Household Income Determines Quality of Education
Greenfield is located in western Massachusetts with a predominantly white student population (76%) with fewer than 4% having any English language barrier. The Greenfield student community has 69% designated as lower income. Of all students in grades 3-8 that took the latest Math MCAS, Greenfield delivered a 37% pass rate. Lowell on the other hand delivered a 34% Math MCAS pass rate with a student population that has more than 32% of its students with limited English proficiency and 67% classified as lower income. If language was the true barrier to higher achievement the disparity in Math MCAS scores between Lowell (34%) and Greenfield (37%) should have been much greater. Greenfield’s per student school budget allocation is slightly more at $13,135 per student compared to Lowell’s $12,907. However, Greenfield teacher’s average salary of $58,000 is much less than Lowell’s $69,000.
There is no language barrier in Greenfield that can be used to conveniently justify the low MCAS scores. What is common among these communities in the lower income status of their respective populations. Districts that delivered greater than 50% passing rates for the Math MCAS for communities with 50% or more of their student populations classified as lower income were limited to only 3 out of a state of nearly 300 districts. Of these three, Greenfield, Revere and Southbridge all had relatively large white student populations (76%, 46% and 55% respectively).
