and another that will not care about X Y or Z. It's somewhat annoying to hear agendas aimed at getting a critical mass of black Americans to do Z, and the question of Z is always central to racial politics. But as long as it's race, the goalposts will always move.
When are we going to get Irish to stop drinking gin? When are we going to get Italians to stop mobbing up? At some point you'll just be talking about drunkeness and crime. You'll have affinities towards or against such things. It will be the content of your character.
Today, people are too afraid to say some fraction of black Americans are just wrong. No politics is going to raise all boats of a particular color.
Can you write a follow up about some of your ideas on how to improve K-12 education outcomes?
Are you worried that increasingly the top academic performers in the USA are foreigners, immigrants and ethnics? Does this problem extend far beyond merely ADOS?
Why do you think this is happening and what do you think can be done about it.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m pleased that you like the article.
I’d have to think long and hard before writing an article on how to improve K-12 educational outcomes. But whatever is happening in K-12, I witness the results in my courses. This experience leaves me with many questions. One question is what my students were assigned to read in middle school and high school. For example, about two weeks ago I mentioned Henrik Ibsen during a lecture. I then paused to ask my students if they’d had to read his "A Doll's House" while in high school. While I had to read it when I was in high school, none of them had to.
Last semester I asked my students last if they had been taught about the American Revolution. They said that they’d learned about it during middle school and high school, but that it was very brief, and the teacher quickly moved on to another topic. The same with World War One.
Writing is another area of concern. Although I don’t expect students to write as well as a professional writer, I do have standards. I confess that it’s always a pleasant surprise when I receive a well written paper.
I don’t have the numbers on how many of the top academic performers in the United States are foreigners and whether their numbers are increasing. But let’s say for arguments sake they are increasing in number. On the one hand, this is a positive thing. Despite the country’s many problems, the fact that large numbers of talented foreign-born scholars decide to make a career here suggests that more things are going right than going wrong.
On the other hand, an increasing reliance on academics born outside the United States—especially those specializing in the sciences—suggests that the country is failing to properly educate enough native-born Americans in subjects crucial to our future prosperity.
It would be great if more women, blacks, and Hispanics majored in STEMM. We should therefore encourage them to take an interest in the STEMM fields and offer opportunity to those who demonstrate the strongest desire and aptitude. However, I caution us not to expect equal representation among the different groups in society. For various cultural and historical reasons, different groups of people have over time focused on different things, which in part have shaped outcomes. We should also not water down standards for the sake of diversity. It is in everyone’s interest that we maintain high standards.
"Last semester I asked my students last if they had been taught about the American Revolution. They said that they’d learned about it during middle school and high school, but that it was very brief, and the teacher quickly moved on to another topic. The same with World War One."
One of us at FBT is closely connected to a history teacher at a super-elite private high school. The teacher says that teaching about the American Revolution, WWI, and WWII is being curtailed, and teaching about the Cold War has been eliminated, in order to give the students time to focus on "identity work" (yes, in history class), which mainly involves talking about how oppressed they are if they are not straight, white, and male.
This week I was discussing cultural and intellectual developments in interwar Europe. I mentioned Franz Kafka and asked if anyone had read him. Not only had they not read him, but no one seemed to even have heard of him.
Please share more. Do the woke history teachers also demonize Jews and asians for their success (although they don't phrase it quite like that)?
If high school students in a world civilization history class wrote an essay about:
"Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic use to have about the same per capita income in 1950. Today Jamaica has three times Haiti's per capita income and the Dominican Republic has 7 times Haiti's per capita income. Why do you think this is?"
What would they write?
+++++++++++++++
If HIgh School Students were asked to write an essay on:
"Why do latino americans live 3.1 years longer than caucasian americans in 2019 (use to be more than that)? And much more than 3.1 years longer holding income constant? [Asians live 6.8 years longer than caucasians. Poor asians live longer than upper middle class caucasians.]
What would they write?
PS. I would give the students the following data points to aid in their essay:
How good are high school students at critical thinking, original analysis, research and using data analytics?
If US high school students aren't good at these things, how can they hope to compete with poor village girls in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Bangladesh and Vietnam who are academically performing off the charts?
Amy Wax is very worried that almost no non ethnic caucasians who don't live in a small number of coastal elite enclaves get admitted to elite universities anymore; and how the overwhelming vast majority of graduate and undergraduate students in elite US STEM programs are foreigners or immigrants or ethnics (she would emphasize asian.) Amy Wax is worried about a new asian ruling class taking over the USA.
I think that unless the the USA can dramatically improve K-12 education fast, the USA will be increasingly owned and controlled by foreigners and market dominant minorities (immigrants, ethnics of many kinds.) The market dominant minorites would probably include but not be limited to cubans, nigerians, ghanaians, russians, jews, asians and immigrants.
The USA use to have over half of global GNP versus about 15% to 16% now and a projected 8% in the future based on the economist Laurence Kotlikoff's projections. The USA is likely to be majority owned by foreigners in the future.
This is all the more reason we need America's intellectual giants such as yourself to research how to improve K-12. Please share your ideas on podcasts too.
My view is that if African Americans sharply improve K-12 academic performance, it would inspire other Americans to seek academic excellence too.
ADOS have demonstrated academic excellence in the past. For example between 1934 and 1938 ADOS 8th grade students were more likely to ace the entry exam for elite NY city public high schools than non jewish caucasians. This excellence can happen again.
A interesting essay that does highlight the problems facing Black students today (and I shudder to think what the stupidity of school shutdowns have done not only to Black American students but all students who will struggle now because of such ill considered actions by government on the recommendation of so called "experts"). I could point out that Thomas Sowell has written about this problem in his essays, and one school, Dunbar High School in Washington DC, is one he points to as it's students in it's earliest years scored higher on government tests of students knowledge than white students in neighboring schools that had far higher budgets than Dunbar received.
