Two Schools One Zip Code

At his CNN town hall March 9, Governor Glenn Youngkin waxed wistful about the teachers and experiences of his youth, and has taken to shooting baskets for a series of  PR releases, remembering his days as a high school basketball star at the private Norfolk Academy.

Youngkin and his Sec. of Education Aimee Guidera also comment that students should have an excellent education “no matter what zip code.”

Both Youngkin and the appointees he has selected to run the Virginia Department of Education firmly assert that “school choice,” will improve the opportunities for students they call “trapped in failing schools”, and they maintain we must make decisions about schools based on data.

So, what could we learn from taking a look at the basic data for Youngkin’s alma mater and the public school that occupies the same zip code, Lake Taylor High School?

Basic Numbers

Norfolk Academy and Lake Taylor High School are two schools, each with just over 1,000 students in the same zip code (23502) in Norfolk Virginia. 

Lake Taylor is a public school which opened in September 1967. Norfolk Academy is one of the nation’s oldest private schools founded in 1728. One has predominantly minority students with a 13% white population. The other is predominantly white, with a 24.8% minority population. 

 

Cost per pupil/tuition

Norfolk Academy tuition is $24,900 for grades 7–9 and $26,100 for grades 10-12 (Isuu). These fees include lunch, athletic fees, publications, and field trips.

Lake Taylor, total per pupil spending is $9582 (school digger) This includes local, state, and federal funding. The 671 students on free and reduced lunch are subsidized. The remaining students pay their own lunch, athletic fees, publications cost, and activities fees. 

Income

The per-capita income for area 23502 is $35,664 per year while the per-capita income for Virginia is $43,267. The average income for Norfolk Academy families is not available, but is likely to be higher than the $43,267 of the average Virginian, given the cost of tuition.

Demographics

Norfolk Academy student population is 1,181. The school's minority student enrollment is 24.8%, and the student-teacher ratio is one teacher to every 10 students. 

Lake Taylor student population is 1,075. Minority Enrollment 86.6% ; Free and reduced lunch 66.3%. The student-teacher ratio is one teacher to every 12.73 students.

General Conditions for students

Norfolk Academy website declares they are “Committed to the principles of academic freedom, and in accordance with our philosophy and objectives, our faculty develop course content so that students and teachers alike will be stimulated to continue to teach, learn and explore, to think practically and creatively, and to move toward understanding and wisdom.’

Lake Taylor website states: “By the end of the 2020-2021 school year, 100% of students will show growth in their critical reading and thinking skills. We will measure growth using coming formative assessments and End of Course assessments. Seventy percent of students will show growth from one tier to the next, and 30% of students will show growth within a tier.” This goal reflects requirements they are held to in a 20-page “School Improvement Plan” imposed by the state, and strict adherence to the Standards of Learning. 

Lake Taylor students are required to wear uniforms. At Norfolk Academy 

responsibility for appearance rests with the parents and the students themselves.

Norfolk academy offers numerous semester electives which enables students to sample a wide range of academic interests.  Lake Taylor offers mostly year-long courses as required by the Virginia accreditation standards. 

Chronic absenteeism is a problem (38.08%) at Lake Taylor. No mention is made of attendance issues in Norfolk Academy’s website or materials. 

Behavioral Expectations 

This graphic is the picture of expectations for Lake Taylor students. 

Norfolk Academy expresses their behavior expectations this way. 

“Older students sign the pledge for graded assignments and assessments: “I pledge that I have acted honorably in completing this assignment.” The Honor System’s goal is to instill a deep sense of honor in each student and in the Norfolk Academy community as a whole. Honesty, empathy, respect, and integrity make this a uniquely supportive environment that feels more like a family than a school.”  Noteworthy is that this closely mirrors the Honors program for UVA students.

Specialty Programs/Travel

The Norfolk Academy’s International Program provides opportunities to travel abroad through seven different programs.

 

Lake Taylor High School offers in house visits from career colleges and end of year visits for some programs to Busch Gardens or Kings Dominion. 

Sports

Lake Taylor’s football team won their division Virginia state championship in 2012, 2014, and 2019. The Lady Titans basketball team won the state championship in 2010 and 2013. Boys varsity basketball  finished as runners-up in 2016, and won the state title in 2018. (photo of state champs)

Norfolk Academy has 27 sports and 72 teams. They have won numerous private school state championships in multiple fields such as Tennis, rowing, and field hockey. Their state private school men’s basketball championships were in 1985 (Youngkin’s year)  and 1992.

Norfolk Academy private school state champion Field Hockey Team 2021.

Lake Taylor’s mascot is Titans. Norfolk Academy’s is Bulldogs. Lake Taylor’s rival is Booker T. Washington High School.  Norfolk Academy’s rival is Virginia Collegiate in Richmond.

Policy Implications

Assuming that Norfolk Academy represents an excellent education, as the Governor has maintained, the question becomes why don’t the practices at Lake Taylor more closely mirror those just down the street? Or more broadly, why does the state require public schools to use practices that restrict how they serve their students in repressive and choice narrowing ways? 

