Here is a look at how three school districts – Fort Wayne Community Schools, School City of Hammond and Carmel Clay Schools – compare.
Total students (2011)
FWCS: …31,213
Hammond: …14,332
Carmel: …15,493
Passed both math and English portions of ISTEP+ (2009-10)
FWCS: …54%
Hammond: …47.2%
Carmel: …89.9%
Graduated high school (2009-10)
FWCS: …85.4%
Hammond: …69.5%
Carmel: …88.7%
English language learners (2010)
FWCS: …7.2%
Hammond: …15.7%
Carmel: …2.6%
Received free/reduced-price meals (2010)
FWCS: …65.1%
Hammond: …78.3%
Carmel: …8.5%
Source: Indiana Department of Education
HAMMOND – There are no swings at Lafayette Elementary School. In fact, there's almost no playground equipment at all.
That's OK, though, because they don't really do outside recess here. They can't: The children of Lafayette Elementary School don't know how to play with one another.
"They have no social skills," Principal Colette Weitknecht says.
These are children of extreme poverty: At least a third of them live in public housing projects. Most of the rest live in crumbling rentals. The effects of poverty are so strong – experts now say it is as crippling as brain damage – that students at Lafayette often begin kindergarten two years behind in development. Their fine-motor skills are so undeveloped – some have never held a crayon or pencil – that if they were adults they would qualify for occupational therapy.
Welcome to Lake County's Census Tract 206, where the median household income is $10,581, one of the lowest in Indiana.
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