Sowell also highlights groups working to change the Black education gap in elementary to high school in the later essays of his book, Black Rednecks And White Liberals.
This is really good stuff here - although I would point out that funding disparities don't help. In California, the amount of money each school district gets from the state is based on local property tax rates. So a kid attending public school in San Francisco is getting access to far more resources than, say, a kid attending school in Brawley. Equal opportunity is a great concept - and would be an even better reality. If black kids, as a whole, had access to the same primary educational opportunities as white kids (as a whole), then fewer blacks would struggle with university academics once on campus. That's the tragedy - and how it's not a violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause is a mystery.
Dunbar High School in Washington DC, in it's earliest years up to Brown vs Board Of Education used to have it's students (who were Black) score higher on education tests than white students at nearby schools that were far better funded. Explain how money makes opportunity better for Black students now versus then?
Again, Thomas Sowell talks about this in Black Rednecks And White Liberals, how schools that were historically Black in many cases seemed to dumb down their curriculum.
I did not mean to argue that money was the solely determining factor. Some of the (underfunded) charter schools in Washington, D.C., and NYC currently show similar results. However, in California, the state changed school funding some 40 years ago so that school districts no longer are authorized to directly collect property taxes without a local ballot measure that passes with a 2/3 majority (bond measures for new construction, upgrades, etc.). But for general funding, the state now disburses the collected taxes back to the school districts - and it's based on a per-student formula tied to the local property assessments. So Beverly Hills High receives more money PER STUDENT than, say a school in Oakland, East LA or the border community of San Ysidro.
How on earth is that constitutional under the 14th Amendment's equal protection plan? Michigan's state supreme court ruled about a decade ago that a similar formula was patently unconstitutional and directed the state to fund schools on an equal footing.
When a school district receives less money per student than another district, the district that receive less money obviously HAS less money to offer in compensation for teachers, campus maintenance, etc.
But even within the same school districts students are not equally valued. When La Jolla High gets spray painted with graffiti (and it happens) the graffiti is removed that day. When Lincoln High or Hoover High are vandalized, repairs take far longer. Why?
In San Diego (where I lived for many years, and still have family) the teachers union fought against efforts to implement "No Child Left Behind" - coining the phrase "remedial gulags" to describe efforts to get students who were behind their grade level in basic schools back up to speed. Teachers refused assignments to campuses in rough neighborhoods - preferring to teach advanced classes for college-bound students in affluent suburban schools.
Of course black (and Latino and Asian) families and their children are able to overcome such obstacles.
The 14th Amendment only deals with the federal level, not the state level. It has nothing to do with state level. States, as per the Constitution, have the right to disburse their own funds as they see fit.
As for teachers unions, I have seen articles that often show that those same teachers unions are part of the problem with the education of students. The pandemic showed that fact to be even more true. As for rough neighborhoods, that goes back to the fact that families people are the ones responsible to make sure that their kids are educated, and to have those people who make their neighborhoods rough be removed from them, mainly by working with the police departments in their areas, and stop this snitches get stitches nonsense.
A good point that Thomas Sowell pointed out in his book, Black Rednecks And White Liberals, is that the leaders of the Chinese communities in such places like California encouraged the police to be tough on the criminals in their communities. Perhaps of communities should take a lesson from those Chinese American communities.
Actually, the 14th Amendment, among other things, applied the Bill of Rights to the states and local jurisdictions. So while states are under no obligation to fund public schools, if they do so, they have to do so equitably under the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Most states already do this in school funding - it's one of the great ironies of our times that a state government claiming to be "anti-racist" and "progressive" engages in the most regressive funding scheme for its public schools and now proposes to do away with all advanced placement classes, and to no longer teach calculus in high schools because kids in underfunded schools don't score as high in calc as kids from upscale schools. Of course, parents in the upscale schools can still afford after school tutors for precious - it will, as always, be the kids of people who actually work for a living who are denied yet another opportunity.
Excellent essay. While it's all been said before, it cannot be said enough. And Mr. Creswell says it well.
Ms. Styles reports (below) that, according to the UK Commission on Racial Equity, the racial attainment gap is far larger in the US than in the UK. As always with statistical comparisons, the denominator matters.
The composition of black communities in the US and UK are quite different. As I understand it, the black community in the UK is primarily an immigrant community; in the US, it is not.
I offer this hypothesis - the attainment of blacks whose families recently immigrated to the US will be comparable to the attainment of blacks whose families recently immigrated to the UK. I would suggest further that the attainment of blacks whose families recently immigrated to the US will compare relatively favorably to the attainment of whites in the US.
All good points but really nothing that hasn’t been said before. Where’s the action plan? Are there any ongoing programs that are successfully addressing the factors you list and how can they be replicated?
While it’s true that what I’ve written has been said before, it needs to be said again because not everyone got the message the first time around. And because a lot of people won’t read my article, some future author will have to make the same points again. Then there is a generation just coming of age for whom all of what I’ve written is new.
As to your other point, adding an action plan would have made a long article that much longer. I already exceeded Free Black Thought’s recommended word limit. Other people have been working on these issues for a long time, so I would point you in their direction.
For example, the Harvard economist Roland Fryer has tried to transfer the success of high-performing charter school chains in public schools in Houston. We should continue to monitor the results of this study, named Apollo 20, to determine if other school districts should follow suit.
Thanks for your response and let me emphasize that we are on the same team. However, my main point that you and others in the ivory tower need to pick-up your game still stands. The following link:
indicates that Apollo 20 fell short in several ways. Also, is this still even an active program as opposed to the success story you suggest?
