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NYC is one of the most economically segregated cities in the country. According to Pew Research Center, NYC ranks fourth in the most economically segregated cities in the United States, just after Los Angeles. So what is economic segregation?
Every Saturday, she would take her kids to the playground. She would often visit different playgrounds to keep things interesting for her children. Meeting other parents. Talking to random strangers. She seemed to enjoy this. As in the case of parents everywhere, education is often a common topic in conversations at the parks. “You’re out of the good zone by one block” (qtd. in Raboteau 175). This is what one mother tells the author, Emily Raboteau who wrote “Playgrounds I Have Known” (2016) about where the author lives. In her essay, Raboteau explores the issue of the huge wealth gap in New York City; more specifically, Raboteau uses the topic of education to investigate this phenomenon. She describes her own discovery of the discrepancy in the quality of education at different schools, not only private versus public schools, but also public versus public. In short, the author discusses how a child’s education depends on where one lives in the city which in turn is dependent on income.
Good zones. Bad zones. Who would think that moms in parks in NYC use such terms to describe where their kids play. And where they sit, day after day watching their kids play. Bennett Park is in a “good zone” which is evident by the quality of the playground. Raboteau has noticed that the playgrounds in NYC are informally ranked by hundreds, maybe thousands of mothers and fathers, who sit in parks day after day contemplating where they live, the future of their kids, and their social economic status. One thing that is always clear is that the fancier playgrounds are found in the more expensive neighborhoods.
So is it the same for schools? Does a school that is located in a wealthier neighborhood have a better quality of education than the one in a poor neighborhood? Indeed, studies from a wide variety of sources -- from the New York Times to Professor Clotfelter -- show that there is a direct correlation between the median income of the neighborhood and the ranking of the schools. According to the article “Falling Further Apart: Decaying Schools in New York City's Poorest Neighborhoods” (2013), the condition of the school facilities affects the quality of the education. The poorest neighborhoods have the worst facilities. A lot of schools in the lower income neighborhoods still have not changed the toxic light fixtures, which really affects the health of the children. Due to such bad conditions to study, the quality of education cannot go up. To find out if this is really true, I searched for the top and low ranking schools in NYC and located them on a map which provides the median income of all neighborhoods and zones of NYC.
NYC is one of the most economically segregated cities in the country. According to Pew Research Center, NYC ranks fourth in the most economically segregated cities in the United States, just after Los Angeles. So what is economic segregation? Economic segregation is to what degree people live in areas where other people are of the same income bracket. So why is NYC so economically segregated? To begin, research shows that large and highly populated metropolitan cities usually tend to be economically segregated; NYC is the largest city in the United States. Secondly, NYC is very affluent with high wages, income, and economic production. All these factors correlate positively to cities with substantial economic segregation. Another reason for this economic divide is a high presence of minorities which NYC has plenty of. Data shows that 67% of the population in NYC is non-white. Economic segregation is also prone to indicate educational segregation. Charles Clotfelter, a professor of Public Policy Studies, Economics and Law at Duke University, claims “Since public schools typically draw their students from neighborhoods and rarely enroll students from other jurisdictions, economic segregation in schools tends to reflect economic residential segregation.”
So who are affected the most by this trend? The poorer students are affected the most because their school districts do not have the ability to hire the best teachers, nor to buy all the resources to provide a high quality education; these school districts also do not have the ability to provide a comfortable learning environment. A study conducted by 32BJ SEIU, the largest property services worker union, argues that the poor conditions of NYC school hurt the poorest neighborhoods the most. It shows that the districts with the highest amount of students that qualify for free or reduced meal programs, study in buildings with the poorest conditions. Since the learning atmosphere has been linked to higher test scores, this clearly hurts the lower income people the most. My research agrees with this statement that the school with the higher percentage of free lunch recipients are being hurt the most because their scores are definitely lower across the board. For example, in New York City Geographic District #1, the two highest ranking schools only had around 30% of students that qualify for free lunch, and the two lowest ranked schools have over 80% of students that qualify for free lunch.
