White students were more than four times as likely to be enrolled in at least one Advanced Placement (AP) class as black students, and black students were over 15 times as likely to be suspended as white students in the Sequoia Union High School District during the 2015-16 school year, according to data on school districts across the county collected by ProPublica.
In school districts across the country, black and Hispanic students are, on average, less likely to be selected for enrollment in programs for gifted students and take AP courses than their white classmates, according to the report published by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica on Tuesday, Oct. 16.
Members of minority groups are also more likely, on average, to be suspended and expelled, the report states. The data in the report is from the 2015-16 school year, the most recent data available.
Other key statistics for the Sequoia district include:
• Hispanic students are 5.6 times as likely to be suspended as white students.
• White students are three times as likely to be enrolled in at least one AP class as Hispanic students.
There were 8,865 students in the high school district during the 2015-16 school year. Some 46 percent of district students were Hispanic; 36 percent were white; 10 percent were Asian, Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian; 4 percent were two or more races; and 3 percent were black, according to the report.
In the Menlo Park City School District, black students were over 20 times as likely to be suspended as white students, according to the ProPublica database. Hispanic students were, on average, academically three grades behind white students.
In the Las Lomitas Elementary School District, black students are 17.8 times as likely to be suspended as white students, according to the database. Hispanic students were, on average, academically 2.6 grades behind white students.
The report didn't highlight any disparities for the Portola Valley School District.
In the Woodside Elementary School District, white students were equally as likely to be enrolled in the gifted and talented program as students of two or more races.
The report, called “Miseducation: Is There Racial Inequality at Your School?”, aims to examine racial disparities in educational opportunities and school discipline. The database includes 96,000 individual public and charter schools, and 17,000 districts collected from the U.S. Department of Education.
To see the full data on the Sequoia high school district’s equity, go here. Search for more schools and districts here.
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Comments
Atherton: other
on Oct 20, 2018 at 5:27 pm
on Oct 20, 2018 at 5:27 pm
This reports sounds horrible but it lacks a lot if information to put what is here in any context. What were the suspensions for? What other factors are involved such as socioeconomic? Parents who don't have to work two jobs have more time to spend with the kids and get more involved in their education? Are all the kids being reviewed have English as their primary language? It is likely kids who come to school and have to learn English on top of everything else are going to fall behind at least initially. With out this information to start to define the reason for the numbers above how do you start to address it?
Menlo Park: Stanford Hills
on Oct 20, 2018 at 6:20 pm
on Oct 20, 2018 at 6:20 pm
"What were the suspensions for? "
What do you think? Oh, yeah: "black students were over 15 times as likely to be suspended as white students"
"Just a statistical blip due to socioeconomic differences."
Pure privilege, that statement. Don't utter that in front of your black friend.
Atherton: other
on Oct 22, 2018 at 11:32 am
on Oct 22, 2018 at 11:32 am
While Menlo Park City School District was not the main focus of this article, we would like to address the brief reference to racial disparity in our district. We take the issue of equity seriously and have been working over the past several years to address the disparity in our suspension rates that existed in years past. What's newsworthy is that with an earnest focus on restorative practices and efforts to support and help students with behavioral issues, we have turned the corner on our suspension rates, drastically decreasing overall suspensions from more than 120 per year six years ago to fewer than 10 per year currently. We urge readers to be careful in making assumptions about broader trends based on statistics of such low numbers. The story of racial disparity in discipline in public schools is a real concern across the country, and MPCSD is proud to be one district that has had success in reversing a concerning trend. It is, however, challenging to adequately tell this story with data alone, in a district such as ours with statistically very low rates of non-white students. The data in this report suggests that 2 African American students were suspended and 4 white students were suspended, which because of the much higher enrollment of white students, does account for the difference in rate based on race. Those interested in the important story about how we addressed racial disparity and worked to build a culture of respect and very little discipline issues may reach out at info@mpcsd.org.