In 1970, the population was 273,257. In 1990, it had dropped 2.9 percent, to 265,356. But the school district, which has the same boundaries as the city, lost more than a quarter of its student population. Enrollment fell from 59,500 students in 1970 to 42,400 in 1990, a 28.7 percent drop. By the 1995-96 school year, enrollment was 41,273.
Residents say both whites and middle-class blacks have left the public schools.
At the same time, the percentage of city residents in poverty has increased from 18.6 percent in 1970 to nearly one in four residents in 1990, or 24.3 percent. The statewide average is 18 percent. Students in grades 3 through 11 take the tests, and Birmingham's 6th graders did the best, with a collective ranking at the 39th percentile. And the 10th graders, taking a partial battery, scored at just the 32nd percentile. Still, those scores do not stack up well even in a low-achieving state like Alabama.