Release Date: 9/20/2012

Contact: Charles Herndon, 410-887-6111

TOWSON, Md. – Baltimore County Public Schools’ Superintendent Dr. S. Dallas Dance says the school system must find ways to improve its graduation rate for black males, despite a new national report that shows the BCPS graduation rate of 67 percent for black males is fourth highest in the nation. “Baltimore County schools have traditionally fared well in these national rankings," said BCPS Superintendent Dr. S. Dallas Dance. “But how we rate among school systems isn’t where our attention needs to be. Having just 67 percent of our black males graduate is not acceptable. We must set our sights higher. We must do more to guarantee that black male students –- that all students – can achieve their full potential as learners, and that they graduate on time and ready to succeed in their choice of college or career." The data, based on graduation rates among black males for the class of 2010, comes from a report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education titled, “The Urgency of Now: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males." Among school systems with more than 10,000 black male students, the BCPS rate was exceeded only by school systems serving Cumberland County, N.C., Newark, N.J., and Montgomery County, Md. The national graduation rate for black males in the Class of 2010 was 52 percent and the graduation rate for black males in Maryland was 57 percent, according to the report. The report also details graduation gaps between black males and white males within a school system; the 2010 BCPS graduation rate for white males of 79 percent is 12 percentage points higher than the rate for black males. In 2010, when the biennial report was last released, BCPS also had a graduation rate for black males of 67 percent – at that time the nation’s third highest rate. The full report may be viewed at http://www.blackboysreport.org/urgency-of-now.pdf

Visit the BCPS News Center and BCPS News Archive to explore more BCPS news!