Four Decades of Progress...and Decline: An Assessment of African American Educational Attainment

Abstract

Antoine M. Garibaldi, Howard University* In this, the 18th annual Charles H. Thompson lecture, Dr. Garibaldi charts African Americans' forward and backward movement in education since the 1954 Brown decision, noting both the obstacles and success factors that have shaped the contemporary Black experience in U.S. schools, colleges, and universities. He provides a sweeping review of K-12 data, examining the relationships between race, poverty, school location, course-taking patterns, and parental expectations on Black students' academic achievement. He also assesses African Americans' standardized achievement and college admissions test performance, college enrollment, and postsecondary and graduate degree attainment, highlighting the significant role of historically Black colleges. Over the last four decades, notable progress has been made in the educational attainment and achievement of African Americans. More African Americans are attending elementary and secondary schools; African Americans are graduating from high school at higher rates; more African American students are attending college, graduate, and professional schools; and there are more African American professionals in leadership roles as a result of expanded educational opportunities. Those positive results are due in large measure to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. That celebrated case was argued by Howard University alumnus Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court Justice, and a host of other legal and educational scholars who were determined to reverse the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision. The Brown decision not only opened the nation's school doors wide, it also provided the impetus for the elimination of separate-but-equal laws in employment, housing, voting rights, and related civil rights areas. Ironically, however, as we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the integration of de jure segregated schools such as Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas, most of our nation's public schools are more segregated than they were 40 years ago; and legislative attacks on affirmative action threaten the numerous gains in educational opportunity and civil rights made possible by Brown. Thus, there are fewer reasons to celebrate because of the perplexing signs of missed educational opportunities; declines in educational performance; lower than expected four-year college-going rates; and uneven undergraduate, postgraduate and first-professional degree attainment by gender for African Americans. Today I will describe the status of educational attainment of African Americans four decades after Brown, with an attempt to balance the gains and declines in progress so that prescriptions can be developed to remedy the educational problems that exist in our schools and communities. SCHOOL ENROLLMENT DEMOGRAPHICS As shown in Table I, the total U.S. public school enrollment during the 1993-94 school year was 43.5 million students, and the total private school enrollment was approximately 5 million students. Ninety-four percent (94%) of African American students, or almost 7.2 million young people, were enrolled in the nation's public schools, while the remaining 6%, or close to a half-million students (462,105), attended private schools (Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, 1997). African American students represented 16.5% of all public school enrollments, and they accounted for 9.3% of private schools' student bodies. Though African Americans' 16.5% share may seem small when compared to the 66% of White students enrolled in public schools, it is important to note that approximately 30% of Black public school students are enrolled in schools in large central cities with populations of more than 400,000 people, and more than half of all Black public school students (56.2%) live in the South (Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute, 1997). …