School Poverty: Comparing a Measure Based on Census Data With National School Lunch Program Eligibility Percentage

• In Event: Challenges and Experiences of NAEP Across School Types and Socioeconomic Status

Abstract

This paper explores the potential role of the school neighborhood poverty (SNP) estimates by the National Center for Educational Statistics in the construction of a socio-economic status (SES) index for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The SNP data is based on the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data from the Census Bureau and provides an indicator of the economic conditions of neighborhoods around schools. Using either SNP data or school NSLP percentage as a component in the NAEP SES index, the two indices explain an equivalent amount of overall variance in student performance but the one using SNP explains the Black- and Hispanic-White performance gaps less well than the NSLP data collected by NAEP.

Authors

• Qingshu Xie, MacroSys LLC

• Markus Broer, American Institutes for Research