week 7 reading
From exploring the data on school segregation at the k-12 level, I learned that there are drastic differences across this country when it comes to test scores and learning rates. The Educational Opportunity Project allows you to look at data for schools across all of America. This data is shown on a map of the country but also on a chart that places the school districts accordingly.
The trends that I observed while exploring the data is it appears that southern states like South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas seem to be really struggling when it comes to their education systems. Southwestern states like Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Mexico also seem to have the same problem. All these states together show the largest amount of blue that is stretching across the country. Blue meaning that students test scores are below grade level and the socioeconomic status of the schools in blue seem to skew more towards the poorer section of the chart. I will say I am surprised by how blue the state of California is, with close to no green areas. Green meaning better test scores along with a usually wealthier area. When looking into my own community on Long Island, I am happy to see that my own school district seems to have above average test scores but a lot of students seem to qualify for the free lunch program.
What I learned from exploring data on social mobility at the higher education level using the Raj Chetty data is students that come from low-income households and high-income households seem to end up with a similar earning outcome. I also learned that three colleges very close to me, Pace University, SUNY Stony Brook, and City University of New York System, all earned a spot on the top 10 colleges by mobility rate. A trend I observed is that the number of low-income students who attend Ivy League schools has barely increased throughout the years. For data on Temple University specifically, I am surprised that the median family income of a student is $97,900. I do wish Temple ranked higher on how much students make by age 34.
