I N S I D E
Chavis Every Generation Can Contribute, Pg. 26
I N S I D E
Jury Still Out on Pepco, Exelon Merger, Pg. 4
Mayor Gives Lesson on Ruby Bridges, Pg. 27
Businesswoman Survives Gentrification, Pg. 12
Whitney’s Tragic Tale Continues, Pg. 36
Vol. 50, No. 18 Feb. 12 - Feb. 18 2015
Mayor Muriel Bowser reads “The Story of Ruby Bridges” to kindergarten and second grade students at Martin Luther King Elementary School during a Black History Month program in Southeast on Wednesday, Feb. 4. /Photo by Roy Lewis
New Schott Report Illustrates Growing Achievement Gap
Can District’s $20 Million Initiative Improve Outcomes for Black Males? By D. Kevin McNeir WI Managing Editor Race has taken center stage in conversations from D.C.’s Ward 8 here in the nation’s capital to all points north, south, east and west. And, while education serves as the best way to equalize an
eons-old unleveled field, a newly released report illustrates that little traction has been made in reducing the achievement gap. Detailing national graduation rates of black, white and Latino males and how they’re treated in school, “Black Lives Matter: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black
Males” points out a 21-percentage-point difference in national high school graduation rates between black male students and their non-black peers, and many predict that the gap will continue to widen. “The title ‘Black Lives Matter” is both an affirmation and a declarative statement,” said John
H. Jackson, president and CEO of Schott Foundation for Public Education, an organization that for over a decade has collected and published national data on four-year graduation rates for black males as compared with other groups. Their reports have highlighted how the persistent, systemic disparity in opportunity
creates a climate and perception of a population that is less valued. “Our goal was to lay out an agenda that makes it clear that black lives should matter not only when blacks die but while they’re alive,” Jackson said. “Op-
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