Polk County School Demographic Analysis

This document is the total ethnicity demographics within every individual Frisco ISD high school, middle school, and elementary school.Through these different statistical percentages, there is a visible trend that is seen in every Frisco ISD school is a sharp increase in the amount of Asians in each school. In specific schools, Asians are the largest minority and in certain schools are even the majority such as Fowler Middle School. This document highlights the increase in Asian representation within the schools and fulfills one aspect of the overall research components.

America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s

Howell states that “educational development at the county level is significant to Texas history for several reasons.” One reason that he states, is that “it provides a measure of how important free public education was to the citizens of Texas counties by comparing how quickly they complied with various state school laws passed late in the 1850’s”

second largest and oldest city in Georgia with a population of about 200,000. The school district

Polk county public schools consist of 63 languages spoken, representing 151 countries. Nearly 11,000 students speak Spanish, 720 speak Haitian Creole and 100 speak Arabic language. In this school district 39 percent of students’ ages 0-17 live below the poverty line(“Diversity Management”, 2012). Unfortunately 19.3 percent of all children in Florida also live below the poverty line. 67 percent of the students enrolled in Polk County Public schools met federal guideline to quality for free or reduce lunch. 79 out of 158 schools in Polk County are classified as Title 1 schools. Polk County Population breakdown by racial makeup: White 66.3 percent, Black 15 percent, Hispanic 17.7 percent, Asian 1 percent, Native American less than 1 percent, Pacific Islander less than 1 percent. The district includes 158 principals and about 240 assistant principals (“Diversity Management”, 2012).

Jonathan Kozol’s book, Savage Inequalities, is a passionate testament to the shortcomings of the public education system in the United states. Kozol visits some of the most impoverished school districts in East St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Camden, and San Antonio. He identifies characteristic among all of these schools to include a high percentage of dropouts, a population of almost entirely non-white students, an infrastructure in disrepair, a startling lack of basic supplies, a shortage of teachers, and an excess of students. Kozol also visits schools in the vicinity that are in stark contrast to the poorest schools. They have an abundance of supplies, space, funds, AP curriculum, extra-curricular activities, and teachers. These schools were also predominantly white. Kozol explores reasons for these differences between neighboring schools and finds that those who are in a position to initiate change are largely apathetic to the inequalities.

The total population of Vernon, Texas as of April 1, 2010, was 11,002. According to the U.S Census Bureau, Vernon, Texas population was 0.04 percent of the state of Texas’ population of 25,146,100 and about 0.004 percent of the United States (U.S) total population of 308,758,105 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).

In 1980, 18 schools reported a total number of 6,700 students. Of the 6,700, 5,042 students were Non-Hispanic White, 1,655 were Non-Hispanic Black, 0 Hispanic, and only 3 was Asian. In 1990, 20 schools reported fewer students of 6,202. Of the 6,202, 4,392 were Non-Hispanic Whites, 1,798 were Non-Hispanic Blacks, 6 Hispanic, and 6 Asian. In 2000, 22 schools reported a total population of 5,410 students. Of the 5,410 students, 3,641 were Non-Hispanic Whites, 1,540 were Non-Hispanic Blacks, 56 were Hispanic and only 1 was Asian.

“There a hundred or more houses in the quarters. The streets of the quarters are unpacked, sandy places. The woods surround everything. Bull alligators can be heard booming like huge bass drums from the lake at night”1 Polk county mainly Central Florida was founded by wealthy white families in the mid 1800’s who sought opportunity of cattle and developed cities dedicated to their kind. Even with the success of building multiple towns with railroads, cattle, citrus production, and phosphate industry attracted blacks for job and property opportunities. With the migration of blacks to Polk county caused a ripple effect of segregation and for black to build up communities for their own people. African Americans defeated

Miss Kane’s first grade class at Lutie Lewis Coates Elementary School (also known as Coates Elementary) has twenty students and seventeen of them are considered English Language Learners (ELL) (E. Kane, Personal Communication, October 4, 2016). This is very frustrating for both Miss. Kane and her students because it is very difficult to communicate with many of her ELLs. Out of Miss Kane’s twenty students eight students are Hispanic, five Indian, five Black, and three White. Miss Kane’s class is very diverse and this allows students to feel more accepted because not all students are similar. Coates Elementary as a whole is very diverse: Asian 28.86%, Black 18.26%, Hispanic 37.32%, and White 12.08% (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). Miss Kane’s classroom reflects similar diversity as Coates Elementary does. Both Miss. Kane and the Coates staff really show their appreciation for diversity and attempt to treat all children equally giving all students equal opportunity. Coates Elementary is a Title I school; about fifty percent of students receive free and reduced lunch (Fairfax County Public Schools, 2015). This school was placed in the center of poverty and many of these students who participate in the free and reduced lunch program are English Language Learners.

We decided to focus our community assessment in Dallas County (see Appendix C for the community map) because poverty in this area is a rising epidemic. According to Mayor Mike Rawlings, “the gap between the haves and the have-nots is still too wide, we must close the gap”. Dallas is home to a variety of races and ethnicities, but it is the Hispanic and the African Americans that poverty has effected the most with the rate increasing by 42% over a span of 15 years (Dallas City Hall, September 7, 2016). Our focus was more on South Central and Southeast Dallas spanning across Districts 5, 7, and 8 because of the significant increase in poverty in these areas. In Dallas, “almost 1 in 3 Hispanics and African Americans

In the state of Florida there were 2,634,822 students enrolled in public K-12. The average student to teacher ratio in the state of Florida is 15.7. Out of the total number of students in the state of Florida 1,109,189 were White. This means Whites are the majority by almost half. Children who were Hispanic and enrolled were 675,724. Hispanics make up about 25% of public school enrollments. The number of black students enrolled were 580,588, coming out to about 22% of the total enrolled population. All other races come out to about 3% of the population. ("Florida Public Schools - View All Public Schools in

This article was created to inform member in the South Loop community and the National Teachers Academy members, about the actions of Chicago Board of Education that will affect the future of public education in the area. The author attempts to expose how Chicago Public Schools decision to transform a high achieving predominantly low income elementary school to a high school and build an additional elementary school to satisfy the demand of wealth residents in the area. However, David Matthews uses his text to update the public of the adjustments that CPS had made regarding the decision to close the school. The writer used statistics regarding the cost of this project, as well

Houston Elementary is a predominately white school. 413 white students are enrolled in Houston Elementary, which is nearly 98% of all students. This is most likely due to the fact that many of the current residents in Houston are part of a family who has been in the Ozark area for many years. Although the population in Houston is mostly composed of white families, there are families from different ethnic backgrounds present. The Elementary school has two black students enrolled, two Asian students, and two Hispanic students. Therefore, all together 1.5% of Houston’s elementary students are from an ethnic race different from that of the white students. Many of Houston’s students are faced with poverty; this means that the students’ families are dealing with financial challenges which are often due to loss of jobs or lack of available work. This financial strain can make it difficult for families to afford to pay for their children’s lunch every day. This need is the result of a program which offers free or

Pontotoc County in Mississippi is the community I live in. I work at South Pontotoc Elementary School for the past nine years. There are many different demographics with the school system in my area. For example, the Spanish language has a major part at South Pontotoc Elementary School. Another demographic is the different religions in the school. Lastly socioeconomic levels within the South Pontotoc Elementary School are another