26 • May 26, 2022 - June 1, 2022
THE NEW YORK AMSTERDAM NEWS
Education What’s going on with Black high school graduation rates
Districts relaxed requirements at the start of the pandemic, but experts say the effects of COVID-19 disruption are showing up in students' lives internet access with siblings or not having access altogether, it was harder for Black students to join classes virtually. “Particularly high school students usually take the brunt of taking care of their siblings. So they backed out and decided that I will perhaps do this later on, but right now, my focus is on younger siblings, my family,” says Dr. Lynn Jennings, senior director of national and state partBy MAYA POTTIGER nerships at The Education Trust. Word In Black And now it’s high school graduation season. Across the country, millions of high school The pandemic has been tough on every- seniors are signing yearbooks, preparing body, but particularly so on Black students. their caps and gowns, and getting ready to They’ve seen their parents, grandparents, embark on the next chapter of their lives— and other caregivers disproportionately die unless they’re one of these Black teenagfrom COVID-19, and they’ve witnessed the ers whose education got disrupted. It’s no stress of family members—nurses, Amazon wonder experts are worried that high school warehouse workers, restaurant staff—work- graduation rates for Black youths might drop. ing frontline jobs that can’t be done remotely. This put the onus on Black youths to do Graduation rates were down in 2021 after more around the house, whether it was a bump in 2020 caring for younger siblings, taking on doThe class of 2022 was in its sophomore mestic responsibilities, or even getting jobs year when COVID-19 sent students home to of their own. Plus, on top of having to share attend school through virtual classrooms. In
many ways, this cohort will be able to provide better indications of what learning impacts the pandemic had on students. During the 2021/2022 school year, students were back to largely attending classes in-person, and prior academic requirements that had been relaxed were returning to pre-pandemic standards. “This is a year we should pay a lot of attention to the high school graduation rates,” says Dr. Jennings. “These aren’t the students who were necessarily in the thick of it, in terms of school closures and the disruption.” Contrary to what might be the expected response to the start of a pandemic, national graduate rates were up in spring 2020 compared to 2019.
(Graphs Courtesy of Word in Black)
Safe, Free, Fun! Sign up for NYC’s summer program serving students in grades K–8. Call 311 or learn more at
nyc.gov/SummerRising
A Brookings study, which analyzed 57% of the nation’s school population, found that graduation rates increased in 2020 before returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2021. The uptick in 2020 might have been caused by states waiving or loosening graduation requirements, according to a Chalkbeat report, which saw graduation rates dip in at least 20 states in 2021. Though the rates are changing by three percentage points at most—which might seem small—Dr. Diarese George, the founder and executive director of the Tennessee Educators of Color Alliance, says we need to remember a single percentage point change can equate to thousands of students who didn’t earn their high school diploma. “It’s a big deal,” George says. Though he’s seeing enrollment numbers constantly going up in Tennessee, “that dip of 1,000 students is still significant.” “Primary research is showing that definitely, during that time—when we were in the thick of the pandemic—the graduation requirements were relaxed,” Jennings says. States reduced their standards, relaxing credit requirements, graduation exam requirements, and even attendance. “We can expect, as you’re going through it, that teachers were probably a little bit more relaxed in terms of
their expectations of high school students during that time, and particularly graduates, given what they were going through.” Following the start of citywide stay-athome orders and remote learning in March 2020, districts almost uniformly waived graduation requirements and told students that if they were on track to graduate in March, were passing their classes, and had enough credits, they were able to graduate. “That benefited a few students in a positive way,” says Dr. Robert Balfanz, director of the Everyone Graduates Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. “Unfortunately, in 2021, when we now had the full year of the pandemic, plus the first part of that year before, it was a different situation.”
Graduation rates are lower among Black students Going back to 2007, there was a rapid and then steady growth of graduation rates across the country through 2019, Balfanz says. The jump was from around 73% up to 86%, and it was largely driven by Black, Latino, and low-income students. For example, if we look at the nine states (California, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Texas, and Washington) and the District of Columbia that are home to Word In Black publishers, Black and Hispanic students consistently saw lower graduation rates than their white and Asian peers in 2021. A Word In Black analysis found the average graduation rate for Black students in these states was 77.5% and 78.5% for Hispanic students, compared to 89.2% for white students and a 93.6% graduation rate for Asian students. But, among the subgroups it studied, the Brookings report saw graduation rates increase among Black students. There was a nearly 2% increase in the rate of Black graduates from 2019 to 2020, followed by a 2.5% fall in 2021. This group of students faced the highest levels of virtual schooling, and they were more likely to take on responsibilities of supSee EDUCATION on page 27
