Moving to Maine

This report was released this month by the Schott Foundation for Public Education.

Yes, yes - like everyone else I was alarmed by the generally dismal graduation rates among black males, but I was even more intrigued by the really high rates in Maine, North Dakota, New Hampshire and Vermont. Surely, even though they have higher rates they are still graduating less black males than say, Maryland. However, if you compare Maine's 2,613 black males enrolled to Alaska's 2,552 or Hawaii's 2,552 black males enrolled, you will still notice a huge gap in the percent who actually graduate: 98% for Maine, 47% for Alaska and 44% for Hawaii. Wyoming has the lowest enrollment of 697 but only graduates 50%. So this higher graduation rate in Maine cannot be accounted for entirely by the small numbers with which they are working. Compare Wyoming to Texas' 341,219 black makes enrolled, but still able to graduate 52%, and New Jersey's 121,934 enrolled with a 69% graduate rate. So what's the problem in Wyoming, Hawaii and Alaska? Yes, we can get on Texas' case --- but we can guess what the contributing factors are in that state with such a huge populations of African Americans. But I think the more intriguing questions are:

1) What's right in Maine, North Dakota, New Hampshire and Vermont?

2) What's wrong in Wyoming, Hawaii and Alaska?