The Numbers
As of last year, there were just under 700 students who attended Furness High School. This number represents an increase from the 2012-2013 year (when there were a little over 500 students attending), but is a decline from the number of students that used to attend Furness. For example, in 2002, over 1,100 students attended Furness. This decline in enrollment corresponds with a historic decline in the number of public school students in Philadelphia.
the demographics
Unlike the community of Pennsport (which is a mostly white community), the student body at Furness is racially diverse. In the 2014-2015 school year, a plurality of the students were of Asian descent, and there was a sizable portion of Black and Hispanic students. White students, who make up a supermajority of the community population, only represented 9% of the student body.
In addition to racial diversity, Furness is characterized by diversity of language. In the 2014-2015 school year, nearly half of the students at Furness were "English Language Learners", meaning that they were learning English as a second language. This percentage is a near perfect correlation to the number of students at Furness who are of Asian descent.
Though Furness is racially and linguistically diverse, a supermajority of students at Furness are described as "economically disadvantaged." For the 2014-2015 school year, the district unilaterally described all students at Furness as "economically disadvantaged" for purposes of lunch funding. Yet, in the previous school year, a full 85% of students at Furness were described as "economically disadvantaged," which stands in stark contrast to the fact that Pennsport has seen a 26% increase in per capita income in the last 10 years.