Observations: Claggett Creek Middle School
Community
My most striking observation of the Keizer and North Salem community surrounding the middle school is that the property is directly across the street from an elementary school, and both were developed on an area of wetlands. Claggett Creek is a relatively new school, only having been open for about nine academic years, and it seems as if the immediate neighborhood is also newly developed. The school is just off the Salem/Keizer Parkway, a large and well-traveled highway for east-west commute.
A site called “School Matters” shows that 84.6% of adults in the district have at least a high school diploma, compared with the state level of 88.3%. 25% of adults have attained a Bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 28% of state adults. The Salem-Keizer district has 13% single-parent households; the state level is 10%. The household income breakdown is as follows:
Household Income--- Percentage of Households
$150,000+ --------------- 5.2%
$100,000-149,999 -------- 11.1%
$75,000-99,999 ---------- 13%
$50,000-74,999 ---------- 21.1%
$30,000-$49,999 ---------- 10.5%
$15,000-$29,999 ---------- 15.7%
$0-$14,999 -------------- 23.4%
The racial makeup of the district, according to the US census data found on the NCES website, indicates that of the 56,854 people under eighteen years of age, 12,774 students in the district are Hispanic or Latin@. 42,985 identify as only white, 741 identify as Black or African American, 1,089 identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, 1,306 identify as Asian, 343 identify as Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, another 6,936 identify as a single race not listed above, and a remaining 3,454 identify as multiracial.
Though the school and much of the surrounding area is newly developed, I need to keep in mind that the families from which my school draws its students are quite likely to be experiencing some kind of poverty. I found it quite striking that a larger percentage of households are earning less $15,000 compared to households earning $50,000-$75,000, what I consider to be a comfortable middle class. The community is more diverse than my community was when I attended middle school, so I fully expect students to bring new perspective and insight to the classroom that I could not have provided on my own. I expect to do a lot of explicit instruction about what is expected and required for competing after high school, based on the fact that 75% of my students will be first-generation college students upon graduation.
My statistical data comes from www.schoolmatters.com and http://www.nces.ed.gov/ccd/
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3 comments:
Larkin,
I appreciate how you use your section on influences to make connections between the data and your teaching. Can you find data on Keizer alone or just the SK district? Some statistics that stand out to me...about 30% of household incomes are under the poverty line (about $22K). That seems huge.
Talk about your stats on the district. You have that paragraph on numbers of students in racial categories. Compared to what? Are those numbers big or small? What do you learn from the numbers? In your last paragraph you talk about the community being diverse and wanting to capitalize on new perspectives. What is that diversity? When you get numbers on the school, are the percentages at the school the same as in the community? Why or why not?
Have you had a chance to walk/drive around the community to get a feel of it? Impressions? Kids in the streets? Manicured lawns? Junk cars in the driveway? It seems to me that Keizer has a lot of different types of neighborhoods. How does that influence your thinking about teaching?
I like the socio-economic discussion you bring. I also come from a more privileged background and it is difficult to think of the challenges our students face daily. More diversity will bring new perspectives and insight to the classroom but what difficulties can a diverse classroom bring? Amazing to think that 75% of your students would be first-generation college students and I think it is very smart to prepare these students for that possibility. Many of whom probably will never believe they are capable of college but if someone believes in them then maybe you will begin to believe as well.
Patrick
Larkin,
Thank you for planning to instruct your students on expectations and requirements for high school and college! I was the first person in my immediate family to earn a bachelor's degree and I really wish my middle and high school teachers had better prepared me for college study skills.
I appreciate your focus on the educational stats for adults in Salem-Keizer district. The fact that 75% of our student this year will be the first in their families to go to college is something that we should all keep in the front of our minds.
Chris
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