School Data Finds Pattern of Inequality Along Racial Lines

By Motoko Rich, New York Times

Racial minorities are more likely than white students to be suspended from school, to have less access to rigorous math and science classes, and to be aught by lower-paid teachers with less experience, according to comprehensive data released Friday by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

In the first analysis in nearly 15 years of information from all of the country’s 97,000 public schools, the Education Department found a pattern of inequality on a number of fronts.

Black students are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. A quarter of high schools with the highest percentage of black and Latino students do not offer any Alegbra II courses, while a third of those schools do not have any chemistry classes. Black students are more than four times as likely as white students – and Latino students twice as likely – to attend schools where one out of every five teachers does not meet all the state teaching requirements.

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