So what makes some public schools better than others? Schools are ranked based on test scores, graduation rate, and college readiness. The average of NYC students’ college readiness is 35 percent based on a report by CBS New York. The average of most subjects in NYC passing the Regent Exams (exit exams) is below the state rate. For example, integrated algebra has only 58% passing rate in NYC, but in NY state the passing rate is 73% (NY Times). The graduation rate was 79.4% in 2016 for both NYC schools and NY state schools. As well as the free lunch percentage recipients already discussed, schools also receive an average standard score and the graduation rate. These two categories coincide with the free lunch analysis. The schools that have the lowest free lunch recipients consistently have the higher graduation rate and average standard score in both school districts examined. For instance, the number one ranked high school in all of New York City is found in New York City Geographic District #3. It boasts a 99% graduation rate, 96 average score out of 100, and a low 27.2% of free lunch recipients. The lowest ranking school in this school district is ranked #1054 and has a 70% graduation rate, 20.6 average standard score, and a 74.5% of free lunch recipients.
Another interesting fact about the statistics I found is that the racial breakdown is very consistent for both highest and lowest ranking schools. Of the eight schools in my research the three highest ranked schools are all overwhelmingly white, and the lowest ranked schools have a high level of minorities and very low white percentage of students (see data table attached).
This topic is important because everyone deserves to get the same quality of education, regardless of where they live. As the mayor of NYC, de Blasio, said “Each and every child, in each and every classroom, deserves a future that isn’t limited by their ZIP code” (qtd. in NY Times). He is responding to the discrepancy of test scores between schools in New York’s wealthier neighborhoods compared to its poorer neighborhoods. Trying to respond to this crisis in educational segregation, he introduced legislation to raise the quality of education in the poor school zones of the city in 2015. He spent around 160 million dollars on reading specialists, Advanced Placement classes, programs allowing 8th graders to take algebra courses, and other expensive investments in education for the school districts. Since then, test scores have not proven to be rising in the poorer school districts. In fact, according to the CEO of Families for Excellent Schools, Jeremiah Kittredge, de Blasio’s plan is a huge failure. He did not achieve his goals at all, and actually brought down the results in some cases. Out of 94 schools that were part of the de Blasio’s plan (the School Renewal program), only three have met their targets. Kittredge believes that the funding has gone to the wrong targets. He believes the solution is public charter schools. So do charter schools work? Susan Dynarski of the New York Times says, “Rigorous research suggests that the answer is yes for an important, underserved group: low-income, nonwhite students in urban areas.” Public charter schools work because they do not have all the restrictions of regular public schools. They can lengthen the school day, hire and fire teacher at will, and try many teaching methods.
So what is the significance of the research? Is there a correlation between the rankings of schools and median income in NYC public schools? The statistics I gathered seem to provide evidence that there is definitely a correlation between the affluence of the neighborhood a school draws its students from and the ranking of that school. The best indicators of the median income of the area where a school is located is the amount of free lunch recipients attending the school. Clearly, the schools with the lowest amount of free lunch recipients have the higher ranking and graduation rate than do the ones with the higher amount of free lunch recipients and lower graduation rate. There is another correlation that I discovered between the high and low ranking schools: the highest ranking schools all had white student populations over 40%, and in the lower ranked schools the majority were the minority students. This means that the median income is not the only factor of the educational segregation, but also race. [This discrepancy in the quality of education based on median income not only happens in NYC, but also here in Santa Barbara. Looking at School-Ratings, it shows that schools that draw its student body from higher income neighborhoods are ranked higher than those that do not. For example -- Hope Elementary School, Montecito Union, and Cold Springs all received 9 - 10 ratings (10 is the highest), and Adams, Franklin, Cleveland Elementary all received 4 or less. Kids are the future, and as Ken Jockers said, “Education is key”. Let’s make sure no matter what background kids are coming from, they all receive the same quality of education and possibility to succeed.]
Good zones. Bad zones. Who would think that moms in parks in NYC use such terms to describe where their kids play. And where they sit, day after day watching their kids play. Bennett Park is in a “good zone” which is evident by the quality of the playground. Raboteau has noticed that the playgrounds in NYC are informally ranked by hundreds, maybe thousands of mothers and fathers, who sit in parks day after day contemplating where they live, the future of their kids, and their social economic status. One thing that is always clear is that the fancier playgrounds are found in the more expensive neighborhoods.
So is it the same for schools? Does a school that is located in a wealthier neighborhood have a better quality of education than the one in a poor neighborhood? Indeed, studies from a wide variety of sources -- from the New York Times to Professor Clotfelter -- show that there is a direct correlation between the median income of the neighborhood and the ranking of the schools. According to the article “Falling Further Apart: Decaying Schools in New York City's Poorest Neighborhoods” (2013), the condition of the school facilities affects the quality of the education. The poorest neighborhoods have the worst facilities. A lot of schools in the lower income neighborhoods still have not changed the toxic light fixtures, which really affects the health of the children. Due to such bad conditions to study, the quality of education cannot go up. To find out if this is really true, I searched for the top and low ranking schools in NYC and located them on a map which provides the median income of all neighborhoods and zones of NYC.
