Metrics for Measuring Student Poverty and Relationships to Other Measures of Student Needs and Outcomes

• In Event: Roundtable Session 100
  In Roundtable Session: Accounting for Student Needs in School Financing Programs

Abstract

Federal law currently uses absolute dollar values to delineate the poverty threshold for family income throughout the continental United States. However, previous research clearly shows that the cost of living varies considerably across the 50 states as well as across regions within states. To this end, this study: a) develops a methodology to estimate an improved district-level poverty measure that reflects geographic differences in the cost of living; b) evaluates the geographic distribution of the currently used unadjusted and improved cost-adjusted measures of student poverty within and across the Midwestern and Western states; and c) shows how they relate to variations in student achievement outcomes and other measures of student needs.

Authors

• Lori L. Taylor, Texas A&M University

• Bruce D. Baker, Rutgers University

• Jay G. Chambers, American Institutes for Research

• Jesse D. Levin, American Institutes for Research

• Charles Blankenship, American Institutes for Research