Pointing to the large achievement gap between black and Hispanic boys and their white peers, the Obama administration last week announced a collection of initiatives called “My Brother’s Keeper” to help improve the lives of boys of color.
The initiatives include a new presidential task force that will, among other activities, develop a website maintained by the U.S. Department of Education to assess, on an ongoing basis, critical indicators of life outcomes for boys and young men of color in “absolute and relative terms.” Foundations are committing $200 million, in addition to projects they are already working on, “to find and rapidly spread solutions that have the highest potential for impact in key areas.”
The federal government already spends more than $14 billion a year on Title I grants, which are meant to boost the achievement of disadvantaged students. Still, achievement gaps have barely narrowed since the 1980s.
