A new report on child well-being, measured by state and race, has turned an unflattering spotlight on some U.S. states not used to being at the bottom of such lists, including Wisconsin, with a worst-in-the-nation ranking for its black children, and South Dakota, with abysmal results for its Native American youth.
The report, released Tuesday by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, detailed nationwide racial disparities that put Asian and white children in a far more advantageous position than black, Latino and Native American children. For some advocates for children, the state-specific results were stinging.
The essence of the Casey report is a newly devised index based on 12 indicators measuring a child's success from birth to adulthood. The indicators include reading and math proficiency, high school graduation data, teen birthrates, employment prospects, family income and education levels, and neighborhood poverty levels.
Nationally, Asian children had the highest composite score at 776, followed by white children at 704. Then there was a sharp drop-off: the scores were 404 for Latino children, 387 for American-Indian children and 345 for black children.
Wisconsin had the worst score for its black youth at 285, followed by Mississippi, then Michigan.
"Wisconsin is a state that claims to value opportunity and community and fairness," said Ken Taylor, executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. "That we are the worst in the nation when it comes to the well-being of our African-American children is unacceptable."
In the Casey index for Native American children, the South Dakota score of 185 was the lowest of any racial group in any state - a result of the deep poverty that prevails on many of South Dakota's tribal reservations.
Sherry Salway Black, a tribal governance expert with the National Congress of American Indians, described the South Dakota score as "horrendous," but said she was impressed by initiatives on some of the reservations that could help children and families.
In particular, she praised native-run community development financial institutions for seeking to improve youth employment and provide young people with financial literacy education.
The latest report can be found at KIDS COUNT Data Center.
Associated Press writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed to this report.
Follow David Crary on Twitter.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.
Comments
Agreed
Yes, what kind of actions are they taking for them?
Poverty
Just to be frank, on average, Asian and White families generally bring in more money than Black, Latino, and Native American families. That being said, as it is with most things in our world, a lack of money makes just about everything else more difficult. Because children learn the most from their family, if the parents are gone for extended periods of time working to try and make enough money to support the family, that certainly can have a negative effect on a child's development. If a child's siblings do not care much for school either, that also does not help the cause. The underlaying problem here is money, but I am not sure how this problem can be resolved, as the government will certainly not just start handing out more money to help the poorer families. Children born into lower income families seem to need to be born with natural intelligence, or the desire to learn and achieve, because this is a trend that has been going on for essentially the entire existence of the nation.
This report was interesting
This report was interesting to say the least, and what I couldn't stop thinking about is, what makes Wisconsin the worst educationally wise for African Americans? What could cause children to be performing so badly? This then brings to mind, perhaps those children were objectified to poverty and less opportunities, resulting in such low scores. This report should be a definite wake up call for those states, as well as the US in general. We need to understand what's going on and how to fix it because this is unacceptable.
Well Being
Its time to stop letting the everyone else determine what education our children receive and what they don't receive. Its time to stop letting our neighborhoods define our expectations and success. Many kids that grown up in poor neighborhoods with little school funding, and unmotivated teachers are able to obtain a successful education and yet some are not, yes the schools do play a major part in this but when this is the case, its time for the parents to step in and find the time to provide those missing parts. In our society with racism and segregation the way it still is no minority should rely on the system solely for their child's success, its been proven that most of them will not receive the same benefits as their white counterparts with that being said its left up to the parent to fill those gaps. Otherwise this cycle will keep on going!
Too many factors.
I don't believe you can measure a whole states demographic of a race through a number. I don't agree that minorities are better off than whites or Asian descendants but i can not believe a single number could represent the WHOLE states demographic. Overall i believe we do need to take initiative and give everyone the opportunities that are available to everyone else and increase the amount of programs for minorities, teen pregnancy, and high school counseling.
Too many factors.
I don't believe you can determine how well or bad off a whole states demographic is by using a simple numerical test/survey. The root of the problem goes much deeper than that and its up to us the next generation whether or not we want to fix it. I do believe that minorities are worse off and we need to increase programs available to them because if the same mother of 5 children (who is a minority) has to work 3 dead end jobs the kids are more apt to get into trouble and they are rarely getting time with their mother making them more than likely to fail in school and end up working the same three dead end jobs as their mother. This is a viscious cycle and it wont stop until we remove politicians who refuse to do anything about it.
Too many factors.
I don't believe you can determine how well or bad off a whole states demographic is by using a simple numerical test/survey. The root of the problem goes much deeper than that and its up to us the next generation whether or not we want to fix it. I do believe that minorities are worse off and we need to increase programs available to them because if the same mother of 5 children (who is a minority) has to work 3 dead end jobs the kids are more apt to get into trouble and they are rarely getting time with their mother making them more than likely to fail in school and end up working the same three dead end jobs as their mother. This is a viscious cycle and it wont stop until we remove politicians who refuse to do anything about it.
Wisconsin
I do want to recognize that Wisconsin is not backing down from this study, or ignoring it. I commend Ken Taylor in recognizing that this is an issue that needs to resolved and soon. I would like to see more of the variables tested in this study though, was it examining location, education of parents, single parents versus family households? All of these affect well-being of children, black or white.
This is an interesting topic.
This is an interesting topic. When you look at standardized tests there are so many factors at to what causes low scores. So to just say that its based on race is a stretch. Take Wisconsin for example you would need to take the numbers for all areas and then compare those among the races. It could just be that the black kids in the lower income areas score lower than the white kids that attend those same school but how to the kids from the middle class compare when it comes to black and white. The funny thing about stats is without all the details you can twist things how ever is relevant for your article. At the end of the day the averages are an issue, but in order to address how to fix them, you have to have more details and facts.
if the children have a good
if the children have a good and appropriate environment to grow up they will have a good childhood, which collate with what we are learning in class that if their parents take them a more expensive day care, or a private school that of course the children will get better education and socializing. On the other hand, only from the pressure of the society they children would already have an unhealthy growth, for example, as it mentioned in the article that the black people are unacceptable because they are the minority.
However, parents should pay more attention on where they are trying to settle because it will be a huge impact on their kids.
I Partially Agree
The first article I chose from usaonrace.com was, “National Study Give States Low Marks for Children and Youth Well-being.” In this research giving article, David Crary states that the United States of America has gotten worse when it comes to the future of our rising pupils. For starters, Crary started with saying that Wiscousin has and I quote, “the worst-in-the-nation ranking for its black children. A released report stated that Asian and white children have a better advantage than black, Latino and Native American children.
` In the survey it says that Asian children had the composite score at 776, the second highest was white children at 704. After these two races, there was a major drop with the Latinos at 404, 387 for American-Indian children and 345 for black children. They have 12 indicators that may be the reason for these deficiencies from a child’s success from birth to adulthood. For example, reading and math, high school graduation data, teen birthrates, employment prospects, family income and education levels, and neighborhood poverty levels.
I somewhat agree with this article but not entirely, I think this can be compared with what we’ve learned in class. If there isn’t a strong base that the child can withstand, then it will be unstable on an educationally level
An Ongoing Struggle
The struggles that many minorities go through have been around since before the Civil War. Those with dark skin were used as slaves and looked down upon. Even after they were freed, many people would not hire them. They lived in a poverty that continues today. This inferiority attitude that many minorities have adopted makes it difficult for them to believe that they can succeed in school or in a career. The learned helplessness contributes to the fact that they are falling behind in education. The states listed need to figure out how to motivate these children.
It's going to effect the next
It's going to effect the next generation negatively f our generation don't change our minds and actions about racism. So people need to stop being racist.
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