Blacks, Latinos Still Far Behind Other High School Students, City Study Finds

Despite many compensatory programs aimed at improving their performance, black and Latino high school students continue to achieve at substantially poorer levels across major academic categories contrasted with their white and Asian counterparts, according to a study released Tuesday by the San Diego Unified School District.

For the first time, the district combined measurements of grade-point averages, graduation rates, college preparatory course enrollments and standardized test scores into an overall picture of how well San Diego high schools are preparing students for optimum academic performance and giving them the chance to go to college.

The statistics focus on ethnic comparisons and confirm clearly that, districtwide and within individual high schools, black and Latino students perform half as well or less than half as well as other ethnic groups. But the voluminous data also show that the two ethnic groups achieve at higher levels at a few schools, meaning that administrators and teachers at some schools may be doing a better job of teaching blacks and Latinos.

The special report was requested last year by school board chairman Dorothy Smith to show how different groups are being prepared for postsecondary work. Smith and colleague Jim Roache have led a successful move by the board to require all students to take college preparatory courses. That policy will be instituted in the fall.

“The data (are) very significant and should be taken very seriously,” Supt. Tom Payzant told the board Tuesday. “It points up some successes, but, very clearly, it points up the many problem areas that remain and makes a powerful argument that much must be done, especially with regard to disparities among Latinos and blacks when contrasted with Asians and whites.”

Among the district’s ninth- through 12th-grade students, 47.5% are white, 18% Latino, 15.4% black, 8.1% Indochinese, 7.3% Filipino and 3% other Asian groups.

But, in looking at ninth-graders who take college preparatory courses, only about one-fifth of Latino and black students take four or more, contrasted with 45% of whites and 55% of all Asians. The disparity between groups lessens somewhat by the 12th grade, but the report cautions that, because 40% of Latinos and 28% of blacks drop out during high school, only the higher-achieving students in large part remain by their senior year.

In looking at grade-point averages and performance on standardized tests, the same pattern occurs, the report says. In both the ninth and 12th grades, Asians and whites have two to three times the proportions of high grades that blacks and Latinos do.

‘Groups Being Left Behind’

“These patterns are true for other (previously reported) data as well, including suspensions, dropout rate, gifted program, reading programs and college attendance,” said Peter Bell, a researcher for the district who put together the report. “And they are in general true statewide and nationally, that these groups are being left behind.”

Bell said that, without the many programs the district runs to improve basic skills in reading and math, encouragement of more minority students to go to college, and the increasing integration on campuses, the statistics might be worse. He said test scores and other performance measurements used by the state have shown improvement by San Diego during the last several years.

“Many programs have been judged successful in helping children of various racial/ethnic groups and at least have not allowed performance gaps to widen,” Bell said.

But, although Latinos and blacks do more poorly than whites and Asians within individual high schools as well, they do much better at some schools than at others. At Morse High School, for example, 42% of all Latinos and 36% of all blacks who graduate have taken enough college preparatory classes to meet basic University of California application requirements. By contrast, at Kearny High, only 10.3% of Latinos and 13% of blacks who graduate meet the requirements.

Board member Kay Davis also mentioned La Jolla High, where black and Latino students achieve at far higher levels than they do at other high schools. Smith said that the staff at La Jolla starts with the assumption that all students are going to do well and makes special efforts to motivate its minority enrollment.

But Roache said that the data show the need for all schools and parents to reexamine what is going on in schools and warned that disparities could be developing as early as elementary school, pointing out the importance of revamping primary-level teaching strategies as well.