Section 2.

3: Community Demographics Competencies

1.1.13: Analyze the community’s shifting demographics, and recommend
ways that the education system can respond.

The key to any school district’s success is understanding demographics and how their

demographics affect their students and teachers. Demographics are statistical data relating to

the population and particular groups within it. A school district’s demographics can change

drastically over the years, and it is vital that the schools make an effort to accommodate these

changes to give their students the best academic experience.

The Olentangy Local School District has seen changes in population from 2006 to

2019. The district’s number of students is only going up, but the percentage of each race that

is fluctuating. The district’s percentage of white students has gone down 10.98% from being

87.09% of its students to being 76.11% (2.3.1) (2.3.2). While the percentage of white

students has gone down, the percentage of Asian students has gone up from 4.28% to 13.98%

(2.3.1) (2.3.2). Although there has been significant growth in the Asian population, the

Olentangy district is not very racially diverse with the populations of white and Asian

students being the two highest represented races. In an effort to respond to the changing

demographics of the district, be more inclusive in a district with little racial diversity, and to

be more proactive with the predicted increase in diversity, the Olentangy district created the

OLSD Diversity Department and hosts the “One Community Conference” each year to give

“​a unique learning opportunity focused on supporting students with a variety of needs from

all different backgrounds” (2.3.3​). Due to this increase in the number of students, action to

hire more Intervention Specialists and special needs teachers should be taken.
 Olentangy’s students live in houses with an average income of $129,664.00 (2.3.2).

Due to the average income being well above $100,000 yearly, many students in the district

don’t have monetary non-academic barriers standing in the way of their education, which is a

huge contributor to the 98.7% graduation rate for the district (2.3.4).

Columbus City School District is full of diversity. The percentage of white students is

only 22.1% which has gone down from 29% since 2006, and their percentage of Hispanic

and Black students is 66.59% (2.3.5). This district has increased its number of Hispanic

students by 7.97% since 2006 as well. With such a high amount of non-white students,

Columbus City is trying to respond to this change by strongly encouraging minority teachers

to apply in order to bring more diversity into their staff (2.3.6).

Unlike Olentangy schools, the average income for students’ households is only

$49,147.00, which is an $80,517.00 difference (2.3.5). Students in the Columbus City district

have to face many non-academic barriers that could impede their ability to finish school. Due

to these students possibly having a variety of issues such as a lack of transportation or having

to work a job or two to help make ends meet, Columbus City Schools has an 81.2%

graduation rate and only 3.8% of their students pass the state tests (2.3.7) (2.3.8). In response

to this, the district should try to hire more intervention specialists to give as many kids as

possible the help that they need to succeed and pass state tests and graduate high school.

Westerville City School District is between Olentangy and Columbus City. Similar to

Olentangy, Westerville’s highest percentage of students are white at 54.6%, but their

second-highest is black students at 25.48%. Since 2006, Westerville has seen a 17.75%

decrease in their white student population and a 7.93% increase in its population of black
students (2.3.9). In response to the growing population of minorities in their district,

Westerville schools have added the Minority Student Achievement Office that is

“​committed to student improvement efforts that support access and equity by the

development of initiatives and projects that accelerate student learning and ensures that

minority students graduate ready to succeed in college and careers” (2.3.10​).

Westerville is in between Olentangy and Columbus City with regards to the average

income per household which is $75,513.00 (2.3.9). Due to this, the students in this district

have less non-academic barriers than students in Columbus City Schools but would have

more than students in Olentangy’s district. Westerville also has a higher graduation rate than

Columbus City, but still not as high as Olentangy with a rate of 90.9% (2.3.11). In order to

increase their graduation rate as the demographics change, Westerville should respond by

hiring more special education teachers and intervention specialists.