According to The New York Times, as reported by BET “only 12 percent of black eight-grade boys are proficient in math, compared to 44 percent of white boys.” There are many theories as to why this is the case; however, despite what statistics suggest our children have the ability to grow up and become scientists and mathematicians. Thanks to a Silicon Valley Science Fair black students are being afforded the opportunity to showcase their skills.
“Besides just allowing Black kids to feel good about themselves, the science fair helps destroy the notion that Black kids just can’t ‘get’ difficult scientific concepts.”
The Frank S. Greene Scholars Program Science Fair had 80 entrants this year, all of them a reminder that we too are raising future math and science trailblazers. For more on this story visit BET.
BMWK – Despite many of our kids having a love for the sciences why do you think there continues to be an achievement gap?
Joe says
There basically aren’t any significant black scientists. GW Carver wasn’t a scientist and didn’t publish anything that could be called research. You can find perhaps half a dozen black physicists who have done real research. I work in a science field and there aren’t any blacks. We’ve had vigorous affirmative action programs for over 50 years, meaning we’ve had at least two generations of affirmative action, and should be seeing about 12% of our science class made of blacks. They aren’t. They are half Asian and half white and that’s all.