December 20, 2013 | Posted At: 10:56 AM | Author: Alexander Russo | Category: (Who Cares What) Research Says , Teachers, Teaching, Unions , Urban Ed
Charts: Urban NAEP Scores & District Poverty Rates Don't Match Up For Boston, DC, Atlanta
The Hechinger Report's Jill Barshay notes that some big cities did better than others despite student poverty -- and some did worse than might otherwise be expected:
She notes: "Jefferson County, KY, which has the 4th smallest percentage of poverty (65% low income students) ranked 11th in math... Atlanta and Washington DC post lower math scores than their poverty rankings would suggest. Conversely, Boston has higher poverty than most of the other cities. Yet its fourth graders posted the 5th highest score in math." (Some poor cities do surprisingly well)
Interesting, but FRPL eligibility isn't really a measure of poverty. You can make well over the poverty threshold and still be eligible for reduced-price lunch.
Posted by: Paul Bruno | December 20, 2013 at 11:04 AM
NCES is working on a new measure of socioeconomic status. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/09/obama-administration-education-free-lunch/2144137/
Posted by: Anonymous | December 20, 2013 at 16:31 PM
I actually went out looking for actual district poverty data here: http://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2013/12/31/naep-tuda-scores-detroit-isnt-boston/
It's a long job.
Posted by: Education Realist | December 31, 2013 at 13:07 PM