Another Smyrna question... Schools and poverty... What's the deal? (Atlanta: transplants, apartment complexes)

[netdragon]

Ok, here's a question I have to ask... With all the rich and wealthy people that moved into Smyrna in the last 10 years, why is there still 50% poverty in a lot of Smyrna Elementary schools according to rankings data? Is the data out-of-date or are a lot of parents just avoiding public schools? And how can Teasley have a 40% poverty rate with most of its zone being in Vinings?

With all schools pretty much being equal in resources in Cobb County, poverty has a lot to do with student performance, so it's something I'm very curious about. Are there just enough families that aren't transplants and even though their home value may have jumped $100k in the last 10 years, they are still poor?

What I'm looking at is http://www.gppf.org/pub/education/re...entary2007.pdf

So what's the deal and are things going to change? Or have they already changed and the data is just out-of-date? There's 5 years until our daughter is old enough for school.

Note in the list below, the schools that appear before Teasley take up a large swath of Smyrna. The ones from Teasley on only have a small part in Smyrna.

State Rank | System | School | Achievement Score | % of Students Exceeding Standards | Poverty Rate | Index

646 |Cobb County |King Springs |87 |26 |50.5% |0
778 |Cobb County |Argyle |84 |20 |77.1% |0
901 |Cobb County |Russell |80.5 |19.5 |64.7% |0
973 |Cobb County |Nickajack |78 |18.5 |55.0%| -1
1001 |Cobb County |Brown |76.5 |20.5 |87.5% |0
500 |Cobb County |Teasley |89.5 |34.5 |40.9% |0 <- Start of barely in Smyrna list.
905 |Cobb County |LaBelle |80.5 |17.5 |85.5% |0
906 |Cobb County |Harmony-Leland |80.5 |15.5 |65.2% |0
1100 |Cobb County |Belmont Hills |69.5 |6.5 |89.2% |-1
1117 |Cobb County |Green Acres |68 |10.5 |87.9% |-1
1168 |Cobb County |Norton Park |56 |7.5 |87.0% |-3

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by netdragon

Ok, here's a question I have to ask... With all the rich and wealthy people that moved into Smyrna in the last 10 years, why is there still 50% poverty in a lot of Smyrna Elementary schools according to rankings data? Is the data out-of-date or are a lot of parents just avoiding public schools? And how can Teasley have a 40% poverty rate with most of its zone being in Vinings?

With all schools pretty much being equal in resources in Cobb County, poverty has a lot to do with student performance, so it's something I'm very curious about. Are there just enough families that aren't transplants and even though their home value may have jumped $100k in the last 10 years, they are still poor?

What I'm looking at is http://www.gppf.org/pub/education/re...entary2007.pdf

So what's the deal and are things going to change? Or have they already changed and the data is just out-of-date? There's 5 years until our daughter is old enough for school.

Note in the list below, the schools that appear before Teasley take up a large swath of Smyrna. The ones from Teasley on only have a small part in Smyrna.

State Rank | System | School | Achievement Score | % of Students Exceeding Standards | Poverty Rate | Index

646 |Cobb County |King Springs |87 |26 |50.5% |0
778 |Cobb County |Argyle |84 |20 |77.1% |0
901 |Cobb County |Russell |80.5 |19.5 |64.7% |0
973 |Cobb County |Nickajack |78 |18.5 |55.0%| -1
1001 |Cobb County |Brown |76.5 |20.5 |87.5% |0
500 |Cobb County |Teasley |89.5 |34.5 |40.9% |0 <- Start of barely in Smyrna list.
905 |Cobb County |LaBelle |80.5 |17.5 |85.5% |0
906 |Cobb County |Harmony-Leland |80.5 |15.5 |65.2% |0
1100 |Cobb County |Belmont Hills |69.5 |6.5 |89.2% |-1
1117 |Cobb County |Green Acres |68 |10.5 |87.9% |-1
1168 |Cobb County |Norton Park |56 |7.5 |87.0% |-3

Reasons...

1. People avoiding public schools.
2. Racism.
3. Lots of apartment complexes (this especially explains the Teasley situation).


I recommend going to the Cobb County Schools Attendance Zone Maps and taking a closer look. You will see that Teasley's zone also stretches up Atlanta Road...into "Outer Vinings."


Cobb County School District Home Page

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Reasons...

1. People avoiding public schools.
2. Racism.
3. Lots of apartment complexes (this especially explains the Teasley situation).

What does "racism" have to do with the poverty levels in these schools???

[wxjay]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

What does "racism" have to do with the poverty levels in these schools???