As something to brainstorm, I wonder if it is time to revisit the old military school model for grades 6 -12 with one big difference. Oakland started a school a few years back but it was predicated on parental involvement. I dare say that if (for the reasons you cite) we had parental involvement up and down the line, there would not be a problem. How about a military school model that assumes an absence of positive parental involvement.
Just resending a redundant message which yields little or no results seems pointless. Charter schools may be effective for those few in the program, but don't we really have to think about those left behind?
Yes, I agree that many in the ivory tower need to pick up their game. I hope this point came through in my article. But I caution against painting with too broad of a brush. There are some of us in academia who work hard to make positive changes, despite the indifference, denial, and at times outright obstruction.
Yes, the Apollo 20 program ended and did not meet all of objectives. However, we can still learn from this experiment. We can see what worked and build on that, and we can either try to improve on what didn’t work or simply jettison those parts if they can’t be fixed. My point is that we need to be open to creativity to deal with the magnitude of the problem.
By the way, the link you provide is unfortunate, as it points to an article about accusations of sexual harassment leveled against Professor Fryer. I would not want people to learn about my research in an article where the headline states that I’d been accused of some sort of malfeasance.
There is a short documentary that argues Fryer was railroaded. Here’s the link:
I’m unsure about what redundant message you’re referring to, but we should indeed think about those left behind. On that point we agree.
Military school might be right for some students, but not for all. I would have to look more deeply into the subject before rendering any far-reaching opinions. You also raise an excellent point about students who lack positive parental involvement. What do we do about them?
Also, in response to those here asking for action, I encourage you to explore the outcomes of NIGMS minority programs as a sample of interventions. Anthony DePass has also data. We have to find a way to change for the better.
Phew! You don't hold back many punches, do You M. Creswell? My only complaint is that You won't likely get the hearing You deserve, because this needs to be SHOUTED from the rooftops. That's not to mention that, perhaps, there'd be a lotta pushback. You've confronted the shibboleths head on. Can't respect that enough.
Like You say, if Black's wanna be a successful minority, they need to take charge of themselves. I dunno if it was intentional or not, but most-a Your advice pertains to too many white kids, as well.
[Edit: tl;dr]
I dunno about education as much as I should prefer. I've seen this site before but not looked at it very carefully until this morning. The nation's report card on student achievement. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/
Kids need to take more responsibility, really, in just about every area. Like You say, starts with parents.
But one area that could be improved that would help students of all races came to my attention this morning. Briefly, from just skimming the material, it appears that the nations Teaching Schools are totally, completely, and ABSOLUTELY SHAMBOLIC. Just starting to come to grips with this concept. But if Teachers are being [Edit: taught ] all wrong, then the quality of kid's education just won't be there. If the School Ed colleges are teaching ideology, nothing good will come of it. I gather this has BEEN going on, but dunno for how long. I've learned that virtually everyone, administrators and teachers and the teachers in School Ed schools come from these same School Ed schools.
I don't see much chance of much progress as long as this situation continues. One paper outta Education Week from 2006 (yeah, 16 years ago) suggested a whole new accrediting body be created! (I haven't read any-a this stuff yet. Just getting an overview.)
In any event. Apologize this is so long. These things just came to my attention today, and I'm somewhat incensed. This is the Substack I got the info from. Short, and to the point. "Why Colleges Are Becoming Cults" w/Dr. Lyell Asher. https://boghossian.substack.com/p/things-you-can-do-k-12-schools?s=r
This should been at beginning instead-a end. Thank You SO much for sticking Your neck out, SIR! TYTY.
[Edit: I wonder if You, Sir, were in favor of Charter Schools and mebbe school vouchers? NO NEED to bother answering. Question just came to mind. TY again.]
Thanks for the kind words. In answer to your question, we should consider all the ways in which we can improve the nation’s schools. I plan to read Thomas Sowell’s recent book, Charter Schools and Their Enemies, to gain more insight into the topic.
Thomas Sowell? I have his Basic Economics 4th and 5th editions on my smartphone.
"After the war was over, there was a tremendous increase in the production of cars, refrigerators, housing, and other parts of the nation’s accumulated stock of wealth which had been allowed to wear down or wear out while production was being devoted to urgent wartime purposes. The durable equipment of consumers declined in real value between 1944 and 1945, the last year of the war and then more than doubled in real value over the next five years, as the nation's stock of durable assets that had been depleted during the war was replenished. This was an unprecedented rate of growth." |
That paragraph is identical in the 4th and 5th editions of Sowell's Basic Economics. He admits to the occurance of 'depreciation' in consumer durables but never uses the word. The Great Depression followed by WWII followed by the Great Acceleration has given us today's world. But the depreciation of all of the consumer junk produced since WWII is being ignored. Notice he called them "durable assets". The C02 from producing all of the junk is still in the atmosphere.
Euro-American economic theory has ignored demand side depreciation since WWII. NDP does not get much mention.
This is one of the most comprehensive essays I've read on this issue. This line, in particular, highlights something that I think is broader than race: "First, black people themselves need to accord much greater respect than most of them do at present to black intellectual achievement." I think the fact that fewer white families respect intellectual achievement is having a huge impact on the achievement gap as well.
