Certain common variables, such as parents' education, race/ethnicity, urbanicity, poverty, and geographic region are used by different surveys cited in The Condition of Education 2003. The definitions for these variables can vary from survey to survey and sometimes vary between different time periods for a single survey. This supplemental note describes how several common variables, used in some indicators in this volume, are defined in each of the surveys that collected that information. In addition, this note describes in further detail certain terms used in some indicators.

Parents' Education

For indicators 2, 11, 13, 14, 19, and 21, parents' education is the highest level attained by either parent. The latter three indicators report parents' highest level of education based on a question in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) that asked students in 8th- and 12th-grade to indicate the highest level of education completed by each parent. Students could choose from "did not finish high school," "graduated from high school," "some education after high school," "graduated from college," and "I don't know." As of the 2001 assessment, data were not collected at grade 4 because 4th-graders' responses in previous assessments were highly variable and contained a large percentage of "I don't know" responses.

Race/Ethnicity

Classifications indicating racial/ethnic heritage are based primarily on the respondent's self-identification, as in data collected by the Bureau of the Census, or, in rare instances, on observer identification. These categories are in accordance with the Office of Management and Budget's standard classification scheme.

Ethnicity is based on the following categorization:

• Hispanic or Latino: A person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

Race is based on the following categorization:

• American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic or Latino: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America) who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
  
  
• Asian, not Hispanic or Latino: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  
  
• Black, not Hispanic or Latino: A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
  
  
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, not Hispanic or Latino: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
  
  
• White, not Hispanic or Latino: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East. In The Condition of Education, this category excludes persons of Hispanic origin.

Not all categories are shown in all indicators either because of insufficient data in some of the smaller categories or because sampling plans did not distinguish between groups, such as Asians and Pacific Islanders. In The Condition of Education 2003, the previous definitions apply to indicators 2, 7, 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, 25, 29, 31, 32, and 36.

Indicators based on the National Household Education Surveys Program (37, 38, and 44) use up to five categories of race/ethnicity: White, non-Hispanic; Black, non-Hispanic; Hispanic; Asian or Pacific Islander; and all other races, non-Hispanic. The latter category includes American Indian, Alaska Native, and all other races. Not all categories are shown in all indicators because of insufficient data in some of the smaller categories.

Community Type

In the Bureau of the Census's Current Population Survey, community type is a collective term based on the concept of a metropolitan area (MA), "a large population nucleus together with adjacent communities that have a high degree of economic and social integration with that core."

MAs are designated and defined by the Office of Management and Budget, following standards established by the interagency Federal Executive Committee on Metropolitan Areas, with the aim of producing definitions that are as consistent as possible for all MAs nationwide. (See http://www.census.gov/population/www/estimates/aboutmetro.html for more details.) Metropolitan Areas can include Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Areas (CMSA), Primary Metropolitan Statistical Areas (PMSA), or Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSA). As of June 1999, the Bureau of the Census had identified 258 MSAs and 18 CSMAs, which included a total of 72 PMSAs.

In order to be designated as an MA, an area must meet one or both of the following criteria: (1) include a city with a population of at least 50,000, or (2) include a Census Bureau-defined urbanized area and a total MA population of at least 100,000 (75,000 in New England). An MA contains one or more central counties and can also include additional outlying counties that have direct economic and social interrelationships with the central county. An outlying county must have a specified level of commuting to the central counties and also must meet certain standards regarding metropolitan character, such as population density, urban population, and population growth. In New England, MAs are composed of cities and towns rather than entire counties.

All territory, population, and housing units inside of MAs are characterized as metropolitan. Any territory, population, or housing units located outside of an MA is defined as nonmetropolitan. Metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) are metropolitan areas: (1) not closely associated with other MAs, and (2) typically surrounded by nonmetropolitan counties. In each MSA, one or more areas meeting certain criteria of high population density and patterns of commuting to work are designated as "central cities." These central cities may lie entirely within the geographical boundaries of a named municipality or other jurisdiction, or cut across jurisdictions, including counties.

A few primary MSAs do not have a central city, such as Orange County, California. The largest central city and, in some cases, up to two additional central cities, are included in the title of the MA. All areas within MAs that do not qualify as central cities are classified as outside a central city.

In the Fast Response Survey System and School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey (U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics), community type is based on the classification used by the Bureau of the Census and is designated by the following terms:

• Urban: a central city of an MSA or PMSA.
• Suburban: outside of a central city of an MSA.
• Rural: nonmetropolitan area.

The National Household Education Surveys Program relies on Census classifications for community type. It designates each respondent's community type in more microanalytic terms similar to demographic classifications based upon Census Bureau tracts. The respondent's community type is assigned to be the community type of the majority of households in the respondent's residential ZIP Code. Community type is categorized as follows:

• Urbanized area: a place and the adjacent densely settled surrounding territory that combined have a minimum population of 50,000.
  
  
• Urban, outside of urbanized areas: incorporated or unincorporated places outside of urbanized areas that have a minimum population of 25,000, with the exception of rural portions of extended cities.
  
  
• Rural: all areas that are not classified as urban, either inside or outside of urbanized areas.

In the Common Core of Data (CCD), the community type of schools is based on school locale codes. The CCD Locale Code is an eight-level classification of the urbanicity of the location address of a school relative to an MSA. The locale code methodology matches the school to the Census block level, and when that match cannot be done, the locale code is assigned using the ZIP code of the school location. The CCD Locale Code is a variable that NCES created for general description, sampling, and other statistical purposes. It is based upon the location of school buildings and in some cases may not reflect the entire attendance area or residences of enrolled students. For example, not all students enrolled in the school may live in the ZIP code of the school.

