Social Indicators of Equality for Minorities and Women - University of ...

In this study, a student is considered behind inschool if his or her grade is 2 years or more behindthe modal grade. 4 The measure of delay is calculatedfor persons 15 to 17 years old. These are the ages atwhich accumulated delays in the educational processcan be expected to be the longest and most evident.For these ages the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades aremodal, and those defined as behind in school are 15-year-olds in the 8th grade or less, 16-year-olds in the9th grade or less, and 17-year-olds in the 10th gradeor less. The delay rate is the percentage of those inthese categories out of all students of the same age.The percentages of those delayed in 1960, 1970, and1976 for both genders of every group discussed inthis report are contained in columns 1, 2, and 3 oftable 2.1.More than 40 percent of American Indian/AlaskanNative males and females, MexicanAmerican males, and Puerto Rican males were atleast 2 years behind the schooling progress for theirage in 1960. Although the delay rates have declinedfor these groups, in 1976, 25 percent or more ofAmerican Indian/Alaskan Native, Mexican American,and Puerto Rican males and females were still 2or more years behind the normal grade level for theirages. The delay rates reflect conditions that bothresult from and produce serious problems.Of even greater use are indicators that show howthe conditions measured are experienced in differentdegrees by different groups. All the indicatorspresented in this report have this characteristic and,therefore, provide meaningful measurements of agroup's degree of equality with the conditions ofmajority males, who serve as the reference group.Where possible, the differences between majoritymales and the other groups have been tested forstatistical significance using standard procedures, asdescribed in appendix C.The comparison of minorities' and women's ratesto the majority males' rate involves the calculation ofratios of the specific groups' measures to that of themajority males. The resulting numbers are relativemeasures with a clear interpretation such as, "In1976 the rate of delay of American Indian/AlaskanNative males was 3.2 times greater than that ofmajority males, while in 1960 it was only 2.5 timesgreater." The change in this ratio means that during4 For a similar use of modal grades, see U.S., Executive Office of thePresident, Office of Management and Budget, Social Indicators, 1973, table3/7, p. 102 (hereafter cited as Social Indicators, 1973 ).5 This figure of 2.1 percent represents an average decline over the decade of1.3 per year as a percentage of the estimated midyear figure of 38.5. Forthe 16-year period this group of males, compare r^tmajority males, became more likely to be delaym to nschool. The evidence underlying this statem isthat, although the delay rate for American i-an/Alaskan Native males decreased from 45 2from 1960 to 1976, this decrease (about 2.1 pe tper year) was too small to keep up with the rerapidly declining delay rate for majority males. 1elatter rate fell from 18 to 10 percent, or abo 6percent per year. 5 The ratios in figure 2.1 an mcolumns 4, 5, and 6 of table 2.1 indicate that mini ymales and females tend to have markedly hjjdelay rates than majority males. In fact, most o: eminority male groups experienced more than ethe delay rates of majority males, with Ame nIndian/Alaskan Native and Puerto Rican esexperiencing a delay rate in 1976 that was more nthree times that for majority males. Althoughdelay rates as a whole are lower than thos