More than half the young black men who graduated high school in 2010 earned their diploma in four years, an improved graduation rate that still lagged behind that of their white counterparts

The Schott Foundation for Public Education, which has tracked graduation rates of black males from public schools since 2004, said that 52% of black males who entered ninth grade in the 2006-07 school year graduated in four years. That compared with 78% of white, non-Latino males and 58% of Latino males. The foundation releases its report every two years. In 2008, the black male graduation rate was 47%. The progress among blacks closed the racial divide on graduation rates by 3 percentage points over nine years to a 26 percentage-point gap. "At this rate it would take nearly 50 years for black males to graduate at the same rate as white males," said John H. Jackson, president and CEO of the foundation.