EDITOR'S NOTE: "The Devaluing of Education – and Us – Reflected in Myriad Ways" is the fourth in BlackAmericaWeb.com's five-part 50 Years After Little Rock series. Coming Friday: What you can do right now to improve our schools.

Click here for "Retelling, Revisiting and Reliving the Crisis at Central High."
Click here for "Where are They Now? How the Little Rock Nine Have Fared."
Click here for "Are Efforts to Integrate America’s Schools for Naught?"

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When nine black students made history by integrating Little Rock Central High School in 1957, they knew they were doing something significant, but primarily they just wanted a good education.

While many black families today still harbor the same hope for their children, those goals don't appear to reflect in the numbers, since the percentage of black students who graduate from high school, much less college, is stunningly low when placed against the promise that desegregated schools seemed to offer  more than a generation ago.

Education experts, parents and students blame a range of things -- everything from mediocre public schools, a lack of parental involvement and the distractions of television and video games to an uncertain future children see amid high black unemployment rates and the sting of racism, both covert and overt, the way they are treated by teachers and stories of major conflict, like the Jena Six case in Louisiana.

More than three times as many black people live in prison cells as in college dorms, the government said in a report to be released Thursday.

The ratio is only slightly better for Hispanics, at 2.7 inmates for every Latino in college housing. Among non-Hispanic whites, more than twice as many live in college housing as in prison or jail.

The numbers, driven by men, do not include college students who live off campus. Previously released census data show that black and Hispanic college students -- commuters and those in dorms -- far outnumber black and Hispanic prison inmates.

Nevertheless, civil rights advocates said it is startling that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live in prison cells than in college dorms.

"It's one of the great social and economic tragedies of our time," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the Urban League. "It points to the signature failure in our education system and how we've been raising our children."

The data showS that big increases in black and Hispanic inmates occurred since 1980. In 1980, the number of blacks living in college dorms was roughly equal to the number in prison. Among Hispanics, those in college dorms outnumbered those in prison in 1980.

There are a lot of reasons why black students do not reach college at the same rate as whites, said Amy Stuart Wells, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University's Teachers College.

Black students are more likely to attend segregated schools with high concentrations of poverty, less qualified teachers, lower expectations and a less demanding curriculum, she said.

"And they are perceived by society as terrible schools, so it is hard to get accepted into college," Wells said. "Even if you are a high-achieving kid who beats the odds, you are less likely to have access to the kinds of courses that colleges are looking for."

Students who don't graduate high school are much more likely to go to prison, said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Nearly 40 percent of inmates lack a high school diploma or the equivalent, according to the census data.

"The criminal economy is one of the only alternatives in some of these places," Orfield said. "You basically have the criminalization of a whole community, particularly in some inner cities."

Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation's 2 million prison and jail inmates in 2006. Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent.

Morial, who is a former mayor of New Orleans, said the political debate over high incarceration rates for minorities hasn't yielded results. He said conservatives blame a lack of family values while liberals blame a lack of government programs, with neither side seeing the whole picture.

"We do, in the African-American community, need to instill a stronger value on education," Morial said.

But, he added, minority students also need more early childhood education, longer school days, longer school years and more meaningful summer job opportunities.

"We need to get serious about true investment on the front end," Morial said.

But once they get to college, according to the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, the black student college graduate rate is 42 percent, compared with 62 percent for white students.

The Journal attributes that to a range of issues, including poor schools, geographic isolation, the lack of a strong and relatively large core of black students on campus, poor K-12 preparation and financial aid, or more precisely, the lack of it.

Curriculum differences play a role, too.

“It continues to be true that at many high-powered schools, black students in the sciences often have been made to feel uncomfortable by white faculty and administrators who persist in beliefs that blacks do not have the intellectual capacity to succeed in these disciplines,” according to the Journal.

“Clearly, the racial climate at some colleges and universities is more favorable toward African-Americans than at other campuses. A nurturing environment for black students is almost certain to have a positive impact on black student retention and graduation rates,” the Journal said.