If the students at the Academy are presumed to be honorable and trustworthy, why are the less affluent kids down the street presumed to need stricter requirements and more rigid rules? 

Is the problem with the schools or with the economic sector that provides such low paying jobs to most parents?

Governor Youngkin maintains that “school choice” would solve the dilemma, but how would providing partial stipends to families, or funding fledgling charters with no higher funding than is currently provided by the state resolve the huge disparity between just under $10K per student and $26K per student? Would draining state money from Lake Taylor by sending it to other privates improve conditions for students and families in the community? 

If the Governor’s policies are not about economic segregation and systemic bias, why do we have this bifurcated structure so close in a single community? Why has nothing been done by the state to provide the kind of funding, teacher to student ratio, and enrichment programs that the students from Youngkin’s alma mater enjoy? 

Disclaimer: This comparison is not meant to label or demean the students and faculties of either Lake Taylor High School or Norfolk Academy. Each school and all the students in itt deserve.  It should be noted that the administrators of Lake Taylor are not for the most part in control of how much money they are budgeted or how they are allowed to spend it.  All students and staff deserve respect, an excellent learning and workplace, and the chance to make the most of their lives.

And Congratulations to the teams from both schools who won their championships!

Thank You For Reminding Us All

 March 6, 2023

Last night Asra Nomani, an employee of ultra-conservative Independent Women's Forum, and several of her allies tried to crash a zoom meeting of pro-public schools advocates.

We were meeting to talk about how we might protect students and their schools from the all out frontal attack the Governor and his appointees are staging against them, particularly this week, against the History standards.

Asra made a rather big deal about the meeting being open only to those who support public schools, and the discovery she thought she was exposing that I was Red4EdVA.

She posted the flyer       👉👉👉

that I shared January 13, 2019, eleven days before the Virginia Red for Ed March, and I'm so glad she did.

Florida had a march, Arizona, Washington State, and West Virginia, but some people said, Virginia can’t do it. Virginians are not brave enough or strong enough. No one cares enough about Virginia’s schools to take such a stand.

But in May 2018, about a dozen dedicated volunteers set about to make it happen. Some were union members, some were not. Virginia Educators United decided first and foremost we would welcome anyone who supported our public schools. We funded most needs for the march, like permits and insurance, with pocket money from our own wallets and what we made off t-shirt sales. 

Across nine months people reached out to one another. Day by day our numbers grew as friends and neighbors came together over time.

They made their plans, “I’m going. Come and go with me,” they said, and they came from Wise and Winchester, from Richmond and Roanoke, from Frederick County and Fredericksburg, from Virginia Beach and Colonial Beach, from Arlington and Accomack.

They had heard Virginia was 47th in state funding for schools while school buildings were crumbling in urban and rural areas. Yet, Virginia schools were delivering stellar learning experiences and results for their students, ranking near the top on measure after measure..

So they came. There were mothers and fathers, grandparents, and teachers, students and friends, administrators and officials, politicians and cafeteria ladies, carpenters, nurses, and electricians. There were people of all races and faiths, different life circumstances, and vastly different economic situations, but we were all Virginians. And all came to say our public schools are important to us and our communities, to our families and most of all our kids.

They came to say the schools and children of Virginia matter. Every child of Virginia, without exception.

On the day of the march, we gathered in Monroe Park, and volunteers had assignments all through the 1 mile parade route. I brought up the back, crisscrossing  through the lines and making sure all was well along the route. 

 When I came near the Capitol grounds, I could hear the roar of the people. So could the legislators in session inside the Capitol. Then I rounded the corner. There were thousands of people; spilling all over the grounds, filling the steps and the pedestals, cheering, with signs and banners waving everywhere. 

Several times lately I’ve been in a space where someone mentioned the Red for Ed March, and each time someone in the room’s eyes lit up and they smiled. “I was there that day.” “So was I,“ says another.

So, I’d like to thank Asra for reposting our flyer because it says exactly who @Red4EdVA is and what we want to support. 

 Seeing it again brought back all the feelings of that day. 

Asra said this is Cheryl Binkley. She is @Red4EdVA. Everyone who knows me knows I am #Red4Ed, but only as one of thousands, only as one of many who do the yeoman's work shoulder to shoulder, proudly.

We have made progress since that day, in spite of a massive global pandemic, and those who would like to practice disaster capitalism on the schools of our commonwealth. Yet, today we need one another more than ever.

Together we can recover and thrive as communities, for the sake of our children and Virginia’s future place in history. You can make a difference.

• Join a pro-public schools group in your town or county,
• ask candidates and policy makers where they stand this year on supporting our public schools.
• Watch for actions and alerts to voice your support for the kids and their education.
• Don’t be faked out by those who use misleading phrases like “school choice” and name call others as “woke” or commies, or pedophiles, or socialists, or represent parents who only believe some parents should have rights.
• Maybe even wear Red4Ed to let people know we are proud of our schools.

Listen for the roar of Virginians who believe in the power of learning and a practical, strong and caring education, and relax into the power of solidarity with other Virginians.

A beautiful future is just around the corner.  Be #Red4EdVA.