Growing Challenges of Aligning Measures of Student Poverty Across States and Over Time

• In Event: Measuring Socioeconomic Status to Contextualize Educational Achievement: A Discussion on Methods, Applications, and Challenges

Abstract

An accurate measure of the number of low-income students is critical for allocating resources to school districts and schools, as well as for meeting accountability requirements under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Researchers and policymakers have found that schools and districts require additional resources to provide higher-need students with educational opportunities equal to those of their lower-need peers, which is why education funding and accountability systems depend on accurate counts of low-income students.

Until 2010, a single student poverty measure generally fit the bill: eligibility for the federal free and reduced-price lunch (FRPL) program. However, since 2010, policy changes enacted by Congress have expanded the use of the community eligibility provision (CEP), which provides free lunch to all students in qualifying schools and districts. In addition, the use of direct certification, which reduces or eliminates the collection of FRPL status through paper forms, has also expanded. These changes bring welcome relief to many school administrators and parents, and needed nutrition to millions of public school students. But they also herald the end of FRPL status as a uniform, student-level measure of economic disadvantage.
While there is growing awareness of these issues, there has been little effort to take stock of new measures of student poverty nationwide, assess their costs and benefits, and consider their implications for research, policy, and philanthropy.

We provide the first current, comprehensive national data on how states are measuring student poverty for purposes of school funding and accountability. Measures vary substantially in data collection method: most (but not all) states still rely on household forms, while all supplement with data on receipt of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps). Smaller numbers of states also work to identify students through receipt of other public benefits, including Medicaid, or through special statuses, such as foster care or homeless. In addition to documenting data collection method, we also explore state-level variations in public benefit program eligibility criteria and implementation. We conclude by discussing the implications of new measures of student poverty and growing challenges in developing consistent counts of low-income students across states and over time.

Measures of student poverty allow diverse stakeholders to understand socioeconomic disparities in education and formulate efforts to expand opportunity. They are critical to efforts to advance the public good. Our paper explores existing measures and advances the conversation on alternatives in service of research, policy, and philanthropic goals.

Authors

• Kristin Blagg, The Urban Institute

• Erica Greenberg, Urban Institute