Giving Compass' Take:

• Matthew M. Chingos explains how states are embracing new ways to measure poverty among students as free or reduced-price lunch programs expand and render that measure useless. 

• How can funders help to develop accurate, transferable measures of poverty? How do accurate measures impact efforts to help disadvantaged students? 

• Learn about the need for more funding for poor students. 

A central component of federal education law for more than 15 years is that states must report student achievement for every school both overall and for subgroups of students, including those from economically disadvantaged families. Several states are leading the way in developing and using innovative methods for identifying disadvantaged students, and other states would do well to follow them.

Until recently, low-income students have almost always been identified as those eligible for the federal free or reduced-price lunch (FRL) program. But FRL eligibility is quickly becoming useless for both research and policy.

Fortunately, several states are leading the way in adopting new methods for identifying disadvantaged students based on their families’ participation in programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, and the foster care system.

Districts have been making such linkages to “directly certify” students for FRL without them having to complete a form. States assuming the responsibility for this linkage reduces burden on districts and ensures more uniformity.

Read the full article about measuring poverty by Matthew M. Chingos at Brookings.