Measuring poverty in education policy research
My goal in this post is to explain why it is vitally important in the current policy debate, that we pay careful attention to how child poverty is measured and what is gained and lost by choosing different versions of poverty measures as we evaluate education systems, schools and policy alternatives.
This post is inspired by a recent exceptional column on a similar topic by Gordon MacInnis, on NJ Spotlight. See: http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/11/0323/1843/
There is a great deal of ignorance and in some cases belligerent denial about persistent problems with using excessively crude measures to characterize the family backgrounds of children, specifically measuring degrees of economic disadvantage.
As an example of the belligerent denial side of the conversation, the following statements come from a recent slide show from officials at the New Jersey Department of Education, regarding their comparisons of charter