During the last 15 years, I have watched the instruction, test scores, and discipline issues in my mixed race, middle-income, large public school district decline at a pretty steep rate. However, if you look at demographic changes over the years, these changes aren't linked to racial make-up. What has changed is the way parents of all races and backgrounds here view education. Having worked in education communications for the last 20 years, I read EVERYTHING - test scores, rankings, school board minutes, etc. But I am often the only one. (And if I had to do it over again, I would choose private school.) More and more parents, especially working to middle-class white parents, don't prioritize genuine (as opposed to performative) academic excellence anymore. Most are happy to accept the illusion of it - saying that their children have straight A's, or are taking Honors or AP courses, but not mentioning that they didn't pass their AP tests. The ones who do value real academic excellence, move to the school districts or private schools that have the tax-base and community mindset needed to achieve that . In St. Louis, that would be Indian and Asian families, or highly educated / professional white, black and Hispanic families. But there is a huge and growing group in the middle that no longer hold their schools or children to the standards needed to prepare students for professional learning. Teachers unions play a huge role in this as well - for a mix of good (or at least understandable) reasons and a long list of very, very bad reasons.
The negative result for all students - when they move to college, tech schools, or the workforce, they don't have the math, writing, science, communication, or personal accountability skills needed to pursue the best-paying fields, leading many to drop out of school, or change to major fields that are easier to handle but are over-crowded or less valued in the economy.
This hits students on the edges the hardest - a middle-income white (or black) student who fails to launch after HS tends to have more connections and financial support to continue bumping along, or to redirect. But for black students who don't have financially stable extended families - the struggle to move into good employment fields with the health benefits, retirement, and advancement needed to move out of poverty is harder to achieve. And as they drift along in lower paying industries, other problems can compound it - like a health crisis, family issues, or becoming the victim of a crime - sending them deeper into that dead end.
At HBCUs only two have 4 year graduation rates above 50% , Spelman and Howard. The rest of the top ten are significantly below that with #10 at 28%. Black women graduate at a higher percentage than males and are now 60% and rising of the student body. Even more than the % at all colleges. Women are far more likely than men to seek someone for marriage who equals them in education.
This has major implications for the black community.
Wonderful essay. Should be required reading everywhere!
Have you looked into the DEI grift industrial complex? People like Glenn Singleton have been making millions from taxpayers and school boards while worsening the achievement gap and dishonoring the name Glenn ;)
Though I have read about the large DEI subculture that has grown in the academy and elsewhere, I’ve yet to dig deeply into the topic. Thanks for asking.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m flattered you took notice.
Yes. Excellent. Am going to use some of this in my curriculum.
Thank you.
yes, outstanding
Thank you.
A very interesting read. I wonder if you have considered the difference in racial attainment gaps between various countries? For example the recent UK Commission on Racial Equality (2021) had the interesting statistic that the US Black attainment gap was 8 x greater than the UK gap.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-report-of-the-commission-on-race-and-ethnic-disparities/education-and-training
As the report notes, there are considerable differences between the two countries but nevertheless, it is a statistically significant gap.
The head of the Commission was Tony Sewell who founded the UK Generating Genius charity which has been focussed for the last 15 years on increasing Black and other people from disadvantaged backgrounds in STEM. It has been reasonably successful. Could the lessons learned from such a charity be put to good use in the US ? https://generatinggenius.org.uk/
Dr. Sewell is controversial now in the UK because of the report and his practical approach to the problem, but he does seem to be getting results.
Thank You for Your reply, M. Styles. That Generating Genius group looks really interesting. Too bad we don't have something like that in the States (AFAIK). TY again.
Sewell is a really interesting educator. A few years ago now, he remarked that he could be earning lots of money on the lecture circuit except he refused to accept that black people did not have agency to make both good and bad life choices. After I first learned about him, I happened to see a periodic table of black achievement that a friend posted in honour of Black History Month (must have been in 2017?) anyway, because of Sewell, I suddenly realized that table had omitted the obvious -- there were no black scientists or mathematicians listed. There have been a number who have made important contributions but they were overlooked/did not fit the narrative and thus the subtle message was -- STEM is not for black children. I thought and continue to think this sort of erasure is a huge shame and has unintended consequences. The West has a crying need for more STEM students, not less and STEM does lead to employment opportunities which can lift social mobility at a higher percentage than say a focus on rap or physical achievement -- the main point behind Generating Genius. Katharine Birabalsingh who is the current UK social mobility czar is also an interesting person to follow on twitter (@MissSnuffy) SHe is the head of the Michaela school in London and has been getting fabulous results for her students.
TY for this interesting story. I don't know the timeline exactly, but a decade or two from now the need for STEM personnel is gonna grow exponentially and most other jobs decrease by roughly same amount. I'm glad there are talented people working on it there. I wish I was sanguine about U.S. chances.
I reread M Creswell's article. (It was just as good as first time!) I keep coming back to the role of the family. Two parents. Books in the home. Hours on homework. I can't recall the other ones, and if they apply. I just dunno how You overcome that. And when people idolize the rich and famous and wanna emulate the celebrities, who's gonna tell them to quit playing basketball and hit the books? I recall Obama said something to this effect and he was attacked.
Makes my head and heart ache a little bit.
We in the Latino community face similar obstacles derived from different sources, though the results are the same. Latino students have long suffered (my belief) from the impact of bi-lingual instruction which was geared to steam line the entrance of native Spanish speakers to English language instruction. In many cases it did the opposite, relegating generations of Latino students to decades of sub par English proficiency. There grew over the decades an entire bureaucratic edifice supporting bi-lingual education with all the natural consequences that those edifices bring. Having witnessed personally the ability of immigrant Latino students to dive into the deep end of the pool and learn English quickly, out of necessity, I’ve found the bi-lingual edifice terribly consequential in a negative way to Latino educational excellence.
Thank you for your commentary which is timely as always and reminders for a distracted society always needed.
Thank you for your kind words.
Thank you for this insightful piece. I hope all concerned take on board the important points and recommendations you made.
Btw, as a member of Braver Angels (www.braverangels.org), an organization dedicated to depolarizing our country, I was glad to see the topic of your next book and look forward to reading it.
