Gilmore clapped and smiled as principals called out the names of top performers in this southwest Mississippi city of 14,000. Parents snapped cell phone photos as if attending a concert of their favorite singer.
Throughout the ceremony, as primary- and middle-school students walked to the stage to receive recognition, the dominant presence of black boys in the lines was accentuated by their smiles as they returned to their seats with beads. But by the time McComb Superintendent Cederick Ellis called high-school seniors to the stage, not one black youth walked up.
The glaring gap was all too apparent. Where had all the black boys gone?
There wasn’t a single black male senior among the students who had maintained an A average for three consecutive nine-week periods. This absence provided another reminder of the failure of schools in Mississippi to improve the academic performance of black boys, despite last year’s efforts from the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, a Boston-based group with a mission to improve the social, emotional and academic development of boys and young men of color.
It’s not that progress hasn’t been made: McComb High School moved from a grade of F to a C within the state’s accountability system last year. But the graduation rate at McComb High is still eight points less than the state’s average of 74.5 percent. And its high school drop-out rate of 24.5 percent is more than 10 points higher than the state, where it is 13.9 percent.
It’s not yet known how many of the black males who entered McComb High School four years ago will cross the stage at graduation and pick up diplomas this month, but the most recent statistics provide a frightening glimpse of failure. Of the black males who entered high school in the 2007-2008 school year, according to the state, only 55 percent graduated or received a high school diploma, certificate of completion or a GED within five years, compared to 83 percent of white males.