African American students continue to lag far behind whites in San Francisco

The number of white students who were proficient or better in both math and English was about 50% points higher than the city's black students. In second-grade English, for example, 23% of blacks were proficient, compared to 74% of whites. Special education students had slightly higher proficiency rates than black students in second-, third- and fourth-grade math as well as fourth-grade English. The district tested 41,000 students, including 4,800 African Americans, in grades two through 11 in the spring. San Francisco schools face a steep uphill battle in boosting the test results of black students, educators noted.