Nurturing has its place, but it can also become a barrier, according to Jeffrey Mazique, a civilian physician at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C.

Mazique, who volunteers extensively with black students from the lower grades through graduate and professional school to help them take the best advantage of academic opportunities, has studied the admissions process at colleges and universities. He  sees a trend among American-born black students, across income levels, that may contribute to lower achievement levels.

U.S.-born blacks, he said, “focus more on racism. Africans and West Indians take that as a given, but don’t let it get in the way of getting an education. I see a lot of energy being burned up fighting racism or perceived racism,” Mazique told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

As a result, Mazique said, he is seeing more African- and West Indian-born black students going to Ivy League universities and attending graduate or professional schools than U.S.-born black students.

“I see the children of black professionals not doing as well as their parents,” Mazique said. “I think a lot of professionals move to the suburbs, buy an expensive house and think their kids will just figure it out.”

Race aside, Mazique said, the world is competitive, and many black students and their parents haven’t learned that lesson.

“They don’t realize how it works. Your kid is a commodity, basically. The thinking is, 'Why should I pick you over the other kid?'” Mazique said. “I don’t think black professionals realize how competitive things are.”

He said he urges students to recognize challenges for what they are, but to have a plan to overcome them.

“At times, I feel parents are not cold-blooded enough,” Mazique said.

Baby Boomers, particularly, often recall how their parents pushed them to attend college or to have a plan for the future, even if those parents did not attend college, or even finish high school.

“What would have happened if you or I came home and said, ‘I don’t know if I’m cut out for college?’” Mazique asked. “The response would have been, ‘How do you plan on supporting yourself? Whatever you want, your plan is not going to be living in my house.’”

Sometimes, though, the odds can appear overwhelming. Just ask young students from the Gulf Coast, many of whom are still trying to regain their academic footing two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the region.

According to a report by the Southern Education Foundation, which was introduced at a workshop on education issues at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative conference on Wednesday, schools in 49 states received displaced students after the hurricanes.

“In states where the majority of displaced students reentered school, there were often insufficient numbers of classrooms, supplies and school personnel (including counselors and administrative staff). Schools failed to serve displaced students’ needs due to a lack of funds,” the report said.

“After Katrina, schools with displaced students reported an increase in disciplinary problems and a greater need for mental health counseling,” according to the report. “Displaced children had some especially serious health problems that were not always addressed and exhibited very poor academic performance on state tests, especially in Texas.”

In a video, “Education in Exile,” shown during the workshop, displaced students described mean-spirited, demeaning and dismissive treatment at their new schools.

They described New Orleans students being herded into an assembly at which they were told that at their new schools they would be required to behave, as if that wasn’t an expectation they had previously experienced.

“We were thought of as terrible children. We couldn’t sit together at the lunch tables. We were were known as the NOLA gang,” said Dominque Townsend.

Rogers Youngblood said New Orleans students relocated to a school in Baton Rouge were treated as if they were incapable of learning.

“I may not be smart in explaining the way Christopher Columbus discovered America, but I can tell you how to survive off this $5.15 an hour you’re paying me. ... I can show you how to be a man for your family, but you can’t learn that in school,” Youngblood said.

There are certain lessons about how black students, especially those from New Orleans, are viewed that are easily absorbed, Youngblood said. It is quite plain that their education is not highly valued by some school administrators.

“We understand that a bank has only one security guard, but our school has 30. We understand all that, but they don’t understand that we do understand all that," he said.

“What’s happening (there) is only an exacerbation of what happens in every other urban system in America,” said Bill Rouselle, of Bright Moments, a public relations firm in New Orleans, who moderated the panel.

Experts say fixing the education problem for black students requires effort on the part of parents, lawmakers, business and concerned citizens.

It is important, Mazique said, that those who are critical of where things stand for black students be part of the solution. That’s why he is an active volunteer.

“I can give you a thousand ideas,” he said, “but if I’m not doing anything, you can say I’m not backing it up.”

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Associated Press contributed to this story.