ADVERSE SELECTION?

The Chicago Tribune attempts a Lorenz curve for public school suspensions.

African-American students comprised three-quarters of school suspensions in 2009-10, the year data was collected for the national civil rights survey. Latino students made up 42 percent of CPS' enrollment but 20 percent of the suspensions. White students, who represented less than 10 percent of district enrollment, made up 3 percent of suspensions.

The article notes that the students of African descent comprise about half the district's enrollment. The focus of the article is on alleged disparate effects of punishment on school completion, to which the realist might note that sinners are disproportionately represented in Hell, at the same time that it notes other differences within and among schools.

Although student discipline remains a thorny issue for CPS officials, the federal study shows African-American and Latino students in Chicago have better access to rigorous study, such as Algebra II, than minorities in other large cities.

It also shows Chicago's elementary school teachers at work in largely black and Latino schools are paid better than teachers in predominantly white schools in the city, while high school teachers earn significantly less than peers in largely white schools.

A government report offers additional detail.