All of the above?

Okay, we read this article about urban vs. suburban vs. rural education. And it made me think, how would I classify the school district I grew up in? For those who don't know, I grew up in the Anchorage School District in Anchorage, AK. I've thought about this since we started talking about urban vs. suburban. Then my professor made an offhand comment last week that kind of annoyed me. She said, "So, rural schools, Dr. Mad Scientist you went to school in Alaska, you should get this." Or something like that. And I was thinking, "Huh? I did *not* go to a "rural" school!"


Anchorage has roughly the same population as Newark. It is admittedly much larger geographically. It actually has more public students than Newark, ~50,000 vs. ~42,000. Anchorage most definitely does not have the bad reputation that Newark does, though Anchorage does have its share of violence, gangs and poverty, and more than its share when it comes to alcohol and drugs.


In terms of education, most, if not all, schools in Newark would qualify as urban. My instructors and people in general seem to agree on that. Anchorage on the other hand has schools that I would classify as urban, many that are suburban, and a few that are pretty rural. Classifying the six high schools that were there when I attended school (two new high schools have opened in the last five years or so) I would call two "urban" two suburban and one rural. Bartlett High is a little weird because it's where all the military kids went. I'd probably call it suburban as well. Now, I've never set foot in a "real" urban high school, like in Newark. Yet. But I do consider my high school, East Anchorage, to be urban. It matches most of my criteria: mostly students from low income families, higher numbers of minority students, more bilingual/non-native English speakers, a lot of students in vocational training (the vocational "school" was built down the street, the "special needs" school which, among other things, is where the teen mothers went, was also down the street). Most parents of students were "working class", the percentage of parents who'd gone to college was not particularly high. All in all, I think I'm justified in saying I went to an urban school. I reserve the right to change that opinion as my experiences broaden though.


I'll let you know how it goes...


EDIT: My wife (Mrs. Dr. Mad Scientist) apparently decided to take a look at crime statistics between Anchorage and Newark, in part based on this post and in part for her own reasons. You can see her analysis on her blog.