The codes are assigned to schools by NCES using data provided by the Bureau of the Census matching to the location addresses provided on the CCD. Every school is assigned one of the following locale codes:

• Central city of large MSA: Central city of an MSA with population of 400,000 or more or a population greater than or equal to 250,000.
  
  
• Central city of midsize MSA: Central city of an MSA but not designated as a large central city, with the city having a population less than 250,000.
  
  
• Urban fringe of large MSA: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or nonplace territory within a CMSA or MSA of a Large City and defined as urban by the Census Bureau.
  
  
• Urban fringe of midsize MSA: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or nonplace territory within a CMSA or MSA of a Midsize City and defined as urban by the Census Bureau.
  
  
• Large town: An incorporated place or Census-designated place with a population greater than or equal to 25,000 and located outside a CMSA or MSA.
  
  
• Small town: An incorporated place or Census-designated place with population less than 25,000 and greater than or equal to 2,500 and located outside a CMSA or MSA.
  
  
• Rural, outside an MSA: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or non-place territory not within a CMSA or MSA of a Large or Midsize City and defined as rural by the Census Bureau.
  
  
• Rural, within an MSA: Any incorporated place, Census-designated place, or non-place territory within a CMSA or MSA of a Large or Midsize City and defined as rural by the Census Bureau.

The district locale codes were assigned primarily through the use of school locale codes using the following methods. If 50 percent or more of students attend schools in a single locale code, that code is assigned to the district. If not, schools are placed into one of three groups: Central City locale codes; Urban fringe and rural, within an MSA; and large and small town and rural, outside an MSA. The group with the largest number of students is determined, and then the locale code within the group having the largest number of students is assigned to the district. If the number of students between two or more groups is the same, then the largest (i.e., most rural) locale code is assigned. Districts with no schools or students were given a locale code of "N."

Most school district boundaries do not correspond to major or minor civic divisions such as cities or towns. Often, as cities annex additional unincorporated land, districts retain preexisting boundaries resulting in several urban and suburban districts being within a large civic division, such as San Antonio and Dallas. In some states, the more frequent mode of school organization is countywide districts.

The surveys below use variations of the eight-level CCD Locale Code to categorize community type.

In the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study, the community type of a college is determined using a similar procedure as follows:

• Large central city
• Midsized central city
• Urban fringe of large city
• Urban fringe of midsized city
• Large town
• Small town
• Rural

In the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the Schools and Staffing Survey, the community type of a school is categorized as follows:

• Central city: a large or midsize central city of an MSA.
• Urban fringe/large town: an urban fringe of a large or small central city; a large town; or a rural area within an MSA.
• Rural/small town: a small town or rural area outside of an MSA.

In The Condition of Education 2003, the definitions explained above apply to indicators 3, 11, 12, 13, 14, 27, 29, 30, 31, 38, 39, and 41.

Poverty

Indicators 3 and 41 use the poverty level of a school district, which is computed using a model taking into account information from the decennial census, federal tax returns, the Current Population Surveys, and counts of recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families by county. In indicator 3, the percentage in poverty by urbanicity is a weighted average of all school-age children in the district and the type of location in which a plurality of students live. Both indicators use poverty as defined by the Bureau of the Census, which uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is poor. If a family's income is less than the family's threshold, then that family, and every individual in it, is considered poor. The poverty thresholds are updated annually for inflation using the Consumer Price Index. For further information about estimating poverty in small areas, such as school districts, see National Academy of Sciences 1999.

Data on household income and the number of people living in the household from the National Household Education Surveys Program (for indicators 37 and 38) or the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (for indicator 36), combined with information from the Bureau of the Census on income and household size, are used to classify children as poor or nonpoor. Children in families whose incomes are at or below the poverty threshold are classified as poor; children in families with incomes above the poverty threshold are classified as nonpoor. The thresholds used to determine whether a child is poor or nonpoor differ for each survey year. The weighted average poverty thresholds for various household sizes for 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2001 are shown in the table on the next page. Poverty thresholds from the Bureau of the Census for 1993 and 1999 are revised and may differ from previously published data.

Indicator 2 modifies the categories of poverty, to include the poor, the near-poor, and the nonpoor. Poor is defined to include those families below the poverty threshold, near-poor is defined as 100–199 percent of the poverty threshold, and nonpoor is defined as 200 percent or more than the poverty threshold.

Eligibility for the National School Lunch Program also serves as a measurement of poverty status. The National School Lunch Program is a federally assisted meal program operated in public and private nonprofit schools and residential child care centers. Unlike the poverty thresholds discussed above, which rely on dollar amounts determined by the Bureau of the Census, eligibility for the National School Lunch Program relies on the Department of Health and Human Services' federal income poverty guidelines. To be eligible for free lunch, a student must be from a household with an income at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty guideline; to be eligible for reduced-price lunch, a student must be from a household with an income at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty guideline. Title I basic program funding relies on free-lunch eligibility numbers as one (of four) possible poverty measures for levels of Title I federal funding. In The Condition of Education 2003, eligibility for the National School Lunch Program applies to indicators 11, 12, 13, 14, 29, and 30.

Geographic Region

The following regional classification system represents the four geographical regions as defined by the Bureau of the Census. In The Condition of Education 2003, indicators 1, 3, 15, 17, 29, and 30 use this system. Indicator 27 uses a system of regional classification developed by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Bureau of the Census's Midwest region includes the same states as the BEA's Central region.

BEA Regional Classification

Weighted average poverty thresholds, by household size: 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2001

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, NCES. National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES), 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, and 2001.