NYC is one of the most economically segregated cities in the country. According to Pew Research Center, NYC ranks fourth in the most economically segregated cities in the United States, just after Los Angeles. So what is economic segregation? Economic segregation is to what degree people live in areas where other people are of the same income bracket. So why is NYC so economically segregated? To begin, research shows that large and highly populated metropolitan cities usually tend to be economically segregated; NYC is the largest city in the United States. Secondly, NYC is very affluent with high wages, income, and economic production. All these factors correlate positively to cities with substantial economic segregation. Another reason for this economic divide is a high presence of minorities which NYC has plenty of. Data shows that 67% of the population in NYC is non-white. Economic segregation is also prone to indicate educational segregation. Charles Clotfelter, a professor of Public Policy Studies, Economics and Law at Duke University, claims “Since public schools typically draw their students from neighborhoods and rarely enroll students from other jurisdictions, economic segregation in schools tends to reflect economic residential segregation.”
So who are affected the most by this trend? The poorer students are affected the most because their school districts do not have the ability to hire the best teachers, nor to buy all the resources to provide a high quality education; these school districts also do not have the ability to provide a comfortable learning environment. A study conducted by 32BJ SEIU, the largest property services worker union, argues that the poor conditions of NYC school hurt the poorest neighborhoods the most. It shows that the districts with the highest amount of students that qualify for free or reduced meal programs, study in buildings with the poorest conditions. Since the learning atmosphere has been linked to higher test scores, this clearly hurts the lower income people the most. My research agrees with this statement that the school with the higher percentage of free lunch recipients are being hurt the most because their scores are definitely lower across the board. For example, in New York City Geographic District #1, the two highest ranking schools only had around 30% of students that qualify for free lunch, and the two lowest ranked schools have over 80% of students that qualify for free lunch.
So what makes some public schools better than others? Schools are ranked based on test scores, graduation rate, and college readiness. The average of NYC students’ college readiness is 35 percent based on a report by CBS New York. The average of most subjects in NYC passing the Regent Exams (exit exams) is below the state rate. For example, integrated algebra has only 58% passing rate in NYC, but in NY state the passing rate is 73% (NY Times). The graduation rate was 79.4% in 2016 for both NYC schools and NY state schools. As well as the free lunch percentage recipients already discussed, schools also receive an average standard score and the graduation rate. These two categories coincide with the free lunch analysis. The schools that have the lowest free lunch recipients consistently have the higher graduation rate and average standard score in both school districts examined. For instance, the number one ranked high school in all of New York City is found in New York City Geographic District #3. It boasts a 99% graduation rate, 96 average score out of 100, and a low 27.2% of free lunch recipients. The lowest ranking school in this school district is ranked #1054 and has a 70% graduation rate, 20.6 average standard score, and a 74.5% of free lunch recipients.
Another interesting fact about the statistics I found is that the racial breakdown is very consistent for both highest and lowest ranking schools. Of the eight schools in my research the three highest ranked schools are all overwhelmingly white, and the lowest ranked schools have a high level of minorities and very low white percentage of students (see data table attached).
This topic is important because everyone deserves to get the same quality of education, regardless of where they live. As the mayor of NYC, de Blasio, said “Each and every child, in each and every classroom, deserves a future that isn’t limited by their ZIP code” (qtd. in NY Times). He is responding to the discrepancy of test scores between schools in New York’s wealthier neighborhoods compared to its poorer neighborhoods. Trying to respond to this crisis in educational segregation, he introduced legislation to raise the quality of education in the poor school zones of the city in 2015. He spent around 160 million dollars on reading specialists, Advanced Placement classes, programs allowing 8th graders to take algebra courses, and other expensive investments in education for the school districts. Since then, test scores have not proven to be rising in the poorer school districts. In fact, according to the CEO of Families for Excellent Schools, Jeremiah Kittredge, de Blasio’s plan is a huge failure. He did not achieve his goals at all, and actually brought down the results in some cases. Out of 94 schools that were part of the de Blasio’s plan (the School Renewal program), only three have met their targets. Kittredge believes that the funding has gone to the wrong targets. He believes the solution is public charter schools. So do charter schools work? Susan Dynarski of the New York Times says, “Rigorous research suggests that the answer is yes for an important, underserved group: low-income, nonwhite students in urban areas.” Public charter schools work because they do not have all the restrictions of regular public schools. They can lengthen the school day, hire and fire teacher at will, and try many teaching methods.