Thank your for the kind words.
Diversity Industrial Complex (“DIC”)
The DIC has no interest in actually improving race relations, because the perception of poor race relations is what keeps its money and power flowing.
Nothing better explains the expansion of the definition of racism from bigoted behavior and thoughts to “systemic” racism (that can never be pinpointed or solved).
Well thought out and reasoned, but nothing new here. The same framing of the problem, and vague and general suggestions regarding "solutions." How, for example, would Prof. Creswell get "blacks to watch less tv, read more, respect uncool nerds, etc? How, specifically? Saying people need to take personal responsibility is all well and good, but I think the question at this point is: how do we support, encourage, and nurture our brothers and sisters to do that? Also, more and more when I read these essays, so often written by successful members of academia, I think that the discussion of college enrollment and college success is taking up way too much oxygen in the conversation. Academic achievement in college is the structure on top of the foundation of K-12 education, and I hope that Professor Creswell and the many other eloquent voices speaking to this issue from their spots in the academy begin to address that as well. These critiques aside, I thank Professor Creswell for the essay and for his work.
You are right: nothing new here. But as Samuel Johnson once said, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.”
I also concede that I have no specific strategy that, once implemented, will get “blacks to watch less tv, read more, respect uncool nerds, etc.” We live in a free society in which people are allowed (with exceptions) to do what they want in their private lives without the government’s interference. People can watch television to their heart’s content. To remove this right would be to end our democracy.
I also don’t use the word “solutions.” As Thomas Sowell said many years ago, there are no ideal solutions, only trade-offs.
What I can do is to identify as clearly as I can the nature of the problem and its repercussions in order to foster greater public awareness. My goal is to nurture that awareness.
I equally concede that my focus is largely on college and university education. But the section in my article containing recommendations is directed squarely at the home life of students in K-12. As you correctly note, strengthening that early foundation is crucial for a successful adulthood.
Thanks for reading.
Professor Creswell, thank you for responding, and for the Johnson quote! Your post was well reasoned and well argued (as I said in my original comment), and certainly met your goal of nurturing awareness. I agree that creating incentives for positive behavior for any person or group, and persuading and encouraging those behaviors, has been a challenge in every society, and it was perhaps unfair of me to lob that at you on the basis of reading this one post. I really appreciate the discussion, and I'm heartened by knowing minds and voices such as yours are at the front of it. Thanks.
Coming in very late to this discussion, I want to stress that there is a point at which black Americans will reach a level of individuation such that there cannot be a 'black' message. A fair look at history will always show that there is some fraction of a population that will care, and another that will not care about X Y or Z. It's somewhat annoying to hear agendas aimed at getting a critical mass of black Americans to do Z, and the question of Z is always central to racial politics. But as long as it's race, the goalposts will always move.
When are we going to get Irish to stop drinking gin? When are we going to get Italians to stop mobbing up? At some point you'll just be talking about drunkeness and crime. You'll have affinities towards or against such things. It will be the content of your character.
Today, people are too afraid to say some fraction of black Americans are just wrong. No politics is going to raise all boats of a particular color.
Loved this article.
Can you write a follow up about some of your ideas on how to improve K-12 education outcomes?
Are you worried that increasingly the top academic performers in the USA are foreigners, immigrants and ethnics? Does this problem extend far beyond merely ADOS?
Why do you think this is happening and what do you think can be done about it.
Thank you for the kind words. I’m pleased that you like the article.
I’d have to think long and hard before writing an article on how to improve K-12 educational outcomes. But whatever is happening in K-12, I witness the results in my courses. This experience leaves me with many questions. One question is what my students were assigned to read in middle school and high school. For example, about two weeks ago I mentioned Henrik Ibsen during a lecture. I then paused to ask my students if they’d had to read his "A Doll's House" while in high school. While I had to read it when I was in high school, none of them had to.
Last semester I asked my students last if they had been taught about the American Revolution. They said that they’d learned about it during middle school and high school, but that it was very brief, and the teacher quickly moved on to another topic. The same with World War One.
Writing is another area of concern. Although I don’t expect students to write as well as a professional writer, I do have standards. I confess that it’s always a pleasant surprise when I receive a well written paper.
I don’t have the numbers on how many of the top academic performers in the United States are foreigners and whether their numbers are increasing. But let’s say for arguments sake they are increasing in number. On the one hand, this is a positive thing. Despite the country’s many problems, the fact that large numbers of talented foreign-born scholars decide to make a career here suggests that more things are going right than going wrong.
On the other hand, an increasing reliance on academics born outside the United States—especially those specializing in the sciences—suggests that the country is failing to properly educate enough native-born Americans in subjects crucial to our future prosperity.
It would be great if more women, blacks, and Hispanics majored in STEMM. We should therefore encourage them to take an interest in the STEMM fields and offer opportunity to those who demonstrate the strongest desire and aptitude. However, I caution us not to expect equal representation among the different groups in society. For various cultural and historical reasons, different groups of people have over time focused on different things, which in part have shaped outcomes. We should also not water down standards for the sake of diversity. It is in everyone’s interest that we maintain high standards.
"Last semester I asked my students last if they had been taught about the American Revolution. They said that they’d learned about it during middle school and high school, but that it was very brief, and the teacher quickly moved on to another topic. The same with World War One."
One of us at FBT is closely connected to a history teacher at a super-elite private high school. The teacher says that teaching about the American Revolution, WWI, and WWII is being curtailed, and teaching about the Cold War has been eliminated, in order to give the students time to focus on "identity work" (yes, in history class), which mainly involves talking about how oppressed they are if they are not straight, white, and male.
