Being African-American in Iowa: Education
Today, Iowa Public Radio returns to its series “Being in Iowa.” Reporter Rob Dillard has been exploring what it means to be Latino, a military veteran, and Muslim in the state. Now, he shifts his attention to African-Americans. The 2010 census pegs the number of blacks living in Iowa at nearly 90-thousand, or just below three percent of the total population. Most of them are clustered around the urban centers of Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Waterloo. Rob begins this week’s five-part series by looking into why there persists a wide achievement gap between white and black students in Iowa’s schools. Rob asks a few educators what they’re doing to narrow it.