Math help, please

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 myself to back “the largest” claim and 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. Also, my math shows City of Atlanta and Fulton are 20th and 36th, meaning our 20,000-resident city and county to its left on the map.

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.

#CitySchoolsOfDecatur #Decatur #education #research