Students today come from a diverse range of backgrounds with a range of lived experiences.

Consider that a 5 year old entering kindergarten in 2024 has already lived through the COVID-19 pandemic, polarized political times, changing climates, and for some, challenging home lives.

Consider also that those five year old kindergarteners could have quite different experiences depending on many factors such as where they live (rural, urban, suburban), their socioeconomic status, and their family structure.

In 2022-2023, New York State Education Department (NYSED) school report card data, 2,422,494 students were enrolled in NY K-12 schools (which doesn’t count the younger children in early child care). Demographic data like the below starts to show how diverse our students are.

40% of students identified as white with the remaining 60% of students identifying people of color.

10%  students were learning English as an additional language.

19% students had identified disabilities.

58% students were considered by NYSED to be “economically disadvantaged”.

(https://data.nysed.gov/enrollment.php?year=2023&state=yes)

Go to the school report card website, and check out schools near you to learn about the demographics of your region ( https://data.nysed.gov/).

If you are from outside of NY, find your state or region’s school websites to learn more.

It is our responsibility as educators to know our own backgrounds and our own students’ backgrounds. We use our own and students’ funds of knowledge (Moll et al) as one way of understanding teaching and learning.

Funds of Knowledge