It's Report Card time!
I am sure I will be mining these report cards for data for some time, but for today's sneak preview I thought I would provide a chart listing the St. Louis county districts by median income and then whether or not they met the criteria for this "award." It's quite telling I think.
Life is all about ME, baby!
Eduwonkette tagged me. As a new blogger, this is both appreciated (thanks!) and stressful. I'm supposed to write seven things about me people don't know. Since I haven't been blogging very long and like to chat, that's easy.
1. I am a Nancy Drew aficionado.
2. I am trying to green my life—at least in baby steps. (I try to shop at Boutique Chartreuse)
3. I am always behind in grading papers.
4. I am a big Cardinals fan and am grieving over the trade of Jimmy (end of an era!)
5. I listen to talk radio (NPR and KMOX)
6. I collect Christmas music (Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is on my list!)
7. Like PREA Prez, the most famous person I've met was Muhammad Ali. I rode with him in an elevator at a convention.
Between being the new girl in town and late to the party, I'm begging off tagging others this time (per NYC Educator). I must admit to enjoying clicking through to sites I don't usually read. Fun!
Zebra fish? It may have worked for her, but my daughter has something else in mind for the science fair
Science Fair time is coming up, so we have every intention of working hard over the winter break on those projects. Sigh.
❝Girls won top honors for the first time in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology, one of the nation’s most coveted student science awards❞
The NY Times highlights how well girls did this year at the Siemens.
❝Isha Himani Jain, 16, a senior at Freedom High School in Bethlehem, Pa., placed first in the individual category for her studies of bone growth in zebra fish, whose tail fins grow in spurts, similar to the way children’s bones do. She will get a $100,000 scholarship❞.
The other important science award is the Intel, formerly the Westinghouse. The St. Louis Science Fair Honors Division is a qualifier for the Intel.
The 2007 Greater St. Louis Science Fair Honors Division second and third places were awarded to girls. This isn't a sweep but it does demonstrate that girls do science too.
❝Three-quarters of the finalists have a parent who is a scientist.❞
My kids don't have that going in their favor. Does having friends with scientist parents count?
My daughter has known what she wanted to do for her science fair project for a long time. My son? No clue.
Why go private? Income? Religion? Ivy League?
Region plays a large role in the private school rate as Mehlville and Affton have a higher private school rate than wealthier west county districts. It’s a Catholic area, baby! (Lutheran South may have a role in the numbers for Affton.)
My theory is that the private school rate is dependent on multiple factors such as tradition, income and strong private school presences.
Ladue and Clayton are often considered sister schools with similar test scores, rankings, size, finances etc. However, the private school rates differences are striking. Yes, CBC moved to west county, but that was after the 2000 census. (Will these numbers change greatly in 2010?) I would have to dig more to figure out what Clayton and Rockwood have in common that is different than Ladue. I don’t know if Clayton’s numbers are related to the high number of people who walk or ride their bike to work, but I imagine Ladue’s high numbers are related to the two Ivy league feeder private schools within its borders. This is the land that inspired Confessions of a Prep School Mommy Handler by Wade Rouse.
Yes, of course, there’s a general correlation to income although the exceptions are more interesting.
Look at Hazelwood and Brentwood with similar median incomes but different private schools rates or Affton and Ferguson-Florissant. I think the North County region just doesn’t have the tradition of attending private schools at the same rate. It’s not income there.
Why is Lindbergh’s private school rate (top 3) higher than it’s median income or quality would lead someone to hypothesize? I’m going back to the Catholic tradition.
Why is Kirkwood, a high quality school district, the number one private school sender? It’s not in the top three wealthiest by median or four by average. It’s numbers are more in line with Webster or Lindbergh. By tradition I would have put it with Webster, but, apparently, it aligns more with Lindbergh.
I have so many ideas for more posts now—how about that ranking of school districts by how many people go to work by walking or biking? Is there any significance that I can pull out from that? Who knew I could find census data so entertaining.
Barbie likes math!
Since I have a daughter
interested in math, I've been closely following the
girls in math topic for awhile. I was ecstatic to
hear how well the girls' math olympiad team did
in China. More importantly, they had fun.
Ira Flatow, of NPR's Talk of the Nation: Science
Friday, interviewed the coach and one of the
team members in a segment on Women, Girls and Math. In an
interesting "comment," Flatow asked the girl if
team had been invited to the White House like so
many winning sports teams. I think our country's
priorities were demonstrated by her answer.