Download or read book Identifying and Analyzing Geographic Change to School Districts written by Colleen D. Joyce and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 17 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The U.S. Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) Program produces poverty and income estimates for states, counties, and school districts on an annual basis. These estimates provide updated income and poverty statistics, which are used for the administration of federal programs and the allocation of federal funds to local entities. Although SAIPE's main reason for producing the estimates is to provide the U. S. Department of Education with the necessary information to allocate Title I funding under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the estimates are used by a variety of data users for a variety of purposes. Some data users use the annual data stand-alone, but others are interested in using the annual estimates to explore how poverty and income has changed over time. SAIPE's goal is to produce the best estimate possible for a specific point in time. The estimates are not intended to be used in time series analyses. However, should data users choose to analyze the estimates in a time series, it is important they be made aware of the caveats involved with doing so. When a change in the estimate for a specific entity is observed from one estimate year to another, a number of reasons might explain it. These reasons can be roughly categorized into three groups: those involving geographic change, those involving universe change, and those with estimated demographic change. In many cases, the demographic change is what data users are really interested in. However, even when data users can isolate demographic change from geographic and universe changes, there are still numerous issues involved with comparing SAIPE data for the same area across years. These issues have been documented by the SAIPE team, and are outlined on SAIPE's website. Less well documented are geographic and universe change issues. This paper will focus primarily on these two issues, and specifically on how these types of changes are accounted for in the estimates and how the impact of these changes can be determined. Because there is little change in the geography and universe at the state or county level, the paper will focus primarily on the school district estimates. The Geographic Update System to Support Intercensal Estimates is appended. (Contains 6 tables, 4 figures and 3 footnotes.).