MS Press writes about Census

The Mississippi Press has a story on what the Census numbers will show us...

Census measures students, poverty
Friday, November 27, 2009
By HARLAN KIRGAN
Some 19 percent of the student-aged population in Jackson and George counties comes from families in poverty, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report on the nation's school districts.

The Census numbers point to an ongoing shift in the school population, said one Jackson County school superintendent.

The annual Census school district estimates are used as criteria for school funding by the U.S. Department of Education to implement the No Child Left Behind Act.

The Census counted 30,696 children ages 5 to 17 in the two counties in 2000. Of those, 5,080 children nearly 17 percent were in poverty. In 2008, the number of 5- to 17-year-olds dropped to 29,645 in the two counties, but the number of children in poverty rose to 5,607 or 19 percent.

The percentage of children living in poverty in 2008 ranged from nearly 27 percent in the Pascagoula School District to 11 percent in the Ocean Springs School District.

The Ocean Springs percentage is nearly double the 6 percent in 2000. Robert Hirsch, Ocean Springs superintendent, said even though the change in numbers is small, "they are big enough to make an impact."

In 2008, there were 563 youths living in poverty out of 4,939 students in the district, the Census reported. There were 307 out of 5,256 youths living in poverty in 2000.

"I've been in Ocean Springs 25 years," said Hirsch, "and I can honestly tell you that the demographics in Ocean Springs 25 years ago were very different than currently. We have more poverty, more immigrants."

Hirsch said all the school districts along the coast have experienced changes in their populations.

"Seven to eight years ago, we had zero homeless children," he said of the Ocean Springs district. "Over the last several years, we have had a number of homeless children show up."

The number of non-English-speaking students has grown during that period, he said.

"When I was principal of the high school, that was just four years ago, the entire school district had seven or eight ELL English language learners students. Now, we have more than 100 ELL kids."

By contrast, the percentage of youths in poverty in the Pascagoula School District has remained steady and the total number has declined. In 2000, there were 2,116 youths in poverty, which was 26 percent of the 8,162 youths in the district. In 2008, the census report estimated 2,039 youths, 26.5 percent, in poverty out of 7,674, according to the report.

Wayne Rodolfich, Pascagoula superintendent, said the Pascagoula district has six times the poverty of Ocean Springs.

"The way we really gauge it is by free or reduced lunches, and we are about 73 percent free and reduced lunch in our district," said Rodolfich. "And, we are about 60 percent minority and 40 percent white in the district."

The number of non-English-speaking students in the Pascagoula district has grown from about 150 before Hurricane Katrina to about 600, he said.

Rodolfich said the school district works to "equalize the playing field" for students.

"We believe all our children can learn."

A recent study found Pascagoula ranked second to last in the state in the number of college graduates.

"So, you have a smaller number of college-educated families in Pascagoula than in the rest of the state, but you look at our performance in algebra last year and we were one of the top-performing school districts on the Gulf Coast in algebra," he said.

The district employs programs such as home visits, Family Interactive Center, interactive learning activities such as the Wetlands Day and tutoring to augment classroom work, he said. A Backpack Buddies program ensures students have something to eat when they leave school, he said.

About 13 percent of the 5- to 17-year-olds in the Jackson County School District are counted in 2008 as coming from families in poverty by the Census. In 2000, the Census estimated that at 12 percent.

Barry Amacker, Jackson County superintendent, said there is a correlation between poverty and student achievement.

"Without even considering the poverty level, we work on the academics and hopefully it is addressing it no matter what income level they are coming from," he said.