Demographics
I teach sixth grade English to students at Lucille M. Brown Middle School in Richmond, Virginia. My school system services students from an urban environment who vary in socioeconomic status and academic ability level. Most, but not all, of my students come from a low socioeconomic status. Many qualify to receive free or reduced priced lunch and come from single-parent households. Academically, they are all general education students; however, within the general education program, my students are grouped into varying class "settings," including inclusion, general, honors, and advanced. Though these leveled distinctions in class settings exist, many of my honors and advanced students are not necessarily "gifted." On standardized state and local assessments they typically perform at an average sixth grade level, while my general and inclusion students often perform slightly to well below grade level.
In 2012, over half of the population of Richmond was black or African American. Thirty-nine percent was recorded as white, and just over six percent was Hispanic or Latino. 1 My school and classroom represents this trend only in part. My students are predominately African American. More than three fourths of the students in each of my classes are black. Unlike the population of Richmond, very few of my students are white. I teach four core sixth grade English classes and one Enrichment subsection. In those five classes, I may have a total of three to five white students. Over the past two years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Hispanic students attending Lucille Brown Middle School. Hispanic and Latino students make up slightly less than a fourth of each of my general education classes. One class may be comprised of about five or more Hispanic students.
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