CNN.com - Rich get more sleep; blacks and men get less - Jun 30, 2006

CNN.com - Rich get more sleep; blacks and men get less - Jun 30, 2006: "NEW YORK (Reuters) -- In a study of sleep characteristics in 669 adults in Chicago who were compared by sex and race, investigators found that blacks got less sleep than whites, while men got less sleep than women.

Furthermore, the wealthier you are, the more sleep you're likely to get, Dr. Diane S. Lauderdale of the University of Chicago and her colleagues found.

'There was an expectation that people with very demanding jobs in terms of high status, high income, would be getting less sleep, and that was not true,' Lauderdale told Reuters Health in an interview. The findings could help explain why blacks suffer from more health problems than whites, she added."

To boost learning, show schools how

DesMoinesRegister.com: "Few schools match Madison Elementary in Muscatine in closing the achievement gap between white and minority students.

It won a U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Award last fall - recognition that 100 percent of fourth-graders had scored as proficient in math and 97 percent in reading.

Other schools should copy Madison's commitment.

Outside, the unassuming blond-brick school looks its 50-plus years. Inside, the combination of high expectations and targeted strategies produces results.

No excuses are made for poverty or language barriers. More than half of youngsters take free or reduced-price lunch, including some who live in motel rooms. About a third of 236 students are Latino. Thirty-three children are learning English as a second language.
"

Study Casts Doubt On the 'Boy Crisis'

Improving Test Scores Cut Into Girls' Lead

A study to be released today looking at long-term trends in test scores and academic success argues that widespread reports of U.S. boys being in crisis are greatly overstated and that young males in school are in many ways doing better than ever.

Using data compiled from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federally funded accounting of student achievement since 1971, the Washington-based think tank Education Sector found that, over the past three decades, boys' test scores are mostly up, more boys are going to college and more are getting bachelor's degrees.

The Wrong Man

Mistaken for a Fugitive, an Innocent Hairdresser Landed in Jail

The impact stunned him, the sudden violence of it on a spring morning. Elias Fishburne IV, on his way to a 6 a.m. workout, now stood in his gym clothes on Route 50 in Cheverly and took measure of the damage. Talking on his cellphone, Fishburne had nearly sideswiped another car while changing lanes, then swerved away too hard and hit the guardrail. Elias was unhurt, but his Beemer was mangled.

A Maryland state trooper pulled up and took Fishburne's license and registration back to his patrol car. Fishburne called a friend who lived nearby to come pick him up. He'd have to get the car towed, file an insurance claim, and what about all the errands he needed to run before flying off to Puerto Rico for the weekend?

The trooper returned. The mood suddenly tightened.


This is part of an ongoing series about Being a Black Man. Use the link to read the entire article.

Performance Gap on Tests Uneven for Black Students

Scores Lag More on Math Than Reading

Black students trail white students more in mathematics than in reading, especially in middle school grades, an analysis of Maryland test scores shows. But the achievement gap for Hispanic students is virtually the same in both academic subjects, a contrast that perplexed some school testing experts.

Maryland School Assessment data made public this week show that the state's two largest school systems -- in Montgomery and Prince George's counties -- continue to face enormous racial and ethnic disparities in educational achievement.

U.S. Losing Its Middle-Class Neighborhoods

From 1970 to 2000, Metro Areas Showed Widening Gap Between Rich, Poor Sections

Middle-class neighborhoods, long regarded as incubators for the American dream, are losing ground in cities across the country, shrinking at more than twice the rate of the middle class itself.

In their place, poor and rich neighborhoods are both on the rise, as cities and suburbs have become increasingly segregated by income, according to a Brookings Institution study released Thursday. It found that as a share of all urban and suburban neighborhoods, middle-income neighborhoods in the nation's 100 largest metro areas have declined from 58 percent in 1970 to 41 percent in 2000.

Higher dropout rates revealed

Published by the trade publication Education Week, the new study, which uses 2002 and 2003 data, the most current available, finds public schools graduate 69.6% of an estimated 4 million eligible students each spring, meaning about 1.2 million students likely won't graduate this year. That means about 7,000 students drop out per school day, Swanson says.

Eighteen percent of students are black, but they represent 27% of dropouts, Swanson finds. Hispanics account for 18% of students but for 24% of dropouts.

At Six Flags, the Don'ts of Dos

Employees Say Their Ethnic Hairstyles Are Challenged as 'Extreme,' and They've Complained to ACLU

It's right there, under "Extreme Hairstyles," in the 2006 seasonal handbook for Six Flags America employees: no dreadlocks, tails, partially shaved heads "or any hairstyle that detracts or takes away from Six Flags theming."

Braids "must be in neat, even rows and without beads or other ornaments," the amusement park handbook advises.

That prompted Tim Bivins, 18, who has worked at Six Flags America in Largo for two years, to cut several inches off his hair this spring and pay $50 to have it braided into cornrows. Not good enough, he was told. Cut the braids shorter or go home.

Blacks hear better than whites, study shows

Melanin may play a role in protecting from noise-induced hearing loss


ATLANTA - Black adults hear better than white adults, a government study found.

The study also found that women hear better than men, and that overall, hearing in the United States is about the same as it was 35 years ago, despite the advent of ear-blasting devices such as the Walkman and the iPod.

Previous research reached similar findings about racial and sex differences, but the new study by scientists with the federal National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health was the largest national sample to report such a finding, experts in acoustics said.

Being A Black Man

A Path All His Own
For Eric Motley, the Measure of a Man Isn't His Politics

There is a little enclave on the rural edge of this history-drenched city. It is called Madison Park. You can hear the roosters. And gawk at Dr. Hagalyn Wilson's roses, tulips and calla lilies, in bloom all over her yard.