Some would argue that racism suppresses the education potential and hence earning potential of people in the community.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by wxjay

Some would argue that racism suppresses the education potential and hence earning potential of people in the community.

And again, I ask, what does this have to do with the poverty level of the schools? The OP was asking why a town with a supposedly high-income population would have a high poverty level in the schools- "racism" can not cause a high poverty level in a school in a well-to-do area- Aries' other two points (the higher income folks using private schools, and apartments that may have a lower-income component) can contribute to these data-points, but I still want to know how "racism" can be thrown out there with no explanation.

[CMMom]

In all seriousness here (I'm not being sarcastic), are there not any poor Caucasian families in Cobb County? Certainly there must be. I just don't think that "racism" is a reasonable explanation for the school poverty rates. That seems like a very simplistic viewpoint to me.

[BobKovacs]

Originally Posted by CMMom

In all seriousness here (I'm not being sarcastic), are there not any poor Caucasian families in Cobb County? Certainly there must be. I just don't think that "racism" is a reasonable explanation for the school poverty rates. That seems like a very simplistic viewpoint to me.

My point exactly- it's a term that gets thrown out far too easily around here as a convenient excuse for any number of issues. I'm honestly not trying to stir things up- all I'm looking for is a rational explanation for it's use in this context.

[Rhonda K]

Well, I have a little insight on this....being that my daughter's former school, is listed on the list above at 87 %. The poorer students tend to come from the old Smyrna apartment complexes....which are slowly disappearing. They also move allot, which doesn't help the test scores.

The other explanation is most homeowners don't send their children to the local schools(myself included). For example, Forest Hills is in Brown's school district, where a fixer-upper will cost a pretty penny. In our neighborhood, there are 2 children within a couple block radius, one is mine. As for my neighboors, one of my new neighbors paid close to $400,,000 for a 3 bedroom 2 bath home....(no children though, as usual)....our neighbors are literally in their 80's, or empty nesters.....I'm pretty sure this is the same situation several beautiful older subdivisions near Belmont Hills as well.....

As far as Teasley, most of the families I know will keep their children in the school until 4th grade, then app them out, to make sure they don't go to the middle school in the area.

Just my 2 cents....

[kagmypts]

From the source of the data,

"Poverty rate is reported as the percentage of students eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunches who actually took the third grade CRCT test. This percentage is calculated by dividing the number of eligible students who took the tests divided by the total school population who took the tests."

Having said that, I have no idea what qualifies a person/family to receive a free or reduced-price lunch, but I am guessing that it is not the same thing as living below the poverty line.

And the answer to my question about what qualifies a child to be eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches
(from http://www.frac.org/html/federal_food_programs/programs/nslp.html): (broken link)

"Eligibility
All public and non-profit private schools (regardless of tuition) and all Residential Child Care Institutions (RCCIs) can participate in the National School Lunch Program. School boards must apply to their state education agency in order to institute a program. All students in these schools may participate in the lunch program. However, household income determines whether they receive free meals, reduced price meals (the maximum price to the student's family is 40 cents), or "paid" meals, for which students pay most of the cost (the federal government pays a modest amount for administrative costs).
For children at participating schools there are two ways to qualify for free or reduced price meals in the NSLP. Both generally require the household to fill out a school meals application and return it to the child's school.

1. If a household currently receives Food Stamps, TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), or participates in the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) the children in that household are eligible for free school meals for as long as the family receives these other benefits. This is called categorical eligibility. Homeless, runaway and migrant children are also automatically eligible for free school meals.[/SIZE]
2. If a household's total income is below a certain amount, the children in that household can eat free or at a very reduced price. To receive free meals, household income must fall below 130 percent of poverty. For reduced-price meals, household income must be between 130 and 185 percent of the federal poverty level. This is called income-based eligibility.

Some school districts use "direct certification" to qualify children for free meals without requiring the family to submit an application. In these districts, the school works with the State or local Food Stamp, TANF, and FDPIR agencies to identify and certify for school meals (without additional applications) those children in households currently receiving these benefits.
Starting in the 2006-07 school year, school districts with enrollments of over 25,000 students were required to directly certify food stamp students for free school meals. In the 2007-08 school year, districts with over 10,000 students will fall under this requirement, and starting with the 2008-09 school year, all school districts nationwide will be required to directly certify food stamp students for free school meals."

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by BobKovacs

What does "racism" have to do with the poverty levels in these schools???

"Racism" relates to the poverty level because of the fact that many of the white people of Smyrna-Vinings (a largely affluent population) do not want to send their children to schools with "too many" brown and black children.