Sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, the promise of equal access to quality education remains unfulfilled. School expulsions and suspensions are among the best predictors of who will drop out of high school and African American students are three more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers.
In January 2014, the Department of Education and Department of Justice issued watershed guidance on school discipline with the intent to “assist public elementary and secondary schools in meeting their obligations under Federal Law to administer student discipline without discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.”
In a recent analysis of the 97,000 public schools in the United States, the Department of Education found a pattern of inequality on a number of fronts, with race as the dividing factor. High schools with the highest percentage of African American and Latino students have fewer course offerings associated with college preparation and access. African American and Latino students are more likely than white students to attend schools with first year teachers and teachers who do not meet all the state teaching requirements. In addition, African American and Latino students are underrepresented in Gifted and Talented Education Programs.
In light of this Federal guidance, ADL has chosen to highlight this important data by creating two infographics, offering a snapshot into the respective issues of the School-to-Prison Pipeline and the Education Opportunity Gap. They serve as a reminder that there is still much work to be done.