Black History Month: Schott Report Highlights Disparity In High School Graduation Rates

Note: This is the 11th installment of WCBS 880's Black History Month series. For other articles, click here.

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's all very well to highlight firsts and accomplishments during Black History Month.

But as WCBS 880's Jane Tillman Irving reported, there are also other realities, including sobering findings on completing high school.

"Black males were at the bottom as it relates to four-year graduation rates," said Dr. John Jackson.

Listen to Black History Month: Schott Report Highlights Disparity In High School Graduation Rates

Jackson, head of the Schott Foundation for Public Education based in Cambridge, Mass., said nationwide "black males graduate 59 percent compared to Latino males 65 percent and white males 80 percent."

Black males are also twice as likely to be suspended as white males, Jackson said. And for more subjective reasons, Jackson added that you can't educate students who aren't in the classroom.

The Schott report is issued every two years, and the most current one took its cue from the slogan that seems ubiquitous at the moment: "Black Lives Matter."