Model Estimates of Poverty in Schools: A New School-Level Measure of Economic Need. Research Report

Autor/inn/en	Gutierrez, Emily; Blagg, Kristin; Chingos, Matthew M.
Institution	Urban Institute, Center on Education Data and Policy
Titel	Model Estimates of Poverty in Schools: A New School-Level Measure of Economic Need. Research Report
Quelle	(2022), (42 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	Quantitative Daten; Poverty; Low Income Students; Urban Schools; Measurement Techniques; School Districts; Lunch Programs; Models; Family Income; Institutional Characteristics; Geographic Location; Eligibility + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Armut; Urban area; Urban areas; School; Schools; Stadtregion; Stadt; Schule; Messtechnik; School district; Schulbezirk; Mittagessen; Analogiemodell; Familieneinkommen; Eignung
Abstract	Most researchers and policymakers rely on the share of students eligible for free and reduced-price meals when describing student socioeconomic background in schools. But shares of students receiving free and reduced-price meals, and other measures related to the distribution of school meals, vary by state and across time because of changes in school meal eligibility criteria. In this report, the authors describe the development of a new measure: Model Estimates of Poverty in Schools (MEPS). This measure estimates the school-level share of students from households with incomes at or below the federal poverty level between fall 2013 and fall 2018. The MEPS measure aims to be comparable across states and over time and to broadly align with the school's enrolled population (as opposed to a neighborhood measure). They find that MEPS broadly aligns with aggregate state measures of student poverty and are strongly correlated with geographic district poverty as measured by the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program. They also find that MEPS can under- or overestimate poverty shares for certain districts. In particular, they find that the model underestimates school-level poverty for districts enrolling high shares of Black students. To correct for this, they produce modified MEPS, a second measure that mechanically adjusts their estimate to align with geographic district poverty rates. Because of wider margins of error for districts with small populations in the SAIPE data, they recommend using modified MEPS only for analysis of geographic districts with more than 65,000 residents. These statistical estimates should be used primarily by researchers. MEPS could be useful for those conducting research across states or years or for policymakers who want to understand how a school's socioeconomic characteristics may have changed over time. But these estimates are not appropriate for allocating resources within a state or district or for other uses when having a true count, rather than a model estimate, is required. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01