Here are the best and worst school districts in Alabama
Approximately 43% of school funding comes from state governments. Just as the quality of school districts vary heavily within a state, the quality of state education systems vary heavily across the country. With Alabama schools ranking as some of the lowest in the country, ranking 44th among the 50 states, according to a January report by Education Week. 24/7 Wall St. is a financial news and commentary Web site, decided to take a deeper dive into that data to see what school district is the best and the worst in every state. Best school district 24/7 Wall Street determined the Mountain Brook City School District is the best in the state. Located in Jefferson County, the district spends $12,324 per student (total enrollment: 4,461). With an impressive 96.8% high school graduation rate, 85.1% of the adults in the district also have a bachelor’s degree. “School spending contributes to better student outcomes, and is one of the largest contributors to the disparity in academic success across the country. With greater funding, schools can afford better teachers, state-of-the-art educational technology, and other resources that help students succeed,” wrote 24/7 Wall St. in their report. “Educated parents are more likely to read to their children, and enhance their children’s development by exposing them to more complex speech patterns and a broader vocabulary.” The fact Mountain Brook City Schools rank number one makes sense — Mountain Brook, a suburb of Birmingham, is the wealthiest town in Alabama. According to 24/7 Wall St, the city has a median household income of $126,534 and a poverty rate of just 3%. Meanwhile the state median income is $43,623 — the 4th lowest in the nation. Worst school district The worst school district in the state is Chickasaw City School District. Located in Mobile County, the district spends $8,347 per student (total enrollment: 950). While the high school graduation rate is unknown, only 12.4% of adults in the district have a bachelor’s degree. Compared to Mountain Brook, Chickasaw City numbers are staggering with a median household income of $28,893 the poverty rate is 38.9% — which doesn’t even rank as the worst stats in the state. “Family income may have the largest direct impact on a student’s academic outcomes. Parents with greater financial resources have the ability to move to more expensive communities with better schools. They can also afford resources to better their child’s education such as tutoring and other extracurricular activities,” added the report. Methodology To determine the best school district in every state, 24/7 Wall St. developed an index based on various measures of child poverty, per-pupil expenditure, graduation rate, teachers per student, the percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree, preschool enrollment, and AP enrollment. To determine the worst school district in every state, 24/7 Wall St. developed an index based on various socioeconomic measures, school finance, student success, and environmental factors, all using data from the most recent period available.
New study reveals Alabama among the most educationally segregated states in America
A new national study reveals Alabama is among the most educationally segregated states in America, with many of its schoolchildren enrolled in high-poverty school districts, bordered by much more affluent neighbors. Birmingham has more than twice as many neighbors as the average school district, and of the 13 borders it shares with adjoining districts, six are included among the 50 most segregating in the country — more than any other district in America. The worst of these borders separate Birmingham from Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook. Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook, like most of Birmingham’s well-off neighbors, were formerly a part of the Jefferson County School District — the county school district near Birmingham — but Alabama law permits municipalities with 5,000 or more residents to form their own school districts, independent from larger county districts, and thus these cities seceded to form their own independent districts. These secessions established wealthy enclave districts that present a stark contrast to the rest of Birmingham. While the suburban neighbors have grown more populous and have prospered in recent decades, enrollment in Birmingham’s schools has plummeted, and its poverty rates have risen as better-off families have fled the district. In the 1999-2000 school year, Birmingham enrolled 38,120 students and had a 27 percent child poverty rate. Today it enrolls 24,858 students and has a 49 percent child poverty rate — seven times higher than Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook, which both have poverty rates of just over six percent. Which is why a new report entitled “Fault Lines” from the nonprofit EdBuild ranks the Birmingham as the second and third most segregating school district borders in the country. “What we did is built an algorithm that identified all 33,500 school district borders in the country … and compared their school-aged child poverty rates,” said Rebecca Sibilia, the founder and CEO of EdBuild. Sibilia’s team compiled a list of the 50 most segregating school boundaries in the nation — the district borders with the largest difference in child poverty rates from one side to the other. In their report, “segregating” refers to social economic class rather than race, but the two often coincide in urban school districts. The study said 26 million children across the country live in high-poverty districts. “There is no doubt that low-income students are harmed by a system of borders that effectively quarantine them into underserved districts,” the study said. “America has permitted our schools to become a system anathema to our ideals, funding education in a manner that prevents a vast number of students from accessing an equal start in life.” It’s worth noting, Alabama is the only Southern state on the list, which Sibilia explains is because in much of the South, county borders do double-duty as school district borders, “and so there is less opportunity for intentional segregation.” Nevertheless, Birmingham is a prime example where students district border segregation results in greater educational opportunities for those who manage to live on the “right” side of these borders. The study revealed the borders separating these districts are effectively impenetrable to the neediest children from families with limited means, compounding the inequalities public education should be conquering. In effect, school district boundaries have become the new status quo for separate but unequal. Here’s a look at the top 10 most segregating school district boundaries — these neighboring school districts have some of the largest poverty differences in the country.
