Stats That Stick: May 30, 2012

We’re back with another edition of Stats That Stick. Do you have any particularly sticky stats from this week? Leave them for us in the comments!

Number of states that have been approved for a No Child Left Behind Waiver: 17

With yesterday’s approval of eight more NCLB waivers, the number of states who have been awarded flexibility from the current iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act stands at 17. 26 additional states and the District of Columbia still have pending waiver requests, according to the Associated Press

Financial gap Philadelphia schools are facing: $1.1 billion

Bloomberg News brings news that Philadelphia, the nation’s eighth-largest district by enrollment, may close 25% of its almost 250 schools by 2017 in order to save money and close its budget deficit. Amazingly, a proposal about how to close the gap notes, “a third of the district’s building space isn’t being used this year.”

Percentage of black male students in Oakland who were off-course from graduating or at risk for doing so: 55%

The Huffington Post reports on troubling news from the Urban Strategies Council, an Oakland community groups that found significant disparities between African American boys and their peers. In Oakland, the percentage of students overall who were off-course or at risk of going off-course in 2010-11 was 37.5%, a disparity of 17.5%.

Percent increase in high school students who had taken calculus from 1990 to 2009: 128%

The Huffington Post and the Associated Press report that the United States Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics’ Condition of Education shows an increase in high school students enrolled in science and math courses over the past two decades. Additionally, distance education has also increased substantially: “Whereas 220,000 students were enrolled in distance education courses a decade ago, over 1.3 million were taking them in the 2009-10 school year. Those courses are usually online, and can be done at home or in class.” Great news for STEM and digital learning advocates!