SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Girls Varsity Soccer AA/A Final Four and Poverty. . .

The Final Four in AA/A Girls has THREE public schools, both teams in the Upper State are public schools—I think an unprecedented event.

We have BE still in the Final Four, but here are some stats on poverty and the successful small public schools:

School; poverty rank/total high schools; poverty index

Waccamaw; 15/210; 33

Walhalla; 54/210; 49

Woodruff; 74/210; 55

And completely insignificant. . .but there is a HIGH correlation between successful AA/A public schools and school names starting with "W." (West Oak was in the mix through Friday night. . .)

AAAA

School; poverty rank/total high schools; poverty index

Mauldin; 9/210; 26
Dorman; 46/210; 47

Summerville; 33/210; 42
Wando; 8/210; 26

AAA

School; poverty rank/total high schools; poverty index

Riverside; 3/210; 17
JL Mann; 17/210; 35

Hilton Head; 13/210; 31
Brookland-Cayce; 91/210; 60

Top 4 bucking the poverty influence (highest poverty index first):

Brookland-Cayce
Woodruff
Walhalla
Dorman

Wow! I thought Dorman was more affluent than that. Interesting to see BC so low too. Where did this info come from? Is there a whole list?

Dorman overlaps a rural area in Spartanburg County. Woodruff, Byrnes, and Dorman share borders.

The info is the official poverty index from the SC State Dept of Educ.

Download the Excel file at the "Poverty Index" link here:

http://ed.sc.gov/topics/researchandstats/schoolreportcard/2007/data/

I got lost in this area earlier this morning.....Woodruff Road heading toward.....Woodruff. I believe I was east of Simpsonville, is that the Hillcrest HS area?

Finally found Hwy 101 and made it to I-85.

Pretty country.

Of the six girls teams alive for the state championship, five are public and four are in the top 13 most affluent schools in the state; two are from Greenville County:

Riverside; 3/210; 17
Wando; 8/210; 26
Mauldin; 9/210; 26
Hilton Head; 13/210; 31
Woodruff; 74/210; 55

Great theory. Blue Ridge has the Cliffs at Glassy in our "area" and thus isn't ranked low on the poverty level. Unfortunately, the people in that development are about 20 years older than me and their "kids" are mostly about 50.

Poverty is taking a player to the emergency room and finding out that she has never been to a doctor, doesn't have a doctor, and can't pay one cent even though her leg may be broken. Poverty is kids taking 6 pairs of shoes out of a bag of used shoes and using them for game shoes. Poverty is a Hispanic family offering to run balls on the sidelines so that they can watch the game because they can't afford the price of admission. Poverty is a defender who doesn't eat breakfast because there isn't any food in her house.

Is any of this in the "index"?

ROH:

Of course all of that is in the index. And the index isn't a "theory"; it is putting a wide range of realities into a number for statistical purposes.

All of those issues you raise can and do happen in schools even at the top of the index, but the higher the PI number, the more common those realities are.

Part of success in low poverty schools (whether athletic or academic) is highly correlated with the low amount of negative impact that real-world poverty has on the children who provide the data upon which we make these judgments.

When I taught at Woodruff (for 18 years), it was more common than not that students at the high school did not seek medical help for much of anything. That was cultural and financial. In sports, it was a nightmare. Injuries were just tolerated and players, because that was how they lived their lives, were content just to let injuries run their course.

The PI is highly correlated with many aspects of the cultures of schools. For soccer, affluent schools tend to have families that see club and/or year-round soccer as the norm—because they can afford that for their children. Thus, success on the high school pitch.

Well said, and as the economy continues to flounder and the price of gas (and oil company profits) continue to rise, it will only get worse, and worse.

Soccer to the world is a street game, if you have a ball you can play... In the United States it has become an elite sport, with an expensive price tag. That is also why the world has more creative players.

How many girls at Woodruff play club? And where?