A Portrait of Black Students in Los Angeles

An in-depth study of black students in Los Angeles schools projects that, if current trends continue, only 1 in 20 African-American kindergartners will go on to graduate from high school and complete a degree at a four-year California university. The study was conducted by the Education Trust-West. Among its findings:

• 1 in 5 African-American middle school and high school students are proficient in Algebra  I.
• 63 percent of black students graduate from high school in four years.
• 20 percent of black ninth-graders graduate in four years, having completed the courses required for admission to one of the state's public universities.