The correlation between state school grades and income, in video form

by David Safier

On this month's episode of the cable TV show, Education: The Rest of the Story, I have a segment showing how closely, almost exactly, state school grades correlate with the household incomes in areas around Tucson. I posted about this earlier, but the video allowed me to enhance the graphics to make the point clearer. And I added a second map which was created by Barbara Tellman that uses census data to show how Tucson breaks down by average household income. You can see both maps below the fold.

 

The video busts the conservative myth that great teachers and great schools create high test scores, and family income is only a secondary consideration. As Bill Clinton's campaign pointed out, "It's the economy [and income inequality], stupid."

Here's the map of the Tucson area with colored clouds displaying the distribution of school grades.

Here's Barbara Tellman's map with the Tucson area broken down by median household income and the same colored clouds floating on top. The legend at the bottom left indicates the income levels designated by each color.