This week I was discussing cultural and intellectual developments in interwar Europe. I mentioned Franz Kafka and asked if anyone had read him. Not only had they not read him, but no one seemed to even have heard of him.
Please share more. Do the woke history teachers also demonize Jews and asians for their success (although they don't phrase it quite like that)?
If high school students in a world civilization history class wrote an essay about:
"Haiti, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic use to have about the same per capita income in 1950. Today Jamaica has three times Haiti's per capita income and the Dominican Republic has 7 times Haiti's per capita income. Why do you think this is?"
What would they write?
+++++++++++++++
If HIgh School Students were asked to write an essay on:
"Why do latino americans live 3.1 years longer than caucasian americans in 2019 (use to be more than that)? And much more than 3.1 years longer holding income constant? [Asians live 6.8 years longer than caucasians. Poor asians live longer than upper middle class caucasians.]
What would they write?
PS. I would give the students the following data points to aid in their essay:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-19.pdf
AAs live only 74.8 year
caucasians live 78.8 years
latinos live 81.9 years
asians live 85.6 years
On page 3 of the pdf of https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr70/nvsr70-19.pdf the gender gap in age expectancy by group (females live longer than males) is:
---(78.1-71.3) = 6.8 years for AAs
---(81.3-76.3) = 5.0 years for caucasians
---(84.4-79.1) = 5.3 years for latinos
---(87.4-83.5) = 3.9 years for asians
How good are high school students at critical thinking, original analysis, research and using data analytics?
If US high school students aren't good at these things, how can they hope to compete with poor village girls in Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana, Bangladesh and Vietnam who are academically performing off the charts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1vQFMxPk54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMeJhagm7Gg&t=8s
Amy Wax is very worried that almost no non ethnic caucasians who don't live in a small number of coastal elite enclaves get admitted to elite universities anymore; and how the overwhelming vast majority of graduate and undergraduate students in elite US STEM programs are foreigners or immigrants or ethnics (she would emphasize asian.) Amy Wax is worried about a new asian ruling class taking over the USA.
I think that unless the the USA can dramatically improve K-12 education fast, the USA will be increasingly owned and controlled by foreigners and market dominant minorities (immigrants, ethnics of many kinds.) The market dominant minorites would probably include but not be limited to cubans, nigerians, ghanaians, russians, jews, asians and immigrants.
The USA use to have over half of global GNP versus about 15% to 16% now and a projected 8% in the future based on the economist Laurence Kotlikoff's projections. The USA is likely to be majority owned by foreigners in the future.
This is all the more reason we need America's intellectual giants such as yourself to research how to improve K-12. Please share your ideas on podcasts too.
My view is that if African Americans sharply improve K-12 academic performance, it would inspire other Americans to seek academic excellence too.
ADOS have demonstrated academic excellence in the past. For example between 1934 and 1938 ADOS 8th grade students were more likely to ace the entry exam for elite NY city public high schools than non jewish caucasians. This excellence can happen again.
A interesting essay that does highlight the problems facing Black students today (and I shudder to think what the stupidity of school shutdowns have done not only to Black American students but all students who will struggle now because of such ill considered actions by government on the recommendation of so called "experts"). I could point out that Thomas Sowell has written about this problem in his essays, and one school, Dunbar High School in Washington DC, is one he points to as it's students in it's earliest years scored higher on government tests of students knowledge than white students in neighboring schools that had far higher budgets than Dunbar received.
Sowell also highlights groups working to change the Black education gap in elementary to high school in the later essays of his book, Black Rednecks And White Liberals.
Good Esay. Much to think about.
Thank you.
This is really good stuff here - although I would point out that funding disparities don't help. In California, the amount of money each school district gets from the state is based on local property tax rates. So a kid attending public school in San Francisco is getting access to far more resources than, say, a kid attending school in Brawley. Equal opportunity is a great concept - and would be an even better reality. If black kids, as a whole, had access to the same primary educational opportunities as white kids (as a whole), then fewer blacks would struggle with university academics once on campus. That's the tragedy - and how it's not a violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause is a mystery.
Dunbar High School in Washington DC, in it's earliest years up to Brown vs Board Of Education used to have it's students (who were Black) score higher on education tests than white students at nearby schools that were far better funded. Explain how money makes opportunity better for Black students now versus then?
Again, Thomas Sowell talks about this in Black Rednecks And White Liberals, how schools that were historically Black in many cases seemed to dumb down their curriculum.
I did not mean to argue that money was the solely determining factor. Some of the (underfunded) charter schools in Washington, D.C., and NYC currently show similar results. However, in California, the state changed school funding some 40 years ago so that school districts no longer are authorized to directly collect property taxes without a local ballot measure that passes with a 2/3 majority (bond measures for new construction, upgrades, etc.). But for general funding, the state now disburses the collected taxes back to the school districts - and it's based on a per-student formula tied to the local property assessments. So Beverly Hills High receives more money PER STUDENT than, say a school in Oakland, East LA or the border community of San Ysidro.
How on earth is that constitutional under the 14th Amendment's equal protection plan? Michigan's state supreme court ruled about a decade ago that a similar formula was patently unconstitutional and directed the state to fund schools on an equal footing.
When a school district receives less money per student than another district, the district that receive less money obviously HAS less money to offer in compensation for teachers, campus maintenance, etc.
But even within the same school districts students are not equally valued. When La Jolla High gets spray painted with graffiti (and it happens) the graffiti is removed that day. When Lincoln High or Hoover High are vandalized, repairs take far longer. Why?
