Recently, a national education advocacy group, the Schott Foundation, issued a report saying the Indianapolis Public Schools had the lowest graduation rate for Black males of any major school district in the country. However, the foundation used data that didn’t take into account student migration patterns in urban districts like IPS.
In 2003, the Indiana Legislature mandated a new way of tabulating high school graduation rates by tracking every Indiana high school student from freshman year to where they end up four years later. Those who graduate within four years are computed with the graduation rate for that high school and school district.
From the Indiana Department of Education, the Indianapolis Recorder obtained the actual graduation rates for Black males and Black females for every Indianapolis/Marion County public high school and school district. This data is being published for the first time by any Indianapolis newspaper.
The data show that it is true that the Indianapolis Public Schools has the lowest graduation rate of Black males. In the 2006-2007 school year, just 38.2 percent of Black males in the class of 2007 graduated in four years. While dismal, the figures are double what the Schott Foundation report alleged.
In a paradox, IPS also has a very low graduation rate for white males as 37.1 percent of white males in the class of 2007 graduated in four years.
The data show that graduation rate for Black females exceeds that of Black males, in some cases by a wide margin in many area high schools and districts. And the gap between Black and white graduation rates is pronounced in some schools and districts.
Of IPS’ seven high schools, Northwest had the lowest graduation rate (33.9 percent) for Black males and Arsenal Tech had the lowest graduation rate (47.3 percent) for Black females. The IPS high school with the highest graduation rates for Black males was Howe Community (53.6 percent) and Broad Ripple for Black females (67.5 percent).
Among township high schools, Franklin Central had the lowest graduation rate for Black males (41.2 percent) and Perry Meridian had the lowest Black female graduation rate (57.1 percent).
Speedway High School had the highest graduation rate for Black males (80 percent) and females (100 percent) of any non-IPS school. But Speedway’s low Black high school enrollment makes the data suspect. Of non-IPS high schools with substantial Black enrollment, North Central had the highest Black male graduation rate (73.4 percent) while Lawrence North had the best Black female graduation rate (81 percent).
Among the city/county’s school districts, after IPS, the second lowest graduation rate for Black males was Franklin Township (41.2 percent), then Perry Township (51.1 percent), Decatur Township (58.3 percent) and Pike Township (63.5 percent). The highest Black male graduation rates were Speedway (80 percent), Washington Township (73.4 percent), Warren Township (69.5 percent) and Wayne Township (64.6 percent).
For Black females, after IPS, Franklin Township had the second lowest graduation rate (61.1 percent). The highest graduation rates for Black females, after Speedway’s 100 percent was Decatur Township (80 percent), then Washington Township (79.7 percent) and Warren and Lawrence Townships (79.4 percent each).
2006-2007 (Class of 2007) Graduation Rates by Race and Gender n Sorted by Black Male Graduation Rate
Source: Indiana Department of Education n Chart Compilation ©2008 Indianapolis Recorder
