Racial And Educational Disparities Of Out Of Wedlock Births

From The New York Times, "For Women Under 30, Most Births Occur Outside Marriage" by Jason Deparle And Sabrina Tavernise:

Large racial differences remain: 73 percent of black children are born outside marriage, compared with 53 percent of Latinos and 29 percent of whites. And educational differences are growing. About 92 percent of college-educated women are married when they give birth, compared with 62 percent of women with some post-secondary schooling and 43 percent of women with a high school diploma or less, according to Child Trends.

The US also has the highest out of wedlock birthrate for teenagers among the developed countries.

Young birth mothers (teenagers or slightly older), out of wedlock parents, absent fathers, and educational level of parents correlates very highly with how a child will perform in school, reading and math test scores, and the level of education the child will attain, high school dropout, high school, or college.

While Black students have a higher rate of these factors that predict poorer school performance, and as group therefore have lower average math and reading scores and lower high school graduation rates, especially for Black males, White students who have the same socio-economic characteristics, young mother, out of wedlock parents, absent fathers, and parents with low educational levels, also have lower math and reading scores and lower high school graduation rates and college attendance. It is just that these socio-economic factors occur at a higher rate within the Black student population than the White student population and make it appear that the US educational system does not teach Blacks or minorities well. The US educational system also does not teach Whites with the same socio-economic traits well.