This is the final draft of the DFG report. Appeals on DFGs must be submitted to the County Superintendent by Monday, August 16, 2004.

Printable Version (618 kb PDF )

Excel Spreadsheet of DFGs

1990 District Factor Groups

Executive Summary

The District Factor Groups (DFGs) were first developed in 1975 for the purpose of comparing students’ performance on statewide assessments across demographically similar school districts. The categories are updated every ten years when the Census Bureau releases the latest Decennial Census data.

Since the DFGs were created, they have been used for purposes other than analyzing test score performance. In particular, the DFGs played a significant role in determining the initial group of districts that were classified as Abbott districts. Additionally, subsequent to the Abbott IV court ruling, the DFGs were also used to define the group of school districts on which Abbott v Burke parity remedy aid would be based.

The DFGs represent an approximate measure of a community’s relative socioeconomic status (SES). The classification system provides a useful tool for examining student achievement and comparing similarly-situated school districts in other analyses. The DFGs do not have a primary or significant influence in the school funding formula beyond the legal requirements associated with parity aid provided to the Abbott districts.

In updating the DFGs using the data from the most recent Decennial Census, efforts were made to improve the methodology while preserving the underlying meaning of the DFG classification system. After discussing the measure with representatives from school districts and experimenting with various methods, the DFGs were calculated using the following six variables that are closely related to SES:

1) Percent of adults with no high school diploma
2) Percent of adults with some college education
3) Occupational status
4) Unemployment rate
5) Percent of individuals in poverty
6) Median family income.

Unlike the model used to create the DFGs based on the 1990 census data, this model has omitted population density as a relevant variable. The same statistical method (principal components analysis) was used to determine districts’ relative SES. The method used to group the districts into DFG categories was also the same.

A number of methodological decisions were made to avoid classifying a school district in an inappropriate DFG category. First, communities in which there were fewer than 70 respondents to the Census questionnaire are omitted. Second, school districts in which more than half of the school-aged population is enrolled in non-public schools were not classified in a DFG. Both of these limitations are consistent with methods used in the previous DFG report. Third, school districts’ DFG ratings are adjusted to account for students who are part of sending-receiving relationships and, as such, live in other communities. This is the first time that such a method has been used. Note that since students’ characteristics are counted in the school district in which they attend school, non-operating school districts do not receive a DFG classification.

It has been suggested that the Decennial Census data may not accurately reflect the demographics of enrolled in a district’s schools. Despite this concern, the census data are used for two reasons. First, experimentation with other data demonstrates that there are no viable alternatives to the census data. Second, considerable research suggests that community characteristics, not only an individual’s characteristics, are relevant in terms of the impact of demographics on student performance.

Additionally, a small number of school districts have experienced exceptionally rapid enrollment growth in the past few years. It is possible that, despite having similar socioeconomic backgrounds, students who have lived in a particular community for a shorter period of time may not perform as well as their peers who have not recently been relocated. Some caution should be exercised when comparing student performance in such districts to others.

District Factor Group Listing

The following table lists the DFG classification for each school district based on the 2000 Decennial Census. For illustrative purposes, the 1990 DFG is included as well. Since some methodological changes were made, changes observed in the table should not be interpreted as the degree to which the community’s SES changed over the past decade.