How do School Districts Differ in their Student Achievements - Assignment Example

The state requirement indicator was 75 percent, a mark that most schools in other districts similar to Cleveland surpassed since they got 81.3 percent. Cleveland performed poorly compared to similar districts; in comparison to the average performance for the whole state, Cleveland still fell short. On the contrary, Shaker Heights showed a remarkably different picture compare to that of Cleveland. Its performance fell short in comparison to other similar districts but better compared to that of Cleveland.

Shaker Heights had the worst performance in 8th grade achievement where 66.2 percent out of the expected 75 percent proved proficient in science. Other indicators that Shaker Heights School District fell short were 7th and 8th grade mathematics, and 8th and 9th grade science. In addition, the School District did not meet the adequate yearly progress (Ohio Department of Education, 2012). There are many possible reasons for the difference in performance between schools in poor areas, in comparison to those in wealthier areas.

First, in wealthy backgrounds there is enough money to pay teachers well. A fair wage is an effective motivator making teachers in wealthier schools more motivated to teach better than their colleagues in in poor areas. Second, the different may lie in the students themselves; with students from wealthy backgrounds attending classes more frequently than those from poor backgrounds since the latter usually have family problems that may interfere with their education. The students from wealthy backgrounds may also be motivated to work harder due to the assurance of securing a decent job after school.

On the other hand, students from poor backgrounds do not work hard at school due to demotivation from unemployment even among the educated. Finally, the difference in school performance may lie in the schools themselves. Rich schools have bigger and spacious classes, more books, research materials and teachers that are more qualified with better teaching aids, and a more suitable learning environment in comparison to poor schools. Question 2 (a): Does Florida education website contain information for individual schools in a given district?

Yes, Florida does have an education website with information for the performance of schools in all districts, though with a different format compared to that of Ohio. Question 2 (b): If so, look up the most recent data regarding student achievement for Miami-Dade County District, and Youth Co-op Charter School. How does Youth Co-op Charter School compare with other schools in Miami-Dade County Public School district? The Youth Co-op Charter School has a better performance than many other schools in the district.

For instance, 100 percent of the students in Youth Co-op Charter School did their exams while only 29.6 percent of the registered students in the whole district did their exams. In the school, an average of 76.125 percent students in 11th and 12th grade scored between 3 and 5 in their exams while only 41.1 percent scored the same grade in the school. Though there is no ranking of schools by performance, this shows that Youth Co-op Charter School ranks highly in the district and is one of the top schools, if it is not the