School Site Demographic Report - CSUN



School Site Demographic Report Emily Michels

James Monroe High School ELPS 417

9229 Haskell Ave May 11, 2006

North Hills, CA 91343 Student Teacher

Monroe High School, 1985 / 1999-2004 /2005

West Ranch High School, est. 2005

It’s Not Just White Flight – White & Asian Students

Where Did They All Go?

While I was doing my report on Monroe High, I discovered that I know someone who graduated from there in 1985. Since I am teaching in the Yearbook Room and I often have to take older yearbooks away from students (I can see an 80’s hair-do from across the room), I decided to see what information I could dig up about all of this and what it would turn out like. How exciting for you, yes? I found it very interesting. So here’s the big question: Where did all the white and asian people go? I’ll start with a little information about my classes, then, we’ll look at the whole school. We’ll visit with the class of ’85 and look at some statistics from LAUSD. We’ll take a trip to 1999-2004. Finally we’ll look around for where they might be hiding and return to 2006.

I teach Cartoon Animation at Monroe. I have 5th with 36 students, and 6th period with 30 students. Monroe High is a huge campus. It is so big that it is divided into smaller learning communities, or SLC. It also is a Magnet school for Law and Government. Let’s start with my 5th period class. They are a rowdy bunch. Out of 36 students, 26 are Hispanic, 4 are Black, 5 are White/other and 1 is Filipino/Asian. 14 of them are 9th graders (maybe that’s why they’re so rowdy), 8 are 10th graders, 7 are 11th graders and 8 are Seniors. 14 of them have an LEP, only 5 of them has an IEP, 4 have a health concern, 2 are in GATE, and 5 are in AP or other advanced classes. My 6th period class a calmer group, but they’re starting to get some serious “senioritus.” Out of 30 students, there are 21 Hispanic, 3 Armenian, 2 White/other, 2 Filipino/Asian, 1 Black, and 1 other. I have 5 9th graders (maybe that’s why this class is calmer), 10 10th graders, 7 11th graders and 8 Seniors. 10 students have an LEP, 5 have an IEP, 3 have a health concern, 2 are in GATE and 14 are in AP or other advanced classes. Wow! That must be why they have an “A” average. Even though we had a rocky start, my students have really grown on me and I’m starting to get nervous about losing them all this June! ( Some of them can be rather unruly, but they all have clever ideas to animate and I’ve finally gotten them all to enjoy watching cartoons with me! Some of them have great cartoons started of their own. All and all, I am proud of them ALL!!

Let’s take a look at their school statistics now. Out of the whole school, 83% is Hispanic, 6% is Filipino, 4% is African American, 5% is white, and only 2% is Asian. 76% percent participate in the Free lunch program. 7% are in GATE, 47% are English Language Learners, 35% are Reclassified Fluent-English-Proficient and 13% are students with disabilities. As for the Parent Education Level, 79% responded to the questionnaire, 47% are not high school graduates (1), 24% are high school graduates (2), 12% had some college(3), 14% are college graduates (4) and 3% have attended Graduate school (5). The average parent education level is 2.02 (high school graduate). The average class size at Monroe is 29. Enrollment on the first day of STAR Testing was 3,545. This is a multi-track, Year-round School. As for mobility, 15% are new to the school this year. Of the teaching staff, 86% are fully-credentialed teachers and 10% have Emergency credentials (I must be in the unaccounted for 4%). In 2005, 93 students were African American, 6 were American Indian/Alaskan, 86 were Asian, 183 were Filipino, 2,565 were Hispanic, 6 were Pacific Islander, and 148 were White. Of that amount, 2,569 were socioeconomically disadvantaged, 2,353 were English learners, and 413 were students with disabilities. The school is classified as Title I.

