Clark 1
Brenda Clark
Professor Monique Williams
English 1A
Section: 014
01 October 2013
Poorly
Funded Public Schools – Summary
My topic of focus is school resources. To begin, I
researched the definition of tier one, two, and three schools according to the
Department of Education website, in order to improve my understanding of how
these schools are selected. I found that tier one and two schools are defined
by a high school graduation rate below sixty percent in each of the last four
years. These schools are also defined as persistently lowest achieving by
computing an average proficiency rate for English and math test scores over a
period of three years. A school must
contain at least one hundred valid test scores to be included in this category.
Upon looking at the list of persistently lowest achieving schools in the Bay
Area, Oak Grove Middle School, a tier one school in Concord, California,
belonging to the Mt. Diablo Unified School District in Contra Costa County,
stood out in particular, as that is the middle school which I attended. I
looked to see if there were any persistently low-achieving schools listed in
the Castro Valley Unified School District, as I have a child attending school
in that district, although was unable to locate any, which was reassuring. I
therefore chose to focus my research on Oak Grove Middle School. According to a
real estate website by the name of homesnap.com, I found that the quality of
education at Oak Grove Middle School is rated a four out of ten, the average
annual expenditure per student is $11, 309.00, 72% of the student population is
Hispanic, while only 12% of the population is white,
70% of the students are eligible to receive free lunch at the school, and the
number of students enrolled by grade level steadily decreases as the grade
level increases. At the time that the data was published on the website there were
218 students enrolled in sixth grade, 215 students enrolled in seventh grade,
and only 201 students enrolled in eighth grade. I was able to relate much of
this information to that of the book Savage
Inequalities Children in America’s Schools by Jonathan Kozol.
There are a numerous amount of schools
in California that are classified as persistently lowest achieving, including
many schools here in the Bay Area. I was not surprised that I was unable to
locate any persistently low-achieving schools in the Castro Valley Unified
School District where my daughter attends school, although was quite surprised
when I located Oak Grove Middle School, in Concord, California, part of the Mt.
Diablo Unified School District in Contra Costa County, as that is the middle
school that I attended as a child. According to the California Department of
Education, Oak Grove Middle School is listed as one of the lowest achieving 5%
of tier 1 schools, and was enrolled in program improvement in the 2009-10
school year. I graduated from Oak Grove Middle School with honors, and
proceeded to graduate high school and attend college, therefore I was unaware
of any difficulties experienced by the school if any existed when I attended
the school approximately twenty years ago.
It does not appear as though Oak
Grove Middle School is underprivileged with regards to funding for materials
and other resources, as a lack of resources often times contributes to
decreased performance on proficiency exams. According to homesnap.com, the
average annual expenditure per pupil at Oak Grove Middle School was $11, 309
which compares to some of the better schools in New York. As stated in Savage Inequalities, “in affluent
Jericho and Manhasset the figures were, respectively, $11, 325 and $11, 370”
(Kozol 145). According to the California
Department of Education, on May 10, 2012 Oak Grove Middle School was granted a
school improvement grant of $500, 000, which is the maximum allotment. Other Bay Area schools, such as Burbank
Elementary School in Hayward, California, were granted close to the maximum,
although were not granted the full amount.
Burbank Elementary School was only granted
$494,200. $500, 000 is a lot of money if the school is in good condition
structurally and the money is not needed for building repair. This money would
not have gone far in many of the poor performing schools described in Savage Inequalities, as the buildings
were falling apart and needed to be remodeled or rebuilt. There should be no reason that with this
money Oak Grove Middle School would be unable to supply appropriate resources
to its students in order for them to excel in their education and pass
proficiency exams.
The demographics of the Oak Grove
Middle School population compare with those of the majority of underprivileged
schools described in Savage Inequalities,
whose students were minorities. According to homesnap.com, 72% of the school
population is Hispanic, while only 12% of the population is white. I do not
recall this being the case when I attended the school, although it does reflect
the recent trend of an increase of the Hispanic population in California. Much
of the Hispanic population has difficulty with learning English as a second
language, which may have a large influence on the low test scores, and
ultimately the fact that the school is on the list of persistently lowest
achieving schools in the Bay Area.
Many of the schools in poor
neighborhoods mentioned in Savage
Inequalities have very high dropout rates, some over 50 percent. An example is Manley High School in Chicago,
with a dropout rate of 62 percent (Kozol 71). I worry that the decreased number
of students in attendance at Oak Grove Middle School compared with the increase
in grade level may be attributed to students dropping out of school. According
to homesnap.com, there were 618 sixth graders, 215 seventh graders, and only
201 eighth graders in attendance at Oak Grove Middle School at the time of the
publication. Dropping out of school is not the answer to any problems and only
causes more problems for the future of an individual. Everything possible should be done to keep
children in school, at least until they graduate from high school, and
encourage students to attend college in order to better their future and the
future of those around them.
Works Cited
"Our Mission." California Department of
Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.
Harrington,
Theresa. "State Revises Low-achieving Schools List, Bumping Four East Bay
Schools and Adding Two New Ones." ContraCostaTimes.com. N.p., 10 Mar.
2010. Web. 30 Sept. 2013.
"Schools
Mt. Diablo Unified Oak Grove Middle School." Oak Grove Middle School
Rating, Metrics, Attendance Zone and Real Estate. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Sept.
2013.
Kozol, Jonathan. Savage Inequalities: Children in
America's Schools. New York: Crown Pub., 1991. Print.
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