Suburban Science Education Angela Kelly Keith Sheppard Luisa McHugh

United States

Suburban Science Education Data Sources: American Census Bureau (2010) New York State School Report Cards ( ) National Center for Educational Statistics NYSED.gov

Suburban Science Education What percentages of the USA population are Suburban Urban Rural ?

Suburban Science Education What percentages of the USA Population are Suburban 50% Urban 30% Rural 20% “…the United States is a suburban nation…”

Suburban Science Education Google Scholar Search Suburban Science Education Urban Science Education Rural Science Education

Suburban Science Education Google Scholar Search Suburban Science Education 1 Urban Science Education 727 Rural Science Education 87

Suburban Science Education

Science for All?Contains Chapters on Rural Science Education Urban Science Education

Suburban Science Education and High-Needs Schools Survey of Noyce Awards Choices for Areas Served Rural Urban

Suburban Science Education and High-Needs Schools Noyce Award Question Answer Yes. All are high needs school districts. It is a misconception to suppose that suburban schools are all low needs. Are these truly high needs school districts? They do not mention that fact in their support letters.

New York State

Demographics – Population 19.4 million (3 rd largest in USA) (60% White, 17% Black, 7% Asian and 17% Hispanic) – New York City (largest city in USA) – 8.1 million (42% of population) – New York City Metropolitan area (largest suburbs in USA) – 18.9 million

New York State Education Demographics – K-12 Population 2.7 million – 50% White, 19% Black, 22% Hispanic, 8% Asian New York City K-12 Population 1.1 million 15% White, 34% Black, 13% Asian and 38% Hispanic

New York State Distinguishing Feature of NY Education?

New York State Distinguishing Feature of NY Science Education? – Regents Exams – Earth Science – Over 800 school districts

New York State School Districts

New York State Science Education

New York City High needs by definition, but STEM accessibility and participation is contextual and related to poverty of local school population (Kelly & Sheppard, 2009). 55% of New York City secondary schools do not offer physics Main determinant of whether physics is offered = school size

Physics Offering in NYC by Borough

A disproportionate number of the physics students in NYC attend the eight magnet schools. Magnet schools have 7% of the city’s high school students, and 27% of the city’s physics students. These competitive schools have far fewer students of color and fewer poor children than other NYC schools.

Long Island

Long Island History 19 th Century – century of the Cities 20 th Century – century of the Suburbs 1898 – consolidation of New York City Queens elected to be part of the city Nassau elected to be separate Suburban government developed

Long Island History YearNassauSuffolk ,00078, ,000110, ,000197, ,300,000667,000

Largest School Districts DistrictStateEnrollment New York CityNY999,150 Los Angeles UnifiedCA707,627 City of ChicagoIL413,694 DadeFL353,790 Clark CountyNV303,448 BrowardFL262,813 Houston ISDTX202,936 HillsboroughFL193,517 HawaiiHI180,728

Largest School Districts DistrictStateEnrollment New York CityNY999,150 Los Angeles UnifiedCA707,627 City of ChicagoIL413,694 DadeFL353,790 Clark CountyNV303,448 Suffolk CountyNY264,000 BrowardFL262,813 Nassau CountyNY211,000 Houston ISDTX202,936 HillsboroughFL193,517 HawaiiHI180,728

Largest School Districts DistrictStateEnrollment New York CityNY999,150 Los Angeles UnifiedCA707,627 Long IslandNY475,000 City of ChicagoIL413,694 DadeFL353,790 Clark CountyNV303,448 BrowardFL262,813 Houston ISDTX202,936 HillsboroughFL193,517 HawaiiHI180,728

Largest School Districts DistrictStateEnrollment ‘Geographical Long Island’NY1,026,000 Los Angeles UnifiedCA707,627 New York CityNY449,000 City of ChicagoIL413,694 DadeFL353,790 Clark CountyNV303,448 BrowardFL262,813 Houston ISDTX202,936 HillsboroughFL193,517 HawaiiHI180,728

Long Island Distinguishing Feature of Long Island Education?

Long Island

Long Island Science Education 125 separate school districts De facto segregation Wide disparity between districts Intel semi-finalists and finalists High AP exam entrance Highly paid teachers

Long Island Racial Imbalance

Lowest and Highest Performing Districts on Long Island All these districts are within 20 miles of each other

High Needs?

Who takes what?

Talking Points High needs schools and suburban locations are not mutually exclusive categories % taking Regents physics and chemistry is an effective indicator of the of whether a school is high- needs. School size not a determinant of science offerings on Long Island Teachers are important

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Linda Padwa for the collection and organization of the Long Island Regents data. We would like to thank Judy Nimmo for assistance in constructing the maps in this powerpoint.