Friday, August 12, 2011

Black and white, poverty and wealth: side-by-side look at demographics at Eakin vs. North Nashville elementary schools

Germantown south of Monroe Street and Hope Gardens were once zoned for high-demand Eakin Elementary. Here are the West Nashville school's demographics:

Source: ProPublica. Click on to enlarge.


Compare to the demographics of three North Nashville public elementary schools recently maligned in the media:

Source: ProPublica. Click on to enlarge.

Source: ProPublica. Click on to enlarge.

Source: ProPublica. Click on to enlarge.


4 comments:

  1. Notably, Eakin has a greater percentage of inexperienced teachers than each of the other schools.

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  2. Not unusual for special emphasis schools like Paideia and Montessori to have higher experienced teacher ratios, since the teachers get specialized training in those methods annually.

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  3. Regarding schools and money -

    Kroger has a fundraising program where 4% of Kroger gift card purchases are sent back to the (non-profit) organization.

    I mention it because I believe the program to be underutilized and it is extremely generous (much moreso than Publix or HT).

    It is not 100% simple to use - you have to get the cards, link them and refill them.

    But, say 50 families use it for one week and spend $100 each. That is $200 that the school will have earned - in a week.

    ---
    No, I don't work for Kroger.
    Yes, I am involved with a local school.

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  4. Anon. #2, you are absolutely right. And, our PTO utilizes that. However, for many reasons - mostly having to do w/the lack of resources financially & otherwise - many of the parents (who fall under free & reduced lunch) don't use these cards.

    The more parents who live here & do have resources 1. Start going to these schools & 2. Become involved w/PTO & realize your school is a community as well, the more things like this will improve these schools. But, let me also say that throwing $ at problems isn't 100% of the solution. When the Buena Vista representative came to speak w/us, she mentioned that while $ is nice, it's the "hands on" that makes the difference. Most of these kids don't have the same kind of one on one time that our kids do, sadly. So, seeing adults who have the time to do so makes a huge impression on these kids. I know that first hand.

    Thank you for that reminder of the Kroger cards, for those who may not know about them. I know I didn't know about them until we had a kid in school!

    ReplyDelete