The Blue Zone
This is a map graphic showing the areas that elect the members who serve on the School Board of Hillsborough County.
Five of the seven members gain their seat by receiving a majority of votes in the individual districts during primary or general elections.
County voters elect two members to fill county-wide seats.
The Blue Zone is distinctive because this area has the largest concentration of black students in Hillsborough County Public Schools.
The area also includes the largest concentration of black churches and other black faith-based organizations in the county.
The one sitting School Board member who is black lives in The Blue Zone and ran unopposed in the 2008 election.
When the School Board and Superintendent speak of their priorities, Student Achievement is usually the first one they mention.
The data they provide related to student achievement includes an 82% graduation rate in 2009.
They also highlight the amount of scholarship dollars offered to/accepted by college-bound members of graduating classes.
Unless prompted by conscientious citizenry to do so, their comments rarely describe the state of academic excellence in the Blue Zone.
A piece of ground matters.
Black students who come from a particular area could reap the benefits of attending public schools in the eighth-largest school district in the nation. The Blue Zone is an area in Tampa and Hillsborough County where there is the largest concentration of black students. The one black school board member lives in The Blue Zone. She ran unopposed for a second four-year term in 2008. None of the other six school board members lives in The Blue Zone or relies on a substantial number of votes from The Blue Zone to keep their school board seats.
The area covered by The Blue Zone includes East Tampa. One of the key zip codes (33610) there is home to over sixty black churches and faith-based organizations. An adjacent zip code (33605) is the recipient of a federal grant for its Weed and Seed communities.
It is presumably not easy to miss The Blue Zone when looking at a map of Hillsborough County. It is smack-dab in the center!
Moving forward into the second decade of the 21st century, there is an opportunity to take a look at The Blue Zone and the benefits it receives from public education. The central question is, “Do black students in The Blue Zone demonstrate the level of academic excellence as other students in Hillsborough County?”
Having conversions surrounding this question requires community and citizenry access to achievement data related to black students in The Blue Zone. The School District of Hillsborough County is the Lead Education Agency in the county. The superintendent oversees an extensive data-driven decision-making process. Perhaps through “technical oversight,” the data that the district collects and analyzes is extremely difficult to produce in formats displays sorted by zip code, race, and gender together. In 1969, Americans walked on the moon. Forty-one years later, it took a PhD working for the school district three hours to generate a report identifying the number of black students (eighth-graders) from selected zip codes who applied for and received offers to enroll in the county’s four International Baccalaureate programs. The taxpayer who requested the information received—and paid—a bill of $135 or $45 per hour for the staff member’s time.
One goal moving forward is to get the superintendent to provide data routinely in a format that lets residents of particular urban zip codes glean from reports the state of academic achievement demonstrated by students who live in their zip code. Reports about student achievement in a zip code may lead community leaders toward mobilizing residents to help students demonstrate a higher level of academic excellence.
Tags: academic excellence, black
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