Traditionally North Port was a blue collar town and many of the jobs were in the service related fields. As the education system has grown and developed in the area as well as the changing job market, North Port has added to the blue collar foundation. A statistic that tracked people in their mid-twenties and older in the community stated that over three-fourths of the citizens have a high school degree or higher. Within that same age group just over ten percent have a Bachelor’s degree or more and about four percent have a Doctorate.
In May, North Port community proudly watched the 5th graduating class receive their diplomas. Our principal shared some data that suggests the number of these students seeking higher degrees is increasing. A challenge for our school is to ensure we follow students from our doors to their future destination. Finding out what happens to our students over time is part of the “hard data” that Meier argues is critical to the success of the school. In our situation, part of this success is sharing the stories of what percentage of our students move on to what in our society. (Meier, 2002) As evidenced in the information here, we can see the types of jobs in the North Port community.
As North Port is the third largest city by area in Florida, the concern of providing for and supporting growth is of primary importance. Even with the ebb and flow of movement in North Port, over time the development of this area has increased. As we see in the following graph, a large percentage of North Port residents are under the age of 30. In the upcoming years this part of the population will be participating in the social, cultural and political scene of the city.
Thus, our journey continues and surely our number of well educated citizens will blossom. Some guiding questions related to this topic include:
As North Port continues to graduate more groups of students, what are some effective ways to monitor the progress of these people as they move out into the community?
What are the needs to sustain and develop further the Career Center at the school level?
How will the South County Technical Center effect education in North Port?
Citations:
1. AdvaMeg, (2008). Retrieved September 15, 2008, from City-Data.com Web site: http://www.city-data.com/
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