Demographics And FARMS Affect On Test Scores

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Running head: SCHOOL DATA REVIEW School Data Review Ronald Smith Grand Canyon University EDA 530 March 24, 2010 Demographics and FARMS Affect on Test Scores Somerset County Maryland is located on the southern tip of the eastern shore of Maryland. It is a small county with approximately 25,000 people. Even though it is a small county, one of the smallest in Maryland, it is very diverse. The school district is also very small. There are fewer than three thousand students attending the county’s five elementary schools, one middle school and two high schools. The racial makeup of the county in 2000 was 56.4% White, 41.1%African America, 1.3 % Hispanic, 0.4%Native American, 0.5% Asian, 0% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races,…show more content…
The Hispanic population in the district is a slight bit higher at five percent. The Caucasian population makes up 48% of the schools while the African American population makes up a near 45% of schools. There is almost a fifty/fifty split when it comes to the Caucasian and African American population not only in the schools, but also in the county. Looking on Somerset County’s’ Wikepidia.org site it shows that 20.1 % of the population of Somerset County is below the poverty line. This is much lower then the students they send to our schools because the percentage of FARM students in elementary are 61%, middle 60%, and high school 48 %( Somerset 2009). The poverty line in…show more content…
FARM students score lower than the overall average in both reading and math in 8th and 4th grade. This is probably due to the fact that families in lower income have a lower vocabulary, less education, and less parental support due to the fact that both parents are probably working as many hours as possible. Research proves that students who are living in poverty prior to entering school their oral language is more limited then those raised in a higher social economic status. African American students are disproportionately represented in the FARMS population in our area, mainly because they are half our population and in turn a high percentage of our FARM students. This could partially explain the low performance of African American students when compared to Caucasians. It is difficult to decipher whether this is a social economic issue or a race issue. Based on the data, it is my opinion that it is a social economic issue and not one of race. I have drawn this conclusion because people living in poverty often achieve lower test scores regardless of the color of their
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