Let’s time travel back to the year 1985. My friend, Michelle, graduated Monroe in 1985. I have noticed that among my students, there are no Jewish family names. I say this because my friend, Michelle is Jewish and in 1985, she wasn’t alone. After laughing at all of their awful hair-dos, I’m proud to say that race has nothing to do with fashion – the bad hair-dos crossed all racial boundaries. That means, that bad hair fashion is a culturally diverse activity that we all share! ( Because I can’t get my hands on any official statistics from 1985 for Monroe, I counted all those bad hairdos from just the Seniors pages. Out of 495 students, 267 were White, 83 were Hispanic, 72 were African American, and 73 were Other (Including: Asian, Filipino, Pacific Islander, Indian and more). So, back in 1985, Monroe was predominantly White. The remaining ethnic groups were pretty much equal with each other. Two students from 1985 share last names with my current students – Yamashita (Japanese) and Henry (African American). I have to ask them if their fathers or uncles attended Monroe!

Here’s a look at a report from 1999 about California’s changing demography. California’s population grew by 6.1 million people between 1980 and 1990. Between 1990 and the year 2000, they expected that to increase by another 6.7 million people. The growth did not occur uniformly across the entire population. Disproportional growth occurred among the very young and very old and among both Asian and (Hispanic) Latino Californians. (Please see attached graphs). A lot of the population growth came from people who were migrating from both Asia and Mexico. From 1987-88 to 1990-1, the number of students in public elementary and secondary schools in the U.S. increased by 1 million. Over ¾ of this growth can be attributed to an increase in the number of Hispanic and Asian students. So, we can see where the rise in the Hispanic population came from, so where did the Asian and White people go?

At Monroe High, by 1999, the student population had already changed significantly from 1985. By 1999, In 2005, 93/167 students were African American, 6 /8 were American Indian/Alaskan, 86 /136 were Asian, 183 /137 were Filipino, 2,565 /1,978 were Hispanic, 6 /8 were Pacific Islander, and 148 /225 were White. Of that amount, 2,569 /2,018 were socioeconomically disadvantaged. As for parent education level: In 2005, 79% / 87% responded to the questionnaire, 47% /45% are not high school graduates (1), 24% /22% are high school graduates (2), 12% /14% had some college(3), 14% /15% are college graduates (4) and 3% /4% have attended Graduate school (5). The average parent education level is 2.02 /2.10(high school graduate). By 1999, the school had become multi-track year round. (Please see James Monroe Ethnic Breakdown from years 2000 to 2004 and LAUSD 5-year demographics). Between the years 2000 and 2004, we can see that every racial group has shrunk except for Hispanic (grew considerably) and Filipino (grew). Still we need to ask, where did they all go?

Well, since I was living in Van Nuys from 1991 to 1997, I thought I would look at the area that I moved to in 1997, the Santa Clarita Valley. I found them! In my town, West Ranch High School just opened last year with 9th graders only. Here is the demographics from West Ranch High School in the Westridge / Stevenson Ranch area, Bill Hart School District. Out of the student population: 4 % are African American, 1% is American Indian/Eskimo, 10% is Asian (15% reported in my son’s junior high school, also a new school that feeds into the new high school), 6% Filipino, 21% Hispanic, 0 Pacific Islander and 58% White. 3% are participants in the Free lunch program, 11% are in gate, 3% are English learners, 1% is RFEP and 8% are students with disabilities. Let’s take a look at the parent education level. Percent responding – 98%! 4% are not a high school graduate, 10% are high school graduates, 30% have some college, 37% are college graduates and 19% went to Grad school. The average parent education level here is 3.57 (some college-college grad).

Well, we found them – and at least one of them moved here from the Monroe area (Michelle). Why they moved north is a mystery. I can tell you that in my case, we moved here for better schools and new houses. Because the school is so new, I can’t really report whether they are, indeed, better schools or not! After studying STAR testing in the midterm report, I doubt that any statistics would prove or disprove that fact, either. We also moved here because of the gang activity in Van Nuys. Although there is still gang activity in Santa Clarita, there have yet to be any gang members in the million dollar homes in Stevenson Ranch and Westridge. What will happen 20 years from now? I don’t know… but if the White and Asian populations continue to move North, I wonder if there will be a larger percentage of American Indian/ Alaskan by the time we get to Alaska? We will have to time travel again some day! Maybe we’ll cross the Bering Strait right back into Russia/Asia some day!!

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