In Friday’s City Schools of Decatur Board Newsletter, Superintendent Whitaker wrote:
“Although the City of Decatur only encompasses 4.5 square miles, it has the largest wealth achievement gap in the country.”
August 14, 2026 CSD Board Newsletter – Superintendent’s Comments
There’s a hyperlinked citation that I can’t get to open. I think it might be a deep link into a report that’s behind a login wall.
I tried to find the data to see if I could back “the largest” claim myself. I cannot.
If my math is correct (a big if) City of Decatur’s wealth achievement gap in the 2009-2019 Stanford data cited in the newsletter ranks Decatur 27th. That means there is a very large wealth achievement gap (27th out of 12,000+ districts), but “the largest” is incorrect. One of the largest would be accurate, I think.
Also, I think City of Atlanta and Fulton are 20th and 36th, meaning our 20,000-resident suburb has the same wealth achievement gap as the city to which it is adjacent. That doesn’t fix the gap, but puts it in a little more perspective.
Will someone who is better at math than I am (most people) double-check for me? I’ll correct/clarify this post if my math isn’t mathing. The Stanford data is all online.