Community Profile Essay, Research Paper

Cupertino (Homestead High) & Baldwin Park (Baldwin Hills)

For our community profile presentation, we investigated Homestead High School in Cupertino, and Baldwin Park High School in Baldwin Hills, California.

Cupertino is located about 40 miles south of San Francisco, and roughly 10 miles north of San Jose, in the Northern California Bay Area. Cupertino is nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, and has experienced an income boom among working professionals in the last decade and a half, due to the dot-com phenomenon. There are 40,263 residents of Cupertino; 20,106 are men, 20,157 are women, according to a 1999 survey. Out of the 40.2 thousand residents, 10,463 are under 21years of age, 26,250 are between the ages of 22 and 65, and 3,550 are over 65 years old. In terms of languages spoken in Cupertino, 27,752 speak only English, and just 135 speak only Spanish. Cupertino also hosts a large Asian/Pacific Islander population; 934 such residents speak in their respective native tongue.

Baldwin Hills is located in West Los Angeles, between Culver City and Inglewood. There are 69,330 total residents in Baldwin Hills, 34,997 are men, and 34,333 are women. The gender breakdown between the two cities is roughly fifty-fifty, although Baldwin Hills has almost 30,000 more people. Compared to Cupertino, Baldwin Park is considerably younger, 29,771 residents are under 21 years old, 37,150 are between the ages of 22 and 65 years old, and only 2,409 are over 65 years old. In terms of languages spoken, 18,700 Baldwin Hills residents speak English only, and 11,221 speak Spanish only. There are almost 100 times as many Spanish speakers in Baldwin Hills than there are in Cupertino.

In terms of housing values, the majority (more than half) of Cupertino homes are worth between $300,000 and $500,000, with about a third worth more than $500,000. Those two demographic categories are represented by mere slivers in Baldwin Hills when graphed out. Roughly three quarters of the houses in Baldwin Hills are worth either between $100,000 and $150,000 or between $150,000 and $200,000. The discrepancy between the two areas can be attributed largely to the economic strength of the Silicon Valley, which, we believe, also has a correlation with resident age.

The racial breakdown in each city somewhat resemble the language breakdown. The racial majority in both cities belong to Caucasians, with Hispanic/Latinos occupying a significant percentile in Baldwin Hills. Asians and Pacific Islanders also have a strong contingent in Cupertino.

In terms of family income, there are more people making under $50,000 annually in Baldwin Hills, and more households making over $50,000 in Cupertino. Keep in mind that there is almost 30,000 more people residing in Baldwin Hills than there are in Cupertino. Another key difference between the two communities is the educational attainment breakdown. The vast majority of adults in Baldwin Hills have attained a High School diploma or less, while the largest two categories of adults in Cupertino has either Bachelor s Degrees, or a Graduate/Professional Degree.

Baldwin Park High School has a total enrollment of 2,151 students. Homestead has a total enrollment of 1,825. These numbers similarly reflect the community population. In Baldwin Park, the average class sizes are 31.5, 32.6, 32.6, and 32 students per classroom in English, Math, Social Science, and Science respectively. The difference in numbers for classes at Homestead High School are all under 1 student per classroom less than the numbers at Baldwin Park, except for English which averages 26.2 students per class. This interesting note can be attributed to the primary languages spoken in each school s respective community.

Baldwin Park High School had a year 2000 Base API of 468, their statewide rank was 1 (the lowest), and among similar schools they ranked 1 (the lowest) as well. Their growth target for 2001 is +17, hopefully bringing them up to an API of 485. Homestead High School had a year 2000 Base API of 792. Homestead ranked a 10 (the highest) among public high schools in the state, and among similar schools, Homestead ranked 5 (about in the middle).

There are 76 fully credentialed teachers at Baldwin Park High, and 84 at Homestead High. There are only six emergency credentialed teachers at Homestead, versus 15 at Baldwin Park, plus 3 wavered teachers, plus a university intern. Out of the 2,151 students at Baldwin Park high, 1791 (83.3%) are Hispanic/Latino, 123 are Asian/Pacific Islander, and 126 are white, among other groups. At Homestead, 961 (52.7%) are white, 549 are Asian/Pacific Islander, and only 181 (9.9%) are Hispanic/Latino.

When compared to the student population numbers, the teaching/faculty ethnic breakdown does not reflect their respective schools. Only 23% of the teachers at Baldwin Park are Hispanic/Latino, the majority (67%) are white. 85% of teachers at Homestead are white, whereas 5% are Hispanic/Latino and 6% are Asian/Pac. Is.

A couple key differences between the two schools lie in their dropout rate and access to the internet. If the dropout rate of one school is high, this will reflect within the community. Obviously, the success or failure of the community is determined by those who live there; therefore if you have a high dropout rate for the local public schools, it is hard for a community to flourish with an upstanding working population. It is extremely obvious, when comparing two schools, why schools within richer neighborhoods do better than in poor. This is because the community supports those in the school and holds them to higher expectations. Things such as internet, class size, and money for extra curricular activities all show use of money/funding. For schools that lack money/funding, it is hard for them to compete with the area around them and lose children to gangs, drugs or even pregnancy.

In conclusion we feel that education is falling behind due to socioeconomic structural barriers, however, we also feel there is a lack in student to parent learning. One of the strongest bonds in a child s life are their parents. From an early age that child should be confiding in there parents. We understand that in today s society, it is hard to even survive on a trouble income family; however, we feel more effort should needs to be made if the government, parents, teachers, and society at large want to see a greater increase in school performance. Learning starts at the home, the institution merely helps facilitate that learning.

Sources:

1) http://www.Ed-Data.com

2) http://www.ed.gov

3) http://www.edsource.org

4) http://minot.com/%7Enansen/ed_adminhtml

5) http://data1.cde.ca.gov