Collectively, the data paint troubling gaps in achievement that persist more than 40 years after court-ordered desegregation of the city’s school system.
The report also raises questions among researchers about whether the School Department has unintentionally created a two-track system — one that provides white and Asian males with the greatest learning opportunities while black and Latino males are left with woefully diminished access.
For instance, just 8.6 percent of black males and 8 percent of Latino males in the city’s school system were enrolled in its highly regarded exam schools in 2012, compared with 45 percent of white males and 47.8 percent of Asian males.
On the other end of the spectrum, the report said, black and Latino males were far more likely to be enrolled in special education classrooms, where instruction is considered inferior to that in regular classrooms.
Rahn Dorsey, the city’s education chief, called the report “profoundly important,” noting that two-thirds of Boston’s male residents age 19 or younger are black or Latino.
“That is the greater preponderance of young men in the city we have to invest in to make sure Boston is thriving and competitive moving forward,” Dorsey said.
“We really want to know what they are up against and what is working for them so we can better understand the investments we need to make in their lives.”