Digital Scholarship and Initiatives

North Carolina has assigned Robeson County’s Southside-Ashpole Elementary School as the first to be included in the state’s new Innovative School District (ISD). "The vast majority of students at Southside-Ashpole are African-American or American Indian and 97 percent of students receive free or reduced-price lunch. Their state test scores reflect this – labeling the school as 'failing' for the past four years” (par. 2). Many are opposing this decision because poverty is negatively impacting the school as well as the students. McSpadden says that students with low-socioeconomic statuses suffer from physical and emotional traumas that cannot be fixed by changing principals or teachers. Students have been affected by he recession, and the states that were hit the hardest by loss of funding have consistently lower test scores.