An Analysis of the Demography of Englewood Chicago Illinois

Today, the 30,600 residents of the Englewood community in eastern Chicago are faced with some daunting challenges in providing their children with the high-quality educational services they need to succeed in the 21st century (Tu, 2016). The vast majority of the residents of this densely populated community are low-income minority members, and the violent crime rate is among the nation’s highest. Against this backdrop, identifying opportunities to improve the educational opportunities for Englewood’s young learners represents a timely and valuable enterprise. To this end, this paper provides a demographic analysis of the Anna R. Langford Community Academy in Chicago’s Englewood community, followed by a narrative analysis of these data. Finally, a discussion concerning the implications of the demographic analysis is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning these issues for the residents of Englewood in the conclusion.
1. Demographic Data Report:
Relevant demographic data for the Anna R. Langford Community Academy (hereinafter alternatively “Langford” or “the school”) include the following.
· The Anna R. Langford Community Academy is located at 6010 South Throop Street and is a Track E community school in Englewood with the primary mission of “making a difference in children’s lives through the turnaround initiative” by “providing a positive, nurturing, and safe learning-centered environment and a high-quality, comprehensive academic program focusing on literacy, math, science, and social studies” (Langford overview, 2018, p. 1).
· The school has 272 students (Langford overview, 2018).
· The overwhelming majority (97.1%) of the school’s students are black, with 2.6% Hispanic and just 0.4% classified as “other” (Langford overview, 2018).
· In addition, fully 98.5% of the school’s students come from low-income households (Langford overview, 2018).
· The school’s population of 9.9% diverse learners suffers from an alarming 40.5% truancy rate (Langford overview, 2018).
The school’s location is depicted in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1. Location of the Anna R. Langford Community Academy
Source: http://www.langfordacademy.org/apps/maps/
2. Demographic Data Analysis
The borders of Englewood are shown in Figure 2 and its geographic location compared to Chicago is depicted in Figure 3 below.
Figure 2 and 3. Englewood borders and geographic location in Chicago
Source: https://www.cityofchicago.org/content/dam/city/depts/doit/general/GIS/Chicago_ Maps/Community_Areas/CA_ENGLEWOOD.pdf
While there are no recent data concerning what languages are spoken in the Englewood community, it is reasonable to posit that English is predominant since just 3.0% of the school’s students are Hispanic or classified as “other”; in addition, the school offers no bilingual resources (Langford overview, 2018). Likewise, although a current religious breakdown of the Englewood community is not available, other relevant demographic data are presented below:
· With a population density of 14.091 residents per square mile, the surrounding Englewood community is even more densely populated than Chicago at 11,909 residents per square mile (Englewood neighborhood overview, 2018).
· The unemployment rate of Englewood is 21.3% (Tu, 2016).
· The average income level in Englewood is $11,933 compared to Chicago’s $27,148 (Tu, 2016).
· Just 70.6% of Englewood residents have a high school diploma (Tu, 2016).
· In terms of narcotics, vandalism, and prostitution crimes, Englewood ranks 6th of 77 Chicago neighborhoods (Tu, 2016).
· Finally, the Englewood community suffers from one of the highest concentrations of relocated project households using housing vouchers on the private market today (out of the 15,210 households in the Englewood community, 274 were moved from the projects to Englewood during the period 1999 through 2010, representing 1.5% of households which is among the highest concentrations in Chicago (Tu, 2016).
Not surprisingly, these grim demographic statistics translate into some profoundly serious implications for the adults residents of Englewood and their children, and these issues are discussed further below.
3. Implications:
The foregoing demographic data have significant implications for the resident of Englewood and their children in particular. Indeed, a growing body of research confirms that the environment in which students live has a direct effect on their academic achievement (Mansour, Anderson & Liem, 2016). Experiments with laboratory rats have shown time and again that when their populations become too dense and hungry, they will begin attacking and even eating each other. Unfortunately, and while the analogy may be politically inappropriate, the same gruesome outcomes are being experienced in the Englewood community today. For instance, according to Suppelsa (2013), “Englewood consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. In the past three months, there have been more than 500 violent incidents, about a dozen murders, and even more shootings” (para. 5). Moreover, young learners in Englewood are further challenged by the high levels of unemployment and poverty as well as the food insecurity that results (Walsh, Madaus, Raczek et al., 2014).
Taken together, the issues can be reasonably expected to have serious implications for young people whose lives are characterized by want and violence, with few opportunities to escape. In fact, Muwakkit (2014) emphasizes that, “In many parts of Englewood, prison release and post-funeral parties are the most festive occasions” (p. 14). The fact that the school is currently experienced a 40+% truancy rate is clear evidence that these environmental conditions are having a severe impact on young people’s motivational levels and school does not represent the same avenue to success for them as their more affluent counterparts.
Conclusion
The dedicated educators, administrator and support staff at the Anna R. Langford Community Academy in Chicago’s Englewood community are committed to achieving the school’s mission to make a difference in their students’ lives, but this mission is challenged on virtually every front by demographic factors such as high unemployment, poverty and violent crime rates as well as low educational attainment levels in their surrounding community. The school’s 272 students, though, do benefit from the high quality evidence-based educational services that are provided at the Academy, and the academic bar is not lowered for them despite their difficult circumstances.



References
Englewood neighborhood overview. (2018). City Data. Retrieved from http://www.city­ data.com/neighborhood/Englewood­Chicago­IL.html.
Langford overview. (2018). Find a School Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/hp/Downloads/ elementary_school_demographics.pdf.
Mansour, M., Anderson, M. & Liem, G. A. (2016). Student, home, and school socio-demographic factors: links to school, home, and community arts participation. Australian Educational Review, 43, 221-244.
Muwakkil, S. (2014, September). ‘Chiraq': Facts and fictions. In These Times, 38(9), 14.
Suppelsea, M. (2013, October 25). ‘It’s Englewood:’ 12 hours in one of Chicago’s most dangerous neighborhoods. WGN. Retrieved from http://wgntv.com/2013/08/25/its-englewood-12-hours-in-one-of-chicagos-most-dangerous-neighborhoods/.
Tu, C. (2016, February 11). An economic breakdown of Chicago's Englewood neighborhood. MarketPlace. Retrieved from https://www.marketplace.org/2013/02/11/wealth-poverty/guns-and-dollars/economic-breakdown-chicagos-englewood-neighborhood.
Walsh, M. E., Madaus, G. E., Raczek, A. E. (2014, August). A new model for student support in high poverty urban elementary schools: Effects on elementary and middle school academic outcomes. American Educational Research Journal, 51(4), 704-737.