Students
Parker draws about 365 students from the surrounding area in north central Massachusetts. Students come to Parker because they (or their parents) are looking for a better education than the one provided by the local public schools. Applicants often fall into one of two categories: academically successful students frustrated by the lack of opportunity and challenge in the local public schools or students whose personalities, attitudes, or learning styles have proven to be incompatible with the mainstream public schools and are looking for an alternative.
Because Parker consistently receives enrollment applications at a level several times the number of openings available (there were 287 applications for 65 spots for the 2006–2007 school year), admission is by random lottery; some applicants are placed on a wait-list. (The exception is for siblings of current Parker students, who are guaranteed a spot.) Application is open to residents of 70 Massachusetts towns in 46 school districts, but, in practice, the student body is somewhat self-selecting. The school's isolated location in Devens, a decommissioned army base in central Massachusetts, and the lack of school busing, mean that any student attending needs to have a ride to and from school. This makes it difficult for low-income students from nearby urban areas such as Lowell and Leominster to attend.
On its website, Parker claims that "the socioeconomic, ethnic, and educational characteristics of the student body closely reflect the general population of the region." While this is true to the extent that the surrounding area is mostly white, there are significant minority and low-income populations in the area that are not really represented. The student body is almost exclusively middle- to upper middle-class white: in the 2007–2008 school year, the student body was 92.6% white, 0.3% African-American, 4.5% multi-racial, 1.8% Hispanic, and 0.8% Asian. Only 0.3% of students came from low-income families and 10.6% had Special Education needs (IEP), compared to 16.9% in the state.
Read more about this topic: Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School
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