In Arizona, less than 20 percent of Hispanic fourth-graders scored at or above proficient in reading, 19 percent of black eighth-graders scored at or above proficient in math, and only 16 percent of young American Indian adults have completed an associate’s degree or higher.
Those are findings of the new “Race for Results” report from the private Annie E. Casey Foundation, which focuses on improving the well-being of American children.
Nationally, while fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math proficiency rates are low across all racial groups, black, Hispanic and American Indian students have the lowest rates, the report found.
“We’ve had intense conversations in Arizona about public education, about our goals and about achieving those goals for every child no matter the Zip code or background,” said Dana Wolfe Naimark, president and CEO of the Phoenix-based Children’s Action Alliance. The findings show, she said, “how far we are from that goal.”
The report, which used data from 2013 to 2015, measures children’s progress on 12 key milestones for family security, health and education. “While the scores do not tell the story of individuals, as each has his or her own experiences and talents,” the authors wrote, “the data offer an important snapshot of disparity in opportunity and the barriers that exist for different groups of children.”
Overall, the data show general improvements across the board compared to the foundation’s 2014 report, at the national and state levels, including in the percentage of children living in families with adequate incomes as well as those in households in which at least one parent has a high school diploma or higher. But disparities by income and race remain.
There are many factors that influence the well-being of people and the country overall and the likelihood of being successful, said Laura Speer, associate director for policy reform and advocacy for the Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Unfortunately, race is one of the things that is most connected with issues of disparities in terms of income, education levels, and that’s because of our history as a country — because of decisions and policies that we’ve made over time,” she added.
This year, the report’s authors placed a special focus on children in immigrant families, which is one out of four nationally, who generally face additional barriers, including language and culture. Nationwide, there are about 5 million children with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent.
In Arizona, 445,000 children have at least one parent who is an immigrant, and about 90 percent of these children are U.S. citizens. The median income for immigrant families with children in the state is 33 percent below that of U.S.-born families, and nearly two out of three children in immigrant families live in low-income families, the report finds.
These U.S. citizen children “are not generally the people we think about when we are talking about immigration policy,” said Speer. “But they are critically important, just as any other kid, to our success as a country. We need to know how they are doing and what we need to do to ensure they are successful because they will drive local and state economies, they will be our future leaders, our future parents.”
Wolfe Naimark said immigration-enforcement policies have contributed to instability and toxic stress for children and their families, which can have long-lasting impacts . It also contributes to the fear that limits their access to support and services, she said.
Also, state policies on restricting bilingual education in schools for English Language Learners and restricting government communication in languages other than English have created extra barriers and widened the gap, Wolfe Naimark said. A special emphasis needs to be put on early childhood education because, “It demands more urgency than what we’ve had so far,” she said.
The good news, she said, is that, “If we’ve built up barriers, we can take down barriers.”