In San Diego (where I lived for many years, and still have family) the teachers union fought against efforts to implement "No Child Left Behind" - coining the phrase "remedial gulags" to describe efforts to get students who were behind their grade level in basic schools back up to speed. Teachers refused assignments to campuses in rough neighborhoods - preferring to teach advanced classes for college-bound students in affluent suburban schools.
Of course black (and Latino and Asian) families and their children are able to overcome such obstacles.
My point is: Why should they have to?
The 14th Amendment only deals with the federal level, not the state level. It has nothing to do with state level. States, as per the Constitution, have the right to disburse their own funds as they see fit.
As for teachers unions, I have seen articles that often show that those same teachers unions are part of the problem with the education of students. The pandemic showed that fact to be even more true. As for rough neighborhoods, that goes back to the fact that families people are the ones responsible to make sure that their kids are educated, and to have those people who make their neighborhoods rough be removed from them, mainly by working with the police departments in their areas, and stop this snitches get stitches nonsense.
A good point that Thomas Sowell pointed out in his book, Black Rednecks And White Liberals, is that the leaders of the Chinese communities in such places like California encouraged the police to be tough on the criminals in their communities. Perhaps of communities should take a lesson from those Chinese American communities.
Actually, the 14th Amendment, among other things, applied the Bill of Rights to the states and local jurisdictions. So while states are under no obligation to fund public schools, if they do so, they have to do so equitably under the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Most states already do this in school funding - it's one of the great ironies of our times that a state government claiming to be "anti-racist" and "progressive" engages in the most regressive funding scheme for its public schools and now proposes to do away with all advanced placement classes, and to no longer teach calculus in high schools because kids in underfunded schools don't score as high in calc as kids from upscale schools. Of course, parents in the upscale schools can still afford after school tutors for precious - it will, as always, be the kids of people who actually work for a living who are denied yet another opportunity.
Excellent essay. While it's all been said before, it cannot be said enough. And Mr. Creswell says it well.
Ms. Styles reports (below) that, according to the UK Commission on Racial Equity, the racial attainment gap is far larger in the US than in the UK. As always with statistical comparisons, the denominator matters.
The composition of black communities in the US and UK are quite different. As I understand it, the black community in the UK is primarily an immigrant community; in the US, it is not.
I offer this hypothesis - the attainment of blacks whose families recently immigrated to the US will be comparable to the attainment of blacks whose families recently immigrated to the UK. I would suggest further that the attainment of blacks whose families recently immigrated to the US will compare relatively favorably to the attainment of whites in the US.
All good points but really nothing that hasn’t been said before. Where’s the action plan? Are there any ongoing programs that are successfully addressing the factors you list and how can they be replicated?
While it’s true that what I’ve written has been said before, it needs to be said again because not everyone got the message the first time around. And because a lot of people won’t read my article, some future author will have to make the same points again. Then there is a generation just coming of age for whom all of what I’ve written is new.
As to your other point, adding an action plan would have made a long article that much longer. I already exceeded Free Black Thought’s recommended word limit. Other people have been working on these issues for a long time, so I would point you in their direction.
For example, the Harvard economist Roland Fryer has tried to transfer the success of high-performing charter school chains in public schools in Houston. We should continue to monitor the results of this study, named Apollo 20, to determine if other school districts should follow suit.
Thanks for reading.
Michael,
Thanks for your response and let me emphasize that we are on the same team. However, my main point that you and others in the ivory tower need to pick-up your game still stands. The following link:
https://www.houstonpress.com/news/roland-fryer-former-apollo-20-researcher-for-hisd-faces-accusations-at-harvard-11082877
indicates that Apollo 20 fell short in several ways. Also, is this still even an active program as opposed to the success story you suggest?
As something to brainstorm, I wonder if it is time to revisit the old military school model for grades 6 -12 with one big difference. Oakland started a school a few years back but it was predicated on parental involvement. I dare say that if (for the reasons you cite) we had parental involvement up and down the line, there would not be a problem. How about a military school model that assumes an absence of positive parental involvement.
Just resending a redundant message which yields little or no results seems pointless. Charter schools may be effective for those few in the program, but don't we really have to think about those left behind?
Thanks again,
Marvin
Hi Marvin,
Yes, I agree that many in the ivory tower need to pick up their game. I hope this point came through in my article. But I caution against painting with too broad of a brush. There are some of us in academia who work hard to make positive changes, despite the indifference, denial, and at times outright obstruction.
Yes, the Apollo 20 program ended and did not meet all of objectives. However, we can still learn from this experiment. We can see what worked and build on that, and we can either try to improve on what didn’t work or simply jettison those parts if they can’t be fixed. My point is that we need to be open to creativity to deal with the magnitude of the problem.
By the way, the link you provide is unfortunate, as it points to an article about accusations of sexual harassment leveled against Professor Fryer. I would not want people to learn about my research in an article where the headline states that I’d been accused of some sort of malfeasance.
There is a short documentary that argues Fryer was railroaded. Here’s the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8xWOlk3WIw
I’m unsure about what redundant message you’re referring to, but we should indeed think about those left behind. On that point we agree.
Military school might be right for some students, but not for all. I would have to look more deeply into the subject before rendering any far-reaching opinions. You also raise an excellent point about students who lack positive parental involvement. What do we do about them?
Thank you for your comments and questions.
Thank you!
You're very welcome.
You are brave and thorough, you have a lot of people that see things that way too but are unable to articulate it so clearly. Kudos!
Also, in response to those here asking for action, I encourage you to explore the outcomes of NIGMS minority programs as a sample of interventions. Anthony DePass has also data. We have to find a way to change for the better.
Phew! You don't hold back many punches, do You M. Creswell? My only complaint is that You won't likely get the hearing You deserve, because this needs to be SHOUTED from the rooftops. That's not to mention that, perhaps, there'd be a lotta pushback. You've confronted the shibboleths head on. Can't respect that enough.
