Date on which U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan delivered a speech
at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. calling for stepped up civil
rights enforcement in schools: 3/8/2010
Number of years earlier that the infamous “Bloody Sunday” civil rights
confrontation took place there, an event that Duncan’s speech
commemorated: 45
Number of civil rights investigations that Duncan’s department plans to open this year: 38
Number of states in which the department plans to examine school districts’ disciplinary practices: 5
Since 1980, percentage by which the staff in the Education Department’s civil rights unit has been reduced: 50
Number of times by which white students are more likely than black
students to be college-ready in biology at the end of high school: 6
Number of times by which white students are more likely than black students to be prepared for college algebra: 4
Number of times by which black students with disabilities are more
likely than their white counterparts to be expelled or suspended: more than 2
Number of times by which black students without disabilities are more likely than white students to be expelled: more than 3
Percentage by which students from low-income families who graduated in
the top testing quartile are more likely to attend college than the
lowest-scoring students from wealthy families: 0
Percentage of U.S. high schools that produce half of all U.S. dropouts: 12
Percentage of African-American and Latino students who come from those schools: 75
Percentage of teachers who had been let go and had trouble finding
another job who were placed in high-poverty schools, according to one
newspaper investigation: 75
(Click on the figure to go to the original source.)
(Photo of Secretary Duncan speaking in Selma from the U.S. Department of Education’s website.)