The outside world might not know much about it, but Madison Park has produced a scintillating array of black achievers: lawyers, doctors, educators, ministers -- and at least one Republican on the rise, Eric L. Motley.

Use the link to read the entire article.

More schools test single-sex classrooms

Federal change expected that will see trend grow further

ATLANTA - In the sixth-grade class, the boys are making robots — more than a dozen students stand around work stations and chat as they cut cardboard with scissors, or glance at comic books for inspiration.

Down the hall, a room full of girls is working — quietly and independently — on the same project.

The recent scenes at Atlanta’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School may become more common in the coming years as a federal regulations change is expected to make it easier for public schools to experiment with single-gender schools and classrooms.

The Young Apprentice

They move freely between neighborhoods and jobs. When the public schools didn't suit Marcus, his mother found a private one that did. They've read the research showing that black children -- especially boys, no matter their family income -- receive less attention, harsher punishment and lower marks in school than their white counterparts, from kindergarten through college. The Yale University Child Study Center, for instance, found in a national survey last year that black boys are expelled at three times the rate of white children -- in pre-kindergarten.

This is the third in a series on "Being a Black Man" by the Washington Post. Click on the title to read the entire series.

Bias-busting tech keeps kids focused

Researcher uses handheld computer and name-generation software to keep kids engaged

A handheld computer with software that randomly selects students' names is an effective tool for making sure students pay attention and do their homework, an education researcher has found. Originally intended to increase class participation and eliminate any bias in how teachers call on students for discussion, the solution also was found to increase students' attentiveness and boost their chances of success.
June 2, 2006—Random-name-generation software--originally designed to make sure teachers call on girls as frequently as boys--appears to have additional benefits. A University of Florida (UF) researcher has discovered the technology also helps students stay focused and engaged in activities that tend to foster academic achievement.

Supreme Court to Rule on Affirmative Action in Public Schools

The Supreme Court, reentering the long-running debate over affirmative action in public education, agreed today to consider whether race can be a factor in deciding among applicants for a limited number of places in public high schools.

It will be the first time since 2003 that the court has weighed in on racial preferences in education and one of the few attempts by the justices to consider voluntary affirmative action in the context of elementary or secondary education.

Star-Powered Gala Energizes Efforts For Slavery Museum

The theme of the United States National Slavery Museum: reconciliation, not recrimination.

That's what L. Douglas Wilder, former governor of Virginia and present mayor of Richmond, stressed at Saturday night's fund-raising fete for the planned museum. That's what the evening's high-end performers -- comedian Bill Cosby and entertainer Ben Vereen -- pointed out again and again to the 1,350 people at the Warner Theatre. That's what architect Chien Chung Pei said he is trying to reflect in his airy, ambitious design for the museum, which is to be built in Fredericksburg on the Rappahannock River.

Black men torn between promise and doubt

Black men in America today are deeply divided over the way they see themselves and their country.

Black men report the same ambitions as most Americans -- for career success, a loving marriage, children, respect. And yet most are harshly critical of other black men, associating the group with irresponsibility and crime.

Black men describe a society rife with opportunities for advancement and models for success. But they also express a deep fear that their hold on the good life is fragile, in part because of discrimination they continue to experience in their daily lives.

Study: Academic gains for women, stagnation for men

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Women now earn the majority of diplomas in fields men used to dominate -- from biology to business -- and have caught up in pursuit of law, medicine and other advanced degrees.

Even with such enormous gains over the past 25 years, women are paid less than men in comparable jobs and lag in landing top positions on college campuses.

Federal statistics released Thursday show that in many ways, the gender gap among college students is widening. The story is largely one of progress for women, stagnation for men.

At the Corner of Progress and Peril

At the Corner of Progress and Peril: "Being a black man in America can mean inhabiting a border area between possibility and peril, to feel connected to, defined by, even responsible for each of those boys -- and for other black men. In dozens of interviews, black men described their shared existence, of sometimes wondering whether their accomplishments will be treated as anomalies, their individuality obscured by the narrow images that linger in the minds of others."

Study: Blacks, Latinos pay more for mortgages - Real Estate - MSNBC.com

Study: Blacks, Latinos pay more for mortgages - Real Estate - MSNBC.com: "CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Black and Hispanic home buyers are more likely to pay high mortgage rates than white borrowers with similar credit ratings and income levels, an advocacy group found.

The Center for Responsible Lending said either loan sellers are charging higher rates to the minority customers or those borrowers are being steered to loan sellers that specialize in higher rates.

Using an industry database, the Durham-based nonprofit center compared credit scores, down payments and other financial information on about 177,000 loans made in 2004 by 'subprime' lenders — companies that charge higher interest rates than banks. The lenders provided the borrowers' income and race.
"

CNN.com - Study: College grads are fussier dads - May 31, 2006

CNN.com - Study: College grads are fussier dads - May 31, 2006: "Men who have earned a college degree plan fewer children but tend to fuss over them more than guys with less schooling.

That's the word from the government's first look at fathers and parenting, the latest version of a study that has always concentrated on women in the past.

Men who have graduated from college expect to father two children while those without a high school diploma plan on nearly three -- 2.9 -- according to the report released Wednesday by the National Center on Health Statistics."

Other findings included:

# Some 25 percent of black fathers had their first child before they were 20 years old, compared with 19 percent of Hispanic men and 11 percent of whites.

# Among unmarried white men, 19 percent have had a child, compared with one-third of black and Hispanic men.

# At the time of their first child, 37 percent of black fathers were married, compared with 52 percent of Hispanics and 77 percent of whites.

# Unmarried Hispanic and black fathers were more likely to be living with the mother of their child when their first child was born -- 32 and 24 percent, respectively -- compared with white fathers, 12 percent.