Our Children’s Landscape
Before you consider the unfortunate academic statistics below, here are other quality of life statistics that further illustrate the thorny issues and social quicksand our kids must navigate every day.
High Crime Rates
The following website shows both Violent and Non-violent crimes for the Los Angeles area. Once at the site, zoom to Zip Code 90003 by typing in ‘90003’ in the Search box.
http://www.crimemapping.com/map.aspx?aid=3db8cf99-a73b-46d2-b218-bd24cf491577
High Volume of Registered Sex Offenders
Taken from http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/, this shocking map shows the 90003 neighborhood where most of our students reside.
Note the larger blue squares, which indicate a facility housing as many as 15-20 offenders under one roof. To view the photo & offense of these individuals on the Megan’s Law website, zoom in on and area of the map, then click the blue square.
Teen homicides near Strive
Academic realities in our community
May I ask you to consider the unhealthy link connecting the following two stats, before absorbing the remaining statistics?
(1) Students behind in reading in grade 3 have only a 12 to 20% chance of ever catching up.
(2) 3% of kids (150 of 5,000 students) at the high school nearest Strive (Locke) are reading “at or above the national average on the 2002 Stanford 9 test1. For math, it’s 11%.
High Dropout Rates
The graph below shows the LAUSD dropout rate for 2007. Our students are incredibly at risk for dropping out. Dropouts have been recorded to begin in middle school, but the most dropoutsusually happen in high school. The following table shows the number of dropouts recorded in LAUSD in 2007. Most at-risk are the African-American population and the Hispanic/Latino population, which shows that 1 out of 3 African-Americans will drop out and 1 out of 4 Hispanic/Latinos will drop out.
Drop our rates based on race/ethnicity
There are 431 elementary schools in the L.A. Unified School District.
Twelve of the fifteen lowest scoring schools are in the Watts community, including these three nearest Strive:2
93rd Street School
Poverty rate: 97-99% 3
60% Hispanic, 40% Black
Barrett Street
Poverty rate: 95%
51% Black, 49% Hispanic
96th Street School
Poverty rate: 90-95%
70% Hispanic, 30% Black
Relevant Vital Statistics by Zip Code
“The problem has been the inability of California’s public schools to bring
disadvantaged and minority students up to speed academically so that they
can secure spots at the increasingly competitive University of California
and other prestigious institutions.” 6
1. Los Angeles Times, 9.30.2002. Stanford 9 Test Results and the California Dept. of Education.
2. The 10 Schools Program, LA Unified School District
3. Based on individual school lunch program, LAUSD
4. The United Way, LA
5. LA Times Education Writer, Martha Grove
6. Los Angeles Times, Constance L. Rice.
