Hillsborough 11, Pinellas 0

The Gandy Gap strikes again: The Pinellas school district is again looking not-so-sharp compared to Hillsborough – this time in the number of National Achievement scholars, who are widely perceived to be the top black students in the country.

Hillsborough has 11 this year, according to the list released today by the National Merit Scholarship Corp. Pinellas has zero. Florida has 66, out of roughly 800 nationwide, with the vast majority clustered in the state's seven big urban districts (or six out of the seven, given that Pinellas isn't contributing).

Pinellas has suffered by comparison with Hillsborough before, most recently in graduation rates (see St. Petersburg Times stories here and here). And yet, on the surface, you'd think Hillsborough, with more minority kids and kids in poverty, would be the one playing catch up, no?

- Ron Matus, state education reporter

Comments

Fire Wilcox.

[Timmy!]

RAK,

"The geographic area of these students has nothing to do with the level of intelligence that should have..."

I beg to differ: the geographical area is a reflection of the socio-economic level of the family.

The socio-economic level of the student is still the BEST predictor of success in school.

[Jahi98]

I am disappointed that there are no Nat'l Achievement Scholars out of Pinellas. However, I think it speaks to problems in Pinellas as a whole. If affluence is an indication of how good the schools should be, Pinellas being the more affluent county overall should be doing better than Hillsborough. Yet it is doing worst. That's a reflection on the parents as well as the school system.

To make a quick note, there is a sizeable black middle (and upper) class in south St. Pete, living mostly in neighborhoods like Lakewood Estates and Pinellas Point. There's more to south St. Pete than Midtown and Childs Park. However, I would say anecdotally that Hillsborough has a larger black middle class.

[R.A.K]

The geographic area of these students has nothing to do with the level of intelligence that should have,although based on this recent list I would say that I am very disappointed with the level of excellence the student of Pinellas County have not attempted to achieve along with the parents who have not demanded more out of the children. By no means do I think that this cannot be correct, but in order for this occur, it has to start with the parents.

tampa has 15 times more black kids

[A Social Science Statistician]

I am compelled to ask how one adds 1/4 and 3/5? I suspect the correct answer is 4/9. Right?

Well, obviously according to the Times newspaper, it is.

Again, raw numbers in a situation like this mean little, if anything other than counts.

To compare things, you need a common denominator, just like in the fraction in the above example.

At the very least, this finding should be reported in terms of a proportion (a ratio); however, there is so much more goes into this phenomenon, and more appropriately these factors should be analyzed with multiple regression models or hierarchal linear modeling.

Again, the world is a whole lot more complicated than what the paper reports...so, please be careful when drawing conclusions based on poor and insufficient reports.

[Bill]

I think it's pretty obvious that Hillsborough has more middle and upper middle class black people than Pinellas.

How many of the merit scholars came from the new tampa area?

What's the median black household income in Pinellas vs Hillsborough?

What percentage of blacks over the age of 25 have a four year college degree or higher in Pinellas vs Hillsborough?

Anyhow.. how did the white folk do in the merit scholarship business?

[Kenneth]

I'd be interested to see where those black students in Hillsborough live - I would guess the northern suburbs. Pinellas County blacks are more or less isolaged to south St. Pete

[Al]

By the spelling and gramatical errors presented by Mr. Gilbert R. Ford in the above comment, I'd have to guess that he went to school in Pinellas.

[reality]

Hillsborough has alot more blacks that have jobs. st pete is littered with section 8, wic, welfare types.

[Gilbert R. Ford]

My sincere Thanks to the Educators, Parents and most of all to the young adults of Hillsborough County, who have strive to make something of themselves. Why such a discrepancy, I have no earthly idea hopefully someone can shed some light as to how this can be corrected, SOON!

A mind is a terrible thing to waste, and so is the young adults who have somewhat fallen short.

Is it possible that the FCAT, can be used as a tool to point us in a positive direction. More likely than none, the root cause is the home enviroment. Why such a discrepancy between Hillsborough and Pinellas? Perhaps the 2 Superintendants can share knowledge/brainstorm and come up with something. Perhaps that is asking too much or better yet, not asking enough!