Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Well, the report cards are out.

The district met 27 out of 30 indicators (and the indicators change every year).

Since those 3 that were missed, along with AYP (see previous threads) beat us up, let's take a look.

The problems were in 5th grade math, 5th grade social studies and 8th grade social studies.

Diley road's results -

5th Math - 59.8
5th SS - 69.9

Harmon road's results -

5th Math - 81.7
5th SS - 79.3

Ridgeview results

8th SS - 66.5

Lakeview results

8th SS - 74.9 (below the state standard by .1)

Result? The district overall suffers overall, but - ''old'' Picktown doesn't do as well as ''new'' Picktown.

So, let's look at the source of the problem -

Look at elementary school results in descending order (all are ''excellent'' schools, by the way) -

Pickerington - 102.8
Violet - 101.8
Heritage - 101.4
Fairfield - 100.3
Tussing - 99.5

The bottom two have something in common...kids from the ''Columbus'' part of Picktown. The section 8 housing and other low rent areas.

The overflow from Tussing goes to Fairfield.

Poverty affects education results. If parents aren't educated, the kids are going to reflect it. The poorest area of Picktown - the Columbus stretch along Tussing - is kicking our collective butts.

These kids track to Diley and Ridgeview and account for the other problems.

They track to Central (excellent with a 102.5 rating) and not North (excellent with a 104.6 rating).

We'd would all do better if COLUMBUS stayed in COLUMBUS and Picktown kids could be Picktown kids.

Picktown is fine - where it is Picktown.

By Mr. Wizard

Tracking has changed

I believe that initially, Tussing kids all went to Diley and then were split between Lakeview & Ridgeview and subsequently, North & Central. Last year, or the one before, the split began at the middle school level. So, I think the current track for Tussing kids is Diley-Ridgeview-Central OR Harmon-Lakeview-North, depending on which side of the street (I think Hines Rd. is the divider) they live on.

At the elementary level, your analysis might carry some weight. I don't know if it's a 50-50 split between Central & North, Ridgeview & Lakeview, Diley & Harmon, but I'd hope it's somewhere in that range. Perhaps you could find out those figures to further your argument.

Tracking

The only neighborhood that does not follow the track you describe is Mingo.

They stary at Violet then track Diley-Ridgeview-Central.

Quite a price to pay to be first in Violet.

What else ya got?

By Mr. Wizard

Mr. Wizard's no genius

Yes, Anonymous, you're correct.

Park Place West kids (Reynoldsburg zip code), on the west side of Hines Road, track from Tussing to Diley, Ridgeview and Central.

I believe the kids in the apartments across Tussing Road (Reynoldsburg zip code) also track from Tussing to Diley, Ridgeview and Central.

Park Place kids (Pickerington zip code), on the east side of Hines Road, track from Tussing to Harmon, Lakeview and North.

Sorry, Mr. Wizard. Maybe you need some remedial geography classes.



By Smarter than Mr. Wizard