Racial Equity Updates

Prince George's Aims At Latino School Readiness Gap

After meeting with Advocates for Children and Youth and Latino community leaders, Prince George's school superintendent Dr. William Hite has asked a work group to identify strategies to narrow the kindergarten readiness gap between Latino and other students in the county. Read more>>

Literacy Readiness Gaps in Kindergarten Grow

Literacy readiness gaps of kindergarteners grew significantly in 2010. African-American, Hispanic and low-income students fell further behind their White and higher-income peers. Overall progress stalled in two key school districts. Read more >>

Bold Efforts to Reduce Minority Arrests, Track Racial Equity

School-based police will get training in strategies to improve student behavior without disproportionate arrest of minority youth, under legislation passed by the General Assembly and sponsored by Del. Craig Rice and Sen. Catherine Pugh. This will help create a fair and effective national model based on the efforts of Connecticut and Clayton County, Georgia. Also, upon the suggestion of the Legislative Black Caucus, chaired by Del. Veronica Turner, state agencies are now tracking racial equity in juvenile justice and child welfare, a first step in addressing persistent disparities in Maryland.

Achievement Gap Widens; Bold Actions Needed

The reading proficiency gap between lower-income and other Maryland students grew in 2009. To address this gap and win federal federal funds, Maryland must provide equal access to talented staff and early interventions to all struggling students. Read more >>

Prince George's To Cut Parent Liaisons for Latino Students

Despite receiving more than $50 million in state funds to help Limited English Proficient students, Prince George's County plans to cut bilingual parent liaisons who help connect Latino parents to their children's schools. Read more >>

Racial Inequity Remains Large For Maryland’s Families

Minority children in Maryland are more likely to be born low birthweight, die as infants, enter foster care, fail achievement tests, be suspended from school and be arrested. The State must collect better data and implement proven solutions to address these inequities. Read more >>

Police Training Can Reduce Youth Arrest Disparities

Maryland can become a leader in reducing racial disparities in student arrests by training police in: the availability and effectiveness of alternatives to arrests; the use of objective risk assessments and arrest protocols; and understanding of youth development across diverse cultures, ethnicities and races. Read more >>

Black Caucus Calls on Agencies To Track Racial Equity Measures

The Legislative Black Caucus wants child-serving agencies to begin tracking key measures of racial equity, as a first step to closing persistently large disparities. Caucus Chair, Del. Veronica Turner, asked that the Governor’s StateStat Office take the lead. StateStat Director Beth Blauer pledged to work with the agencies to determine the feasibility of regularly reporting the data. Read more >>

Legislators To Address School-Based Arrest Disparities

Despite the State’s fiscal situation, there are significant low- and no-cost opportunities to improve services for children. As state legislators convene in Annapolis, delegates and senators will consider strategies to end racial disparities in school-based arrests. Read more >>

Reading Readiness Gaps Remain Large: ACY Study

A new study by Advocates for Children and Youth finds that minority, low-income and Limited English Proficient students lag behind their peers in literacy skills from an early age, setting the stage for ongoing achievement gaps. Improved access to quality prekindergarten programs can help more children enter school ready to read. Targeted, personalized interventions in the early grades can help struggling readers catch up before it is too late. Read more >>

Cong. Edwards and Cummings Keynote Racial Equity Forum

Congresspersons Donna Edwards and Elijah Cummings addressed an ACY Forum on Racial Equity, where the latest data and cost-effective solutions were unveiled. Read more >>

Racial Achievement Gaps Have Not Narrowed in Maryland

A national report finds no narrowing of the achievement gap between white and black students in Maryland at a statistically significant level. Read more >>

Racial Disparities Widen in Youth Arrests in Maryland

African-American youth in Maryland are being arrested at a much higher rate than white youth, and this gap has widened considerably, according to new data obtained and analyzed by Advocates for Children and Youth. The study also includes the results of extensive interviews with Disproportionate Minority Contact coordinators across the State, who identified specific strategies to divert youth into early intervention services. Read more >>

Afro-American Shines Light on Child Welfare Disparities

The Alliance for Racial Equity in Child Welfare in collaboration with the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is hosting a briefing on racial disproportionality and disparities in our nation’s child welfare system. A recent article in the Baltimore Afro-American discussed the local dimensions of this persistent problem. Read more >>

Legislature Pushes Cultural Competency in Health Care

Led by Delegate Shirley Nathan-Pullian, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill that encourages health professional associations to offer training in "cultural beliefs and practices that may impact patient health care practices and allow health care providers to incorporate the knowledge of the beliefs and practices in the diagnosis and treatment of patients."

Achievement Gaps Persist for Limited English Students

According to a new analysis by Advocates for Children and Youth, there are significantly more Limited English Proficient students in Maryland’s school districts. They are no longer as concentrated in one county. Prince George’s County has seen particular growth. State funding for these students has increased six-fold under the Thornton legislation; however, achievement gaps persist, and it is unclear whether school districts are providing the targeted interventions needed by this growing segment of their student population. Read more >>

ABA, Sun Support Efforts to Address Child Welfare Disparities

The American Bar Association passed a resolution calling for specific strategies to address the overrepresentation of racial minorities in the child welfare system. ACY found that these disparities are 50 percent higher in Maryland than the national average. In its lead editorial, The Baltimore Sun noted the ACY study and supported solutions including cultural competency training and use of Family Team Decision Making. Read more >>

Cultural Competency, Alternative Response: Key Equity Strategies

Advocates for Children and Youth has identified five research-based strategies (see left) to address large disparities in outcomes between white, Latino and African-American children in Maryland. Alternative response, for example, is a strategy to reduce the disproportionate removal of African-American children from their homes and is a priority of Brenda Donald, Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Human Resources.

State of Maryland's Kids: Racial Equity

No significant actions have occurred to address the large and growing racial disparities in child well-being in Maryland. Read more >>

Child Welfare Teams Address Racial Disparities

Family Team Decision Making reduces racial disparities in how we help abused or neglected children, according to a new issue brief by Advocates for Children and Youth. FTDM empowers extended families to address their diverse needs and prevent the disproportionate removal of minority children from their homes. Read more >>

Racial Disparities Hit Record on School Suspensions

School suspensions spiked and hit record levels for racial disparities last school year, according to a new analysis by Advocates for Children and Youth. Read more >>

Conference Generates Solutions to Enduring Problem

For the first time, child advocates from across Maryland met and identified specific solutions for how to address racial disparities on children’s issues. Work groups at the 2007 Convention of the Maryland Children’s Action Network received powerful advice from Johns Hopkins Professor Dr. Thomas LaVeist and excellent facilitation from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and then developed a short list of the most promising ideas.
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