The most compelling case behind the vulnerability of black boys in school comes from these selected findings collected by the Schott Foundation.

Expulsions and Suspensions: Consisting of only 8.6 percent of public-school enrollments, black boys represent 22 percent of students expelled from school and 23 percent of students suspended.

Dropouts: Between 25 percent and 30 percent of America's teen-agers fail to graduate from high school with a regular high-school diploma. That figure climbs to over 50 percent for black male students in many U.S. cities.

Special Education: Studies have found that black students nationwide are 2.9 times as likely as whites to be designated as mentally retarded. They also have been found to be 1.9 times as likely to be designated as having an emotional problem and 1.3 times as likely to have a learning disability. Since twice as many black boys are in special education programs as black girls, it is difficult to blame heredity or home environments as the root causes for these figures. In some metropolitan districts, 30 percent of black males are in special education classes, and of the remaining 70 percent, only half or fewer receive diplomas.

Graduation: While 61 percent of black females, 80 percent of white males and 86 percent of white females receive diplomas with their high school cohorts nationally, only 50 percent of black males do so.

Juvenile Incarceration: One hundred and five of every 100,000 white males under 18 are incarcerated. That figure is three times as high for black youth at 350 per 100,000. Also, more black males receive the GED in prison than graduate from college.

Unemployment: Nearly 25 percent of black youths 16 to 19 were neither employed nor in school, according to the 2000 census, nearly twice the national average for this age group and six times the national unemployment rate.