Cleveland vs. Akron: A comparison of public school districts (Buchtel: income, live)

[Townes Van Zandt]

Here's the data:

Akron city schools

Asian/Pacific Islander- 2.5%
American Indian/Alaska Native-0.1%
Black/African American- 47.7%
Hispanic-1.5%
Multiracial-6.6%
White/Caucasian-41.6%


Graduation Rate:78.3%

Cleveland city schools

Black: 70.06%
White: 15.38%
Hispanic: 11.46%
All other: 3.10%

Graduation Rate: 60.1%

sources:

http://www.akronschools.com/dotAsset/72405.pdf
Facts

http://www.cmsdnet.net/en/AboutCMSD/Facts.aspx


It's interesting to note that the Cleveland city schools website hasn't updated their graduation rate since the 2006-07 school year. Akron's data is for the class of 2009.

Another interesting point is the difference between the percentage of white and black students in each school district.

In the end, Cleveland's numbers were no surprise. I was surprised to see how well Akron's school district is doing, at least relative to other urban Ohio districts.

So what do you make of this difference? We have two similar cities in the same region of the country with the same issues yet one has a stronger school district.

[5Lakes]

No surprises there. Cleveland has a higher percentage of blacks and a higher percentage of ghetto areas within the city limits. White people do not want to send their kids to inner-city schools in Cleveland, or in anywhere else in this country for that matter. This is especially true of older cities in the midwest and northeast part of the country. For example I think Chicago's public schools are only about 10% white, and unlike Cleveland, Chicago has a substantial percentage of its inner-city population that is made up of higher income whites. Akron still has acceptable highschools schools like Firestone and Ellet that have not scared people off. Overall I agree that Akron does not do too bad in this area in comparison to other cites.

[Buckeyes440]

I'm guessing they didn't update it because it declined (at least in 07-08). In that year it was 53% . Cleveland.com posted an article a little over a year ago that compared the Cleveland school district to other major school districts within the state.

Here's the article:
Conference to tackle Cleveland schools' low graduation rate | Metro - cleveland.com - cleveland.com

and the PDF that graphs the grad rate in each city
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdgraphics...2cgDROPOUT.pdf

[Townes Van Zandt]

Originally Posted by 5Lakes

No surprises there. Cleveland has a higher percentage of blacks and a higher percentage of ghetto areas within the city limits. White people do not want to send their kids to inner-city schools in Cleveland, or in anywhere else in this country for that matter. This is especially true of older cities in the midwest and northeast part of the country. For example I think Chicago's public schools are only about 10% white, and unlike Cleveland, Chicago has a substantial percentage of its inner-city population that is made up of higher income whites. Akron still has acceptable highschools schools like Firestone and Ellet that have not scared people off. Overall I agree that Akron does not do too bad in this area in comparison to other cites.

So I'm wondering what it is that scared the white people out of Cleveland to such a high degree. My first guess would be the desegregation busing...I don't think that happened in Akron(which would explain Akron's high percentage of white students).

That's one of those political decisions where you just have to scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking.

Originally Posted by Buckeyes440

I'm guessing they didn't update it because it declined (at least in 07-08). In that year it was 53% . Cleveland.com posted an article a little over a year ago that compared the Cleveland school district to other major school districts within the state.

Here's the article:
Conference to tackle Cleveland schools' low graduation rate | Metro - cleveland.com - cleveland.com

and the PDF that graphs the grad rate in each city
http://blog.cleveland.com/pdgraphics...2cgDROPOUT.pdf

Yikes, that's horrible. Compare that to the predominately white suburbs where the average graduation rate is in the 90's. Interesting numbers...

[5Lakes]

Originally Posted by ksu sucks

So I'm wondering what it is that scared the white people out of Cleveland to such a high degree. My first guess would be the desegregation busing...I don't think that happened in Akron(which would explain Akron's high percentage of white students).

That's one of those political decisions where you just have to scratch your head and wonder what they were thinking.

Yeah, I think that was the biggest problem.

Busing also happened in Akron, it just was not as destructive. I lived on the east side of Akron in Ellet for a while and noticed some kids being bused to that school. Ellet has practically no black people, but the high school is probably 10% black. I think most high schools in Akron are about 50/50 though, except for Buchtel which is all black.

[deedee217]

Desegregation was a big part of it. So was blockbusting by realtors, i.e. don't be the last white family on your block. The desegregation thing really bugs me. There was a problem, but the solution only made it worse. Can anyone say black kids in Cleveland schools are better off now?