Georgia's African-American and Hispanic male public school students are struggling to graduate high school, according to a report.
The Schott Foundation for Public Education found Georgia’s black and Hispanic male students had some of the lowest graduation rates in the nation. Georgia ranked 40th among black male students with a 55 percent graduation rate, the report said. Georgia ranked 45th among Hispanic male students with a 57 percent graduation rate, according to the report. Only Michigan, Nevada and Washington, D.C. ranked 40th or lower in both categories, the report found.
The data was based on students in the 2012-13 graduating class. The report was released last week.
The report also found the graduation rate for white male students was 20 percentage points higher than it was for black male students in the Atlanta, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett school districts.
Georgia education officials have said increased academic standards are partly responsible for pedestrian graduation rates among all students in recent years. Georgia typically ranks among the bottom 10 states in graduation rates.
There was some good news for Cobb County in the report. Cobb was tied for having the 10th highest graduation rate among black male students, at 52 percent.
The report recommends a renewed focus on helping these students succeed and enrolling more black and Hispanic students in Advanced Placement courses.
You can see the states that graduate the most black students here.
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