Is Economically Disadvantaged Status a Valid Alternative to National School Lunch Program Eligibility for NAEP?

• In Event: 25.065 - Community Eligibility and National School Lunch Program Status: A View From NAEP

Abstract

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program that provides low-cost or free lunches to eligible students. NAEP uses eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch as a surrogate indicator for socioeconomic status (SES) in its reporting. NAEP and states have traditionally used NSLP eligibility to identify economically disadvantaged students for reporting and accountability. Students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals are (were) typically considered as low income or economically disadvantaged.
The introduction of the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), eliminating free meal applications makes the use of free or reduced-price lunch eligibility as a proxy for individual student SES, complicated and challenging for states and for NAEP in terms of data collection and reporting. One challenge is how to identify students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds for reporting in the absence of free meals applications. The U.S. Department of Education Title I office gives states three options for deciding which students to classify as economically disadvantaged (low income) in CEP schools. States may choose to have only directly certified students identified as economically disadvantaged for reporting. Alternatively, states may choose to continue to collect the equivalent of NSLP data in CEP schools, and report directly certified students, as well as students identified based on family income, as economically disadvantaged. In addition, states may elect a school-level approach and have all students in CEP schools identified as “economically disadvantaged” in reporting.
The use of CEP also puts into question the validity of using NSLP eligibility as a proxy for individual student economic status when the eligibility for free meals is based on school attendance and not household income. This issue is further complicated by the fact that given the three options above which students are considered economically disadvantaged in CEP schools may differ from state to state.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of economically disadvantaged status as a proxy for student SES in reporting. It will examine whether economically disadvantaged status would be a more reliable and valid proxy for SES, and will also assess the feasibility of collecting and reporting economically disadvantaged status for NAEP. The paper is organized around the following major factors and questions to consider:

a) How economically disadvantaged is defined and used in research and accountability systems
b) How individual states and districts define economically disadvantaged status and use it in reporting
c) How economically disadvantage status differs from NSLP eligibility status
d) How the use economic disadvantage status may impact NAEP reporting and trends
e) The implications for data collection and data quality, and whether states and districts will be able to provide valid and reliable economically disadvantaged status information in a timely manner
f) How the use of economic disadvantaged status may impact current NCES efforts and studies on alternative measures of SES
g) Limitations and disadvantages of using economic disadvantage status for reporting

Author

• Kavemuii Murangi, Westat