The disparities don’t end there. Achievement gaps vary widely by state. For example, 57 percent of white eighth-graders in Massachusetts and 55 percent in New Jersey read at or above grade level in 2013, compared with 24 percent of black eighth-graders in Massachusetts and 26 percent in New Jersey. By comparison, 11 percent of black eighth-graders in Indiana read at grade level (compared with 39 percent of whites); in Wisconsin, 9 percent of blacks and 42 percent of whites in the eighth grade read at grade level.
It’s bad enough that black students lag white students in academic achievement. But why are black students in Wisconsin and Indiana much less than half as likely to learn to read as those in Massachusetts and New Jersey?
We talk about the role of personal responsibility in achievement and usually this conversation is directed at parents, families and students. We need to start holding school administrators and school board members accountable. Every day, in cities like Indianapolis and Milwaukee, people who run the schools — fail either through conscious decision or by doing nothing — to make the academic achievement of black students a priority.