SECONDARY DATA

Demographics

Demographics of the Pittsboro/Chatham County area have a distinct influence on teens. Age, ethnic affiliation, health, education, income, and transportation all play significant roles. While data on many community characteristics exist, much are not teen-specific. And, depending on what the data pertain to, they may be obsolete. In fact, most of the data we uncovered is more than a decade old, including some of the data described in this section. However, what we chose to include is pertinent to the teenage population of Pittsboro. Our selection of demographic information was based on our secondary research on teens in the community. In this section we discuss our analysis of demographics and their relevance to the teens of Pittsboro.

Data from the State Office of Planning estimates that in 1996, adolescents, ages 11-18, made up only 11% of the population, while senior citizens, ages 65 and up, made up 20% (Chatham County Economic Development Corporation, 1998). While, this data are several years old and apply to the entire county, we believe they are relevant in this case, particularly in their ramifications at the city level. For instance, Pittsboro has turned much of its focus to its senior citizen population, which is expected to mirror the county and national trend by increasing over the next few years. Illustrative of this is the fact that in the town of Pittsboro alone, where the population is estimated at around 2,237 (Office of State Planning, 1999), there are four retirement communities and/or assisted living facilities, including Galloway Ridge at the Fearrington Village, the Somerset House, the Pittsboro Bible Assembly, and the Laurels of Chatham. In addition, the Chatham Council on Aging is headquartered in Pittsboro. Their new facility, located behind the Pittsboro campus of Central Carolina Community College and on the same land as recently developed luxury homes, is situated across from a dilapidated Social Services building, which is home to several services including Chatham Together, a group dedicated to assisting disadvantaged youth. While ageism is not a blatant issue in Pittsboro, the location of resources geared toward the various age groups warrants some consideration. This is especially important when considering that Galloway Ridge is located in the beautiful rolling pastures of the exclusive Fearrington community, eight miles south of Chapel Hill, and that the Somerset House is positioned near thriving businesses, a church, and residential lots, while the Teen Center is located next to a rundown car lot in what is considered to be the "bad part of town." And, because teens without the company of adults have been branded as nuisances and relegated to the sidewalks and the traffic circle since being kicked out of several establishments, they are left with the impression that they are not welcome in their own town.

Students in Pittsboro attend one of the six district schools, which include Pittsboro Elementary, Perry W. Harrison, Moncure, North Chatham, Horton Middle, and Northwood High (see School District Map in Appendix F). Most of the teens attend Horton or Northwood, which are the town's only two secondary schools (Chatham County Schools, 2001). Therefore, we consider schools and education as means to define our adolescent population. In fact, much of the data that we gleaned from the schools, particularly Horton and Northwood, are what we extracted to roughly characterize the adolescent community of Pittsboro with respect to performance indicators, future plans, and ethnic affiliation. Detailed data adapted from Chatham County Schools (CCS) Profiles (2001) for students at Horton and Northwood are located in Table 2 in Appendix F. Performance indicators and future plans are found in Tables 3 through 6. Ethnic affiliation will be described later. According to the CCS Profiles, 413 students attended Horton and 760 students attended Northwood during the 1999-2000 school year. Out of the attending students, 13 at Horton were retained in the same grade, compared with 81 at Northwood, where 51 students dropped out of school.

Some of the special services in both schools focus on: Limited English Proficiency students, of which there are four at Horton and 16 at Northwood; the migrant population, represented by three students at Horton and six students at Northwood; and Academically Intellectually Gifted Students (AIG), which consist of 80 students at Horton and 88 students at Northwood.

As a measure of parental involvement in their children's education, we also looked at CCS Profiles' parents' membership in the 1999-2000 Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). 36 parents were involved at the middle school, while 117 parents participated at the high school.

Performance data indicate how students are faring in school. At Horton, students in all grades scored mostly at level three or four (out of four possible) on reading and math tests. In addition, their scores on computer competency increased over the past four school years. Students at Northwood, on average, scored higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in 2000 than those during the previous year whereas scores on Advanced Placement (AP) tests remained steady. On high school performance exams, most students scored at level two or three (out of four possible) in all but one subject (CCS Profiles, 2001).

To get a sense of the future of Pittsboro teens, we felt it was important to look at the graduating seniors. We found that in 2000, 149 students graduated from Northwood. This is a 19% increase in the graduation rate from the previous year. Also, 5 high school certificates were awarded. Of the graduating students, 49% planned to enroll in a four-year college or university, 34% in a community college, and 3% in a trade, technical, or business school. 2% of the graduating seniors planned to join the military, 2% planned to seek employment, while 9% had "other" plans (CCS Profiles, 2001). These data, in particular, are aligned with opinions of some of the service providers we interviewed, who say that while most students in Pittsboro go on to college or other schooling, there are still a considerable number who pursue other avenues.

Although somewhat apparent among Pittsboro adults, ethnic affiliation seems to be less of an issue for teens. According to one service provider, teen social networks are racially diverse and adolescents are not really affected by the racial problems that adults face or that may be typical of living in the South. Kids of all races supposedly socialize with each other in the schools, where the ethnic make-up is largely White and African American, as well as outside of school, where the ethnic composition is only somewhat different. The ethnic composition of the middle school and high school in Pittsboro is found in Table 1 in Appendix F. In brief, Horton Middle is 31% African American, 66% White, 2% Hispanic, and 1% other. Similarly, Northwood High is 27% African American, 70% White, 1.8% Hispanic, and 1.2% other (CCS Profiles, 2001). These statistics reflect a slightly larger African American population than that of the town, which is around 20%, and a slightly smaller White population, which in Pittsboro is more than 70% (Interview data, 2000). While provider interviews suggest that ethnic affiliation is not a significant issue for teens, conversations with community members suggest that racial attitudes parents might have may influence interactions among teens, particularly if race determines where teens can and will hang out.

Secondary Data Collection Methodology

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