Strange observation about Condit Elementary School

[KatieKennedy]

Good, cheap and private schools are not necessarily easy to find or get in. Look at this analysis to help your search. Analysis of Houston Public and Private Schools - The Houston School Survey - School Research, Reviews, & Forum Many folks zoned to Condit go there for elementary and then magnet/vanguard out at middle or high school. Condit is a feeder for Bellaire High which is also highly ranked.

[berkeleyan]

%38 of Conditt are in gifted/talent program. How is such program different than magnet?
I guess because of this program, conditt is getting low income gifted students increasing the subsidized lunch rate.

[Houston parent]

I am very suspicious of the definition of "economically disadvantaged". It seems like most public schools in the metro area have had rapidly increasing percentages of their student bodies classified that way. It would seem that either poverty is skyrocketing or the definition is getting broader to capture lots of working blue collar people that are really middle class. I suspect there is some incentive for schools or school districts to inflate those stats.

Does anybody here know if the definition has changed over the years?

[diggity101]

I would imagine it's all based on the 2010 census figures.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by KatieKennedy

Good, cheap and private schools are not necessarily easy to find or get in. Look at this analysis to help your search. Analysis of Houston Public and Private Schools - The Houston School Survey - School Research, Reviews, & Forum Many folks zoned to Condit go there for elementary and then magnet/vanguard out at middle or high school. Condit is a feeder for Bellaire High which is also highly ranked.

It would also feed into both Pershing and Pin Oak (Pin Oak is an option school, available by application, for all of the Pershing zone). If many of the parents send their kids to Pin Oak then it's still feeding into it anyway.

[nana053]

Originally Posted by Houston parent

I am very suspicious of the definition of "economically disadvantaged". It seems like most public schools in the metro area have had rapidly increasing percentages of their student bodies classified that way. It would seem that either poverty is skyrocketing or the definition is getting broader to capture lots of working blue collar people that are really middle class. I suspect there is some incentive for schools or school districts to inflate those stats.

Does anybody here know if the definition has changed over the years?

Poverty has been increasing in the US.

Poverty | State of Working America

Since 1973’s historical low of 11.1 percent poverty in the United States, poverty rates generally rise during recessions and drop during recoveries. The recovery following the 2001 recession, however, saw poverty increase and then further explode during the Great Recession. - See more at: Poverty | State of Working America

Poverty rate remains high, Census Bureau finds - CBS News

A Gallup survey released last week found 20 percent of Americans reporting they didn't have enough money to buy food in the last 12 months. That's a big increase from earlier in the year and near the recent high of 20.4 percent in late 2008, when the financial crisis was at its peak.

those with the top 1 percent of incomes saw earnings grow 31.4 percent from 2009 to 2012, while the bottom 99 percent saw growth of just 0.4 percent.

Specific to Houston
Houston poverty up, but so is income across the city - Houston Chronicle

Houston's poverty rate increased slightly last year even as its median income ticked up - mixed signals that experts said reflected the uneven nature of the economic recovery.

Census data released on Thursday showed that the city's poverty rate increased by 1 percentage point to 23.8 in 2011 from 2010, while median household income increased by $542 to $42,877. The share of the population without health insurance, meanwhile, dropped to 28.9 percent from 30.9 percent.

http://childrenatrisk.org/wp-content...uston-2012.pdf

In 2012, a family of four is considered poor by federal guidelines with an annual income of $23,050 or below. On average, it is estimated that it takes twice that amount to provide the most basic needs.
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Twenty-six percent of Texas children live below the federal poverty line, while 27% of the children in Harris County do.
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Nearly half of children in Texas live at 200% or below the federal poverty rate.
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While state administered assistance programs provide some help, they often do not reach families and children that need them.