Support Is Essential for Students of Color in Atlanta

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2024 Chang­ing the Odds report high­lights sig­nif­i­cant dis­par­i­ties in aca­d­e­m­ic pro­fi­cien­cy between Black stu­dents and their white peers in the city of Atlanta.

In 2023, we found that just 35% of third graders in Atlanta were pro­fi­cient in read­ing. While 81% of white stu­dents were read­ing at a third-grade lev­el, only 21% of Black chil­dren demon­strat­ed that lev­el of proficiency. 

What about math? In the same year, 25% of Atlanta Pub­lic School stu­dents were pro­fi­cient in math­e­mat­ics by the end of eighth grade. Of that num­ber, only 15% of Black stu­dents were proficient.

A major obsta­cle for stu­dents of col­or is that many are unable to access advanced course­work, such as advanced place­ment (AP) pro­grams. What’s more, in Atlanta, even high-per­form­ing Black and Lati­no eighth graders are less like­ly to take advanced courses.

Read about the racial wealth gap in Atlanta

One poten­tial strat­e­gy for over­com­ing this dis­con­nect can be found in Texas: In 2019, the Dal­las Inde­pen­dent School Dis­trict (ISD) has tran­si­tioned from an opt-in mod­el for advanced place­ment to an opt-out mod­el.

Dur­ing that school year, all stu­dents who scored well on Texas state lit­er­a­cy, math or sci­ence assess­ments were auto­mat­i­cal­ly enrolled in the relat­ed advanced course­work, result­ing in a sig­nif­i­cant increase in Black and Lati­no stu­dents enrolled in AP cours­es. This change removed many require­ments that pre­vi­ous­ly held stu­dents back, such as teacher rec­om­men­da­tions and par­ent approvals.

In the Dal­las ISD, over­all enroll­ment in eighth grade Alge­bra 1 jumped from 20% to 60% after the new pol­i­cy was imple­ment­ed. When applied to high school AP cours­es, the num­ber of AP test tak­ers grew, and AP scores rose.

While access to edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties is cru­cial, it’s just one aspect of a larg­er issue. To help stu­dents suc­ceed in the class­room, they also need access to holis­tic sup­ports that include men­tal health ser­vices. We know that stu­dents in the U.S. expe­ri­ence lone­li­ness and depres­sion. Sui­cide is the third-lead­ing cause of death among young peo­ple ages 14 to 18 years old, accord­ing to the Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion, and stu­dents who are strug­gling out­side of the class­room will nat­u­ral­ly strug­gle inside the classroom.

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To speak from my own life, both of my Black chil­dren were enrolled in mul­ti­ple AP cours­es at Mid­town High School here in Atlanta. While they were pre­pared for the con­tent of these class­es, they weren’t ready for the iso­la­tion they expe­ri­enced. When my son was not engaged in the course or encour­aged by his teacher, it showed in his grades. Although my son and daugh­ter are thriv­ing adults today, these expe­ri­ences placed them at a dis­ad­van­tage when it came time to apply for col­lege.

Ensur­ing that Atlanta’s schools offer the best edu­ca­tion to every stu­dent is a com­plex prob­lem with­out sim­ple solu­tions. It will require the Foundation’s part­ners to rethink areas like teacher train­ing, stu­dent prepa­ra­tion and bud­get­ing. But, work­ing togeth­er, we can reduce aca­d­e­m­ic dis­par­i­ties to ensure all stu­dents have what they need to forge bright futures.

Rubye Sul­li­van is a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foun­da­tion’s Atlanta Civic Site.

Learn more about the 2024 Chang­ing the Odds report