Number Weighting in a One-Page Handout


Last Updated: March 14, 2011
 

This article appeared in the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters.

Editor's note: Links are free and current at time of posting, but may require registration or expire over time.

Most school districts and millions of children are affected by serious inequities in the way the federal Title I program distributes funding to school districts to support the education of very low-income children. (Visit the Formula Fairness Campaign website for more information.)

But the reasons for this inequity can be a little hard to explain. They have to do with the set of formulas that govern how Title I funding is distributed among school districts.

Beginning in 2002, the formulas began to distribute a larger portion of Title I funding to districts with large numbers of low-income children than to districts with large percentages of low-income children. This is called “number-weighting” in the formulas, and it’s unfair to smaller districts, especially smaller districts with high poverty rates.

Your school district is probably losing Title I funding that it would receive if Title I funding were distributed according to the percentage of low-income children, rather than the number of low-income children. (Visit the Formula Fairness Campaign website to find out exactly how your district is faring under these formulas.)

Now there’s a handy one-page tool to explain number-weighting. Click here to download the PDF and share it with members of your school board and community.

Read more from the March 2011 Rural Policy Matters.