Teachers here can use that same system to show 4th graders a video about coral reefs, or to assemble several classes in the school's technology center to watch a live broadcast of a motivational speaker aiming to enhance their self-esteem. From the outside, E.J. Scott is a typical one-story cinder block school building, circa 1959. The school is in most ways a model of the kinds of initiative and attitudes that researchers say are common to high-poverty urban schools that succeed against the odds. Many have bars on the windows. The only businesses nearby are bars, a small grocery, and a couple of fast-food restaurants.
Statistics paint a bleak picture of the neighborhood.
More than 40 percent of families had incomes below the federal poverty line, and the child-poverty rate was 43 percent. More than 20 percent of the housing in the area was vacant. Fewer than half the residents over 19 were employed, and about 63 percent of those over 25 lacked a high school diploma. Nearly two in 10 households received public-assistance income. Scott's student population is about 60 percent Hispanic and 40 percent black.