Demographics
I am a 57 years old African American female. I teach 7th grade English at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School (MLK). My school is centered in the middle of a high crime, high poverty area of Richmond, Virginia called Church Hill. The school building is a $40 million state-of-the-art middle school built in 2014. The school was created by the combination of two middle schools in the area: Eastend Middle (renamed Onslow Middle School) and Mosby Middle School. The sharp decline in the student population at the two schools was the justification for combining the schools. Mosby Middle School was built in 1964 and serviced students from K-8th. The current building is the first new school built in Church Hill since Chimborazo Elementary in 1968.
The enrollment at MLK sits at 691 students. MLK has a 100% free and reduced lunch program. The racial makeup of the school is 96.5 African American students; 1.9 white students; 0.6 Asian students. As reported in the Richmond Times Dispatch in 2017, 1,635 recorded incidents took place at MLK under the heading of disorderly and disruptive behavior offenses. Educationally, only 22% of the students are proficient in math and 27% demonstrated proficiency in reading. MLK administration has changed hands a total of five times in its four years of existence. On the average, as many as 10 teachers are absent from work leaving no coverage for their classes. The school is considered one of the worst schools in the Richmond Public School system. In a recent ranking of the 415 middle schools in Virginia, from the best to the worst, MLK is ranked as 415th (https://www.rvaschool.net, MLKMS).
Comments: