Median Family Household Incomes by School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I did this in part because every time wealth inequality comes up it is hard to compare schools to each other. FARMS just gives you the low end, not any indication of the high end. Looking at other data sources and proxies is problematic. Data sources often aren't closely tied to school boundaries, and it is hard to demonstrate you're not cherry picking data.

I double checked the logic and did some consistency checks with zip codes. The data seems to be accurate. But this isn't the median income for families of students- it includes young married couples and married retirees. Even for families with kids, it includes single-parent households and single-earner households. These will drive the median lower than whatever you might intuitively expect. And in some cases, people underestimate how many multi-family homes are in an area- you don't need a lot of space to offset expensive SFHs.

But this begs the question of what the mechanisms are whereby the incomes of parents impacts students. Aside from kids in poverty experiencing the various hardships they do outside of school, and what that means for learning (e.g., hunger, less sleep), what are the impacts of wealth when comparing a middle class income versus a high income? Or even what median wealth overall means for education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most clusters are huge! Elementary schools?

Detailed census data isn't available for small areas. I'm not sure how much I'd trust the binning and interpolation that would have to happen at the elementary school level. Especially in the high income areas.

Chevy Chase Village is the wealthiest zip code in the county.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most clusters are huge! Elementary schools?

Detailed census data isn't available for small areas. I'm not sure how much I'd trust the binning and interpolation that would have to happen at the elementary school level. Especially in the high income areas.

Chevy Chase Village is the wealthiest zip code in the county.

It not, though.

Quick perusal:
https://moneyinc.com/the-30-richest-zip-codes-in-the-u-s/
https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/features/most-expensive-zip-codes-us/

[Anonymous]

^^oops, my bad. I read "country" not "county." Please ignore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^oops, my bad. I read "country" not "county." Please ignore.

The superintendent knows this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I did this in part because every time wealth inequality comes up it is hard to compare schools to each other. FARMS just gives you the low end, not any indication of the high end. Looking at other data sources and proxies is problematic. Data sources often aren't closely tied to school boundaries, and it is hard to demonstrate you're not cherry picking data.

I double checked the logic and did some consistency checks with zip codes. The data seems to be accurate. But this isn't the median income for families of students- it includes young married couples and married retirees. Even for families with kids, it includes single-parent households and single-earner households. These will drive the median lower than whatever you might intuitively expect. And in some cases, people underestimate how many multi-family homes are in an area- you don't need a lot of space to offset expensive SFHs.

But this begs the question

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I did this in part because every time wealth inequality comes up it is hard to compare schools to each other. FARMS just gives you the low end, not any indication of the high end. Looking at other data sources and proxies is problematic. Data sources often aren't closely tied to school boundaries, and it is hard to demonstrate you're not cherry picking data.

I double checked the logic and did some consistency checks with zip codes. The data seems to be accurate. But this isn't the median income for families of students- it includes young married couples and married retirees. Even for families with kids, it includes single-parent households and single-earner households. These will drive the median lower than whatever you might intuitively expect. And in some cases, people underestimate how many multi-family homes are in an area- you don't need a lot of space to offset expensive SFHs.

Now that your've done this, does it show anything not already present in FARMs data?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here. I did this in part because every time wealth inequality comes up it is hard to compare schools to each other. FARMS just gives you the low end, not any indication of the high end. Looking at other data sources and proxies is problematic. Data sources often aren't closely tied to school boundaries, and it is hard to demonstrate you're not cherry picking data.

I double checked the logic and did some consistency checks with zip codes. The data seems to be accurate. But this isn't the median income for families of students- it includes young married couples and married retirees. Even for families with kids, it includes single-parent households and single-earner households. These will drive the median lower than whatever you might intuitively expect. And in some cases, people underestimate how many multi-family homes are in an area- you don't need a lot of space to offset expensive SFHs.

Now that your've done this, does it show anything not already present in FARMs data?

It would be kind of nice to add FARMS data onto the original chart, so we could see if the median income is like the general income or if it's an inbetween of really high income and really low income.

Then look at the proficiency rates for each of the groups at the school. Which based off of the other thread about Wootton Option H can see if there FARMS students have higher scores at schools with a good percentage of households that have an income of $200k or more. And I guess you can't really look at the reverse, other than looking at the non FARMS numbers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most clusters are huge! Elementary schools?

Detailed census data isn't available for small areas. I'm not sure how much I'd trust the binning and interpolation that would have to happen at the elementary school level. Especially in the high income areas.

Chevy Chase Village is the wealthiest zip code in the county.

Zip code areas are too big to be able to assign them to high schools. This uses block groups weighted using household numbers at the census block level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most clusters are huge! Elementary schools?

Detailed census data isn't available for small areas. I'm not sure how much I'd trust the binning and interpolation that would have to happen at the elementary school level. Especially in the high income areas.

Chevy Chase Village is the wealthiest zip code in the county.

Zip code areas are too big to be able to assign them to high schools. This uses block groups weighted using household numbers at the census block level.

Chevy Chase Village is a place. It is a neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most clusters are huge! Elementary schools?

Detailed census data isn't available for small areas. I'm not sure how much I'd trust the binning and interpolation that would have to happen at the elementary school level. Especially in the high income areas.

Chevy Chase Village is the wealthiest zip code in the county.

Zip code areas are too big to be able to assign them to high schools. This uses block groups weighted using household numbers at the census block level.

Chevy Chase Village is a place. It is a neighborhood.

I'm not sure where you're going with this. Can you explain?

[Anonymous]

Seriously, how long did this take you? Were you able to use AI to put this together?

Also, why are you putting this together?

[Anonymous]

This is a little deceptive, as people with a high income of >$200k may send their kids to private schools or may not even have kids. So you can’t really assume that they are at the high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, how long did this take you? Were you able to use AI to put this together?

Also, why are you putting this together?

It just took a couple hours. And yes, a coding agent helped, particularly with the code handling the GIS data.

[Anonymous]

We make about $450k and will go to Northwood- we could def not afford to move into any of the areas with schools near the top! How can anyone going to Whitman afford to live there? You need $1mill plus to buy a house there? Family money?