Ideas to aid black youths - baltimoresun.com: State schools Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, chairwoman of the task force, said the next step is to define what body in Maryland is responsible for each of the recommendations in the report.
The report calls for school systems to stop placing large numbers of black males in special-education classes, where they are over-represented, and stop sending them home when they are suspended instead of providing constructive punishment inside the school.
The report also endorses the use of more single-sex classes inside regular schools, saying research points to a rise in academic achievement among boys segregated by gender.
African-American males also need to be challenged in higher-level courses and need to understand what it takes to get into college, the report says. So it recommends increasing the number of students who take PSATs and Advanced Placement classes.
The disparity in academic achievement for African-American males has remained a persistent problem.
In 2003, 76 percent of white males graduated from high school, compared with 53 percent of black males in Maryland.
For every four black men in college, there are three behind bars.
Only a small percentage of black men get to college, and fewer still graduate. In Maryland, black men earn 15 percent of master's degrees and 7 percent of doctorates.