Like You say, if Black's wanna be a successful minority, they need to take charge of themselves. I dunno if it was intentional or not, but most-a Your advice pertains to too many white kids, as well.
[Edit: tl;dr]
I dunno about education as much as I should prefer. I've seen this site before but not looked at it very carefully until this morning. The nation's report card on student achievement. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/
Kids need to take more responsibility, really, in just about every area. Like You say, starts with parents.
But one area that could be improved that would help students of all races came to my attention this morning. Briefly, from just skimming the material, it appears that the nations Teaching Schools are totally, completely, and ABSOLUTELY SHAMBOLIC. Just starting to come to grips with this concept. But if Teachers are being [Edit: taught ] all wrong, then the quality of kid's education just won't be there. If the School Ed colleges are teaching ideology, nothing good will come of it. I gather this has BEEN going on, but dunno for how long. I've learned that virtually everyone, administrators and teachers and the teachers in School Ed schools come from these same School Ed schools.
I don't see much chance of much progress as long as this situation continues. One paper outta Education Week from 2006 (yeah, 16 years ago) suggested a whole new accrediting body be created! (I haven't read any-a this stuff yet. Just getting an overview.)
In any event. Apologize this is so long. These things just came to my attention today, and I'm somewhat incensed. This is the Substack I got the info from. Short, and to the point. "Why Colleges Are Becoming Cults" w/Dr. Lyell Asher. https://boghossian.substack.com/p/things-you-can-do-k-12-schools?s=r
This should been at beginning instead-a end. Thank You SO much for sticking Your neck out, SIR! TYTY.
[Edit: I wonder if You, Sir, were in favor of Charter Schools and mebbe school vouchers? NO NEED to bother answering. Question just came to mind. TY again.]
Thanks for the kind words. In answer to your question, we should consider all the ways in which we can improve the nation’s schools. I plan to read Thomas Sowell’s recent book, Charter Schools and Their Enemies, to gain more insight into the topic.
I'm not sure how I ran across this. It's only an abstract, but full article is available. Thought You might be interested, M. Creswell. https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/129/3/1355/1817328
Ty for Your reply. i hadn't heard-a that book, and will look into it myself. TY again,
Thomas Sowell? I have his Basic Economics 4th and 5th editions on my smartphone.
"After the war was over, there was a tremendous increase in the production of cars, refrigerators, housing, and other parts of the nation’s accumulated stock of wealth which had been allowed to wear down or wear out while production was being devoted to urgent wartime purposes. The durable equipment of consumers declined in real value between 1944 and 1945, the last year of the war and then more than doubled in real value over the next five years, as the nation's stock of durable assets that had been depleted during the war was replenished. This was an unprecedented rate of growth." |
That paragraph is identical in the 4th and 5th editions of Sowell's Basic Economics. He admits to the occurance of 'depreciation' in consumer durables but never uses the word. The Great Depression followed by WWII followed by the Great Acceleration has given us today's world. But the depreciation of all of the consumer junk produced since WWII is being ignored. Notice he called them "durable assets". The C02 from producing all of the junk is still in the atmosphere.
Euro-American economic theory has ignored demand side depreciation since WWII. NDP does not get much mention.
This is one of the most comprehensive essays I've read on this issue. This line, in particular, highlights something that I think is broader than race: "First, black people themselves need to accord much greater respect than most of them do at present to black intellectual achievement." I think the fact that fewer white families respect intellectual achievement is having a huge impact on the achievement gap as well.
During the last 15 years, I have watched the instruction, test scores, and discipline issues in my mixed race, middle-income, large public school district decline at a pretty steep rate. However, if you look at demographic changes over the years, these changes aren't linked to racial make-up. What has changed is the way parents of all races and backgrounds here view education. Having worked in education communications for the last 20 years, I read EVERYTHING - test scores, rankings, school board minutes, etc. But I am often the only one. (And if I had to do it over again, I would choose private school.) More and more parents, especially working to middle-class white parents, don't prioritize genuine (as opposed to performative) academic excellence anymore. Most are happy to accept the illusion of it - saying that their children have straight A's, or are taking Honors or AP courses, but not mentioning that they didn't pass their AP tests. The ones who do value real academic excellence, move to the school districts or private schools that have the tax-base and community mindset needed to achieve that . In St. Louis, that would be Indian and Asian families, or highly educated / professional white, black and Hispanic families. But there is a huge and growing group in the middle that no longer hold their schools or children to the standards needed to prepare students for professional learning. Teachers unions play a huge role in this as well - for a mix of good (or at least understandable) reasons and a long list of very, very bad reasons.
The negative result for all students - when they move to college, tech schools, or the workforce, they don't have the math, writing, science, communication, or personal accountability skills needed to pursue the best-paying fields, leading many to drop out of school, or change to major fields that are easier to handle but are over-crowded or less valued in the economy.
This hits students on the edges the hardest - a middle-income white (or black) student who fails to launch after HS tends to have more connections and financial support to continue bumping along, or to redirect. But for black students who don't have financially stable extended families - the struggle to move into good employment fields with the health benefits, retirement, and advancement needed to move out of poverty is harder to achieve. And as they drift along in lower paying industries, other problems can compound it - like a health crisis, family issues, or becoming the victim of a crime - sending them deeper into that dead end.
At HBCUs only two have 4 year graduation rates above 50% , Spelman and Howard. The rest of the top ten are significantly below that with #10 at 28%. Black women graduate at a higher percentage than males and are now 60% and rising of the student body. Even more than the % at all colleges. Women are far more likely than men to seek someone for marriage who equals them in education.
This has major implications for the black community.