Black Boys, Early Childhood Education and

Statistics continue to show that, overall, Black boys are faring worse than their peers in education, social, and economic domains. Regardless of socioeconomic factors, the achievement gap between Black children and their White peers emerges soon after birth and continues throughout childhood.

There are more than 40 million children under age 10 in the United States, approximately 3.4 million of whom are Black boys, according to the 2010 U.S. Census. (In this entry, Black is used interchangeably with African American to be inclusive of children from the African diaspora.) Many of these Black boys are struggling and falling behind their peers in social, academic, and, ultimately, economic progress. In fact, Yumiko Aratani, Vanessa Wight, and Janice Cooper in their 2011 National Center for Children in Poverty ...