So what is the significance of the research? Is there a correlation between the rankings of schools and median income in NYC public schools? The statistics I gathered seem to provide evidence that there is definitely a correlation between the affluence of the neighborhood a school draws its students from and the ranking of that school. The best indicators of the median income of the area where a school is located is the amount of free lunch recipients attending the school. Clearly, the schools with the lowest amount of free lunch recipients have the higher ranking and graduation rate than do the ones with the higher amount of free lunch recipients and lower graduation rate. There is another correlation that I discovered between the high and low ranking schools: the highest ranking schools all had white student populations over 40%, and in the lower ranked schools the majority were the minority students. This means that the median income is not the only factor of the educational segregation, but also race. [This discrepancy in the quality of education based on median income not only happens in NYC, but also here in Santa Barbara. Looking at School-Ratings, it shows that schools that draw its student body from higher income neighborhoods are ranked higher than those that do not. For example -- Hope Elementary School, Montecito Union, and Cold Springs all received 9 - 10 ratings (10 is the highest), and Adams, Franklin, Cleveland Elementary all received 4 or less. Kids are the future, and as Ken Jockers said, “Education is key”. Let’s make sure no matter what background kids are coming from, they all receive the same quality of education and possibility to succeed.]
Work Cited
“Best High Schools in New York.” U.S. News. U.S. News, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.
“California School Ratings.” School-Ratings. School-Ratings, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
Clotfelter, Charles. “Economic Segregation in Schools.” NYU Furman Center. NYU Furman Center, n.d.
Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Dynarski, Susan. “Urban Charter Schools Often Succeed. Suburban Ones Often Don’t.” The New York
Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
“Falling Further Apart: Decaying Schools in New York City’s Poorest Neighborhoods.” 32BJ SEIU.
32BJ SEIU, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
Jokers, Ken. Personal Interview. 27 Mar. 2017
Kittredge, Jeremiah. “Time’s Up for De Blasio’s Failed Plan to Fix Failed Schools.” New York Post. New
York Post, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.
“New York City.” The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.
“New York School District Rankings.” School Diggers. School Diggers, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Raboteau, Emily. “Playgrounds I Have Known.” Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas. Ed.
Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. Oakland: University of California Press. 2016. 175.
Print.
Sunshine, James. “The 10 Most Economically Segregated Cities In America: Pew.” The Huffington
Post. The Huffington Post, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017
Taylor, Kate. “De Blasio’s PLan to Lift Poor Schools Come With High Costs and Big Political Risks.”
The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Taylor, Kate. “Graduation Rate in New York States Hits a New High: 79.4%.” The New York Times. The
New York Times, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
WNYC Data News Team. “Median Income / NYC Neighborhoods.” WNYC. WNYC, n.d. Web. 14 Mar.
2017.
“Best High Schools in New York.” U.S. News. U.S. News, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.
“California School Ratings.” School-Ratings. School-Ratings, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.
Clotfelter, Charles. “Economic Segregation in Schools.” NYU Furman Center. NYU Furman Center, n.d.
Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Dynarski, Susan. “Urban Charter Schools Often Succeed. Suburban Ones Often Don’t.” The New York
Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
“Falling Further Apart: Decaying Schools in New York City’s Poorest Neighborhoods.” 32BJ SEIU.
32BJ SEIU, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
Jokers, Ken. Personal Interview. 27 Mar. 2017
Kittredge, Jeremiah. “Time’s Up for De Blasio’s Failed Plan to Fix Failed Schools.” New York Post. New
York Post, n.d. Web. 17 Mar. 2017.
“New York City.” The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2017.
“New York School District Rankings.” School Diggers. School Diggers, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Raboteau, Emily. “Playgrounds I Have Known.” Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas. Ed.
Rebecca Solnit and Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. Oakland: University of California Press. 2016. 175.
Print.
Sunshine, James. “The 10 Most Economically Segregated Cities In America: Pew.” The Huffington
Post. The Huffington Post, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2017
Taylor, Kate. “De Blasio’s PLan to Lift Poor Schools Come With High Costs and Big Political Risks.”
The New York Times. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.
Taylor, Kate. “Graduation Rate in New York States Hits a New High: 79.4%.” The New York Times. The
New York Times, n.d. Web. 19 Mar. 2017.
WNYC Data News Team. “Median Income / NYC Neighborhoods.” WNYC. WNYC, n.d. Web. 14 Mar.
2017.