Rhode Island's black high school graduation rate easily tops the national average, 70 percent to 56 percent.

09:20 AM EST on Wednesday, February 16, 2005

BY LINDA BORG
Journal Staff Writer

Rhode Island has the highest high school graduation rate for black students -- 70 percent -- of any state in the nation.

The state's overall graduation rate -- 74 percent -- falls only in the middle of the pack.

Nationally, only 56 percent of black teens earn a high school diploma in four years, according to a study by the Manhattan Institute, a New York-based policy group that focuses on urban issues.

Rhode Island's black graduation rate far surpasses its neighbors. In Connecticut, only 61 percent of black students graduated in 2002, and in Massachusetts, only 59 percent did.

"It's impressive how well Rhode Island has done," said Jay Greene, the study's author. "But 70 percent is a shockingly low number."

No one, however, has a handle on why black students in Rhode Island are faring better than their counterparts. While states with smaller minority populations generally have better graduation rates, Greene said his study does not examine the reasons why.

One possible explanation is that Rhode Island's black student population is declining, but the data doesn't support that theory. In 2000, blacks made up 7.7 percent of the state's total student population; in 2004, that figure rose to 8.5 percent.

Education Commissioner Peter McWalters said that the state's effort to target more money to high-poverty districts is paying off. Starting in the mid-1990s, the Department of Education began earmarking money for specific iniatives, such as all-day kindergarten, smaller classes, teacher training and curriculum development.

The legislature also decided to bring per-pupil spending in the core cities up to the state average. Today, about 70 cents of every new education dollar goes toward urban school districts.

"It's our continuing focus on kids with the greatest needs," McWalters said.

But Jamie Scurry, who spent a year studying these issues at Hope High School in Providence, said she was shocked at the Manhattan Institute's findings.

"I found just the opposite," she said. "A lot of males of color say, 'I can't believe I'm college material', or 'I feel like high school doesn't want me there.' "

Rhode Island, however, is 25th in the nation in terms of its overall graduation rate of 74 percent. It falls one percentage point behind Massachusetts and Maine, a difference that isn't statistically significant, Greene said.

What is more disturbing, he said, is that graduation rates here and across the country have remained flat for the past decade. In Rhode Island, the rate has hovered between 74 percent and 78 percent, slightly above the current national average of 71 percent.

Even fewer students -- 34 percent -- leave high school with the minimum skills necessary to be admitted to a four-year college. Unlike the graduation rate, however, the "college readiness" rate has actually improved by 9 percentage points over the last decade.

In Rhode Island, only 37 percent of all students are prepared to tackle college material when they graduate. Nine states in the Northeast had higher rates than Rhode Island and only Delaware and New York had lower percentages.

Greene thinks that the standards movement, which requires students to take more challenging courses and holds schools responsible for student performance, has increased the qualifications of high school graduates.

But he said schools are still not demanding that all students, especially minorities, take college-prep courses.

"The ticket to success is taking more demanding courses," said Hillary Salmons, who runs the Rhode Island Scholars Initiative. "People have to understand that getting into college isn't enough. They have to be prepared to succeed."

The Rhode Island Scholars program is a business-led partnership that asks students to take a challenging curriculum that includes Algebra I and II, 3 credits in lab science and 2 credits in a foreign language. The goal is to have students not only decide to attend college but be better prepared when they get there.

"We're going after the middle 50 percent of the class," said Salmons, who works for the Education Partnership. "They are our work force of the future. They need to know that the decisions they make in high school will affect their future."

But Jack Warner, the commissioner of higher education, said a college prep curriculum is no guarantee that a student is ready to undertake college-level work. He said it makes more sense to decide what kinds of skills are needed to succeed in college.

Historically, Rhode Island high schools have not taught the kind of higher-level skills necessary to succeed in college. The state Department of Education is now asking all high school students to prove that they have mastered certain skills, either by completing a senior project or compiling a portfolio of their work.