Developing and Evaluating Methods for Using American Community Survey Data to Support the School Meals Programs Interim Report (2010) / Chapter Skim
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4 Conceptual Framework and Design of School District Case Studies
4 Conceptual Framework and Design of School District Case Studies
Pages 47-64
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From page 47... ...
FRAMEWORK FOR CLASSIFyINg SCHOOL DISTRICTS To help understand school district differences more systematically in planning our technical approach and, specifically, designing case studies, we developed a framework for classifying school districts and identify ing the geographic level of the estimates that would be needed to assess the impact of operating under Provision 4. At this point, we are focus ing on just three school district characteristics that are relevant to our assessment: (1)
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From page 48... ...
In contrast, a school district with very low need is not likely to be interested in Provision 4, regardless of the quality of the ACS-based estimates, because the savings in administrative costs are likely to fall far short of the added meal costs. "In between" school districts face less clear-cut decisions.
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From page 49... ...
We specified the boundaries of these categories pragmatically, with their primary purpose to partition school districts for purposes of this study. Need: • Low: Less than 50 percent of students are approved for free or reduced-price meals.
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for which the Census Bureau prepared a Small Area Income and Poverty Estimate Program estimate for Title I allocations under the No Child Left Behind Act. There were 13,507 such school districts.
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However, the panel requires only an approximate identification of school districts by need, heterogeneity of need, and enrollment size to develop its technical approach and select school districts for case studies. Information Needs for Assessment Table 4-2 shows, in a very simplified way, the geographic level of estimates that would be needed for different types of districts to assess the attractiveness of adopting Provision 4.
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From page 52... ...
. NOTE: See text for definitions of need, heterogeneity of need, and enrollment size.
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From page 53... ...
Consequently, the universe for case studies is the medium-sized and large school districts with medium aggregate need and heterogeneity of need across schools in the district. Such districts are likely to consider Provision 4 for a substantial fraction of schools -- but significantly fewer than all schools -- and therefore require estimates for individual schools and groups of schools.
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From page 54... ...
We will collect digitized school attendance boundary information, as well as information about program participation and costs for the school meals programs for each school in the school district. The panel will test its approaches for using ACS and other data to estimate eligibility and participation for each school in the district and for the school district as a whole.
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From page 55... ...
The panel selected six case study districts and invited them to participate in the study. The school districts listed in Table 4-3 are the five that have agreed to participate as case study districts as of the date of publication of this report.
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The digitized boundaries provided by school districts may not correspond to the Census Bureau's defined blocks or block groups, which are the basic units for geo 6 Other situations that draw students from neighborhood schools include home-schooling, open enrollment, and other school choice programs.
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From page 57... ...
The second part of the analysis will involve obtaining estimates of eligibility and participation from the ACS and other sources using the methods outlined in Chapter 5 for school attendance areas and whole school districts. These estimates will be compared with school-level and school district-level administrative data and assessed for bias and precision as described in Chapter 6.
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From page 58... ...
to estimate the percentage of children eligible for the free and reduced-price school meals programs within school districts and school attendance areas. Descriptions of the panel's technical approach and membership are attached.
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The panel is particularly interested in selecting as case study districts those for which participation in existing special provisions (such as Pro visions 2 and 3) is not a clear choice.
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USDA and NAS see this as a very important public policy issue for the National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. We recognize that states and school districts have many demands placed upon them, but hope that you will be able to work with us on this project, which has great potential for improving program access and reducing the paperwork burden on schools and parents.
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From page 61... ...
, a yearly census form, to estimate eligibility for the school meals programs. The purpose of these estimates is to develop percentages by which USDA would reimburse school districts for their expenses in providing free breakfasts and lunches to all children attending specified schools.
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e. School district annual revenue from local sources (neither USDA nor state reimbursements)
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Total school district revenue that accrues to school food services.
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From page 64... ...
4. Does your state maintain a database with the information from schools or school districts that are rolled up to complete the Form FNS-10 for the state?
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