Johnny McInnis, president of the Black Educators Alliance of Massachusetts who teaches in Boston, said he feels the school system is making incremental progress in addressing the achievement gap, but has been hamstrung by budget cuts and the lack of broader solutions.
“We are losing people we need who specialize in supporting these students,” he said.
The report does not offer concrete explanations for the lagging achievement of black and Latino males. Dan French, executive director of the Center for Collaborative Education, said it is an area for deeper examination.
Another report earlier this year by the local Black and Latino Collaborative explored the plight of black and Latino males on a number of indicators that affect their well-being beyond the school doors.
That report noted, for instance, that nearly half of those two populations age 19 or younger were on public assistance — twice the rate as whites and Asians.
Ayomide Olumuyiwa, a student representative on the Boston School Committee, said he was unaware that black and Latino males were lagging until it was mentioned at a recent committee meeting.
“It’s just alarming,” said Olumuyiwa, a senior at the O’Bryant School of Math and Science, an exam school in Roxbury. “This is something students wouldn’t find out on their own unless they asked.”