[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-203245-105":59,"doc-detail-203245-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","free-and-reduced-price-meal-eligibility-does-not-measure-student-poverty-evidence-and-policy-significance","Free and reduced-price meal eligibility does not measure student poverty - Evidence and policy significance","","Free and reduced-price meal (FRM) eligibility is widely used in U.S. education research and policy as an indicator of student poverty, yet it functions as an inaccurate proxy. Using multiple data sources external to the school system, the study shows that FRM status yields eligibility rates far above expectations implied by stated income thresholds for program participation. The gap persists even without accounting for community eligibility, and community eligibility further worsens the mismatch in recent years. The paper offers validity evidence for a new measure of school poverty based on local-area family incomes.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/free-and-reduced-price-meal-eligibility-does-not-measure-student-poverty-evidence-and-policy-significance/203245/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/free-and-reduced-price-meal-eligibility-does-not-measure-student-poverty-evidence-and-policy-significance/203245.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Ivy","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-09-04",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why is FRM eligibility commonly used in education policy and research?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"FRM eligibility is used to identify high-poverty students and to target resources, based on the assumption that FRM status reflects low student income.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What problem does the study find with using FRM status to measure poverty?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"FRM status is a poor proxy for poverty, producing eligibility rates far higher than what income-based program thresholds would predict.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What alternative measure does the paper propose for assessing school poverty?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The paper provides evidence for a new publicly available measure of school poverty derived from local-area family incomes.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},203245,1788557582,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":129,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},549758252649,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/8000253669c5317157?_k=1778319167496531819","EdWorkingPaper No. 21-415  \nFree and reduced-price meal eligibility does not measure student poverty: Evidence and policy significance  \nIshtiaque Fazlul  \nUniversity of Missouri  \nCory Koedel  \nUniversity of Missouri  \nEric Parsons  \nUniversity of Missouri  \nFree and reduced-price meal (FRM) eligibility is commonly used in education research and policy applications as an indicator of student poverty. However, using multiple data sources external to the school system, we show that FRM status is a poor proxy for poverty, with eligibility rates far exceeding what would be expected based on stated income thresholds for program participation. This is true even without accounting for community eligibility for free meals, although community eligibility has exacerbated the problem in recent years. Over the course of showing the limitations of using FRM data to measure poverty, we provide promising validity evidence for a new, publicly-available measure of school poverty based on local-area family incomes.  \nVERSION: May 2021  \nSuggested citation: Fazlul, Ishtiaque, Cory Koedel, and Eric Parsons. (2021). Free and reduced-price meal eligibility does not measure student poverty: Evidence and policy significance. (EdWorkingPaper: 21-415). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: [https://doi.org/10.26300/ytaf-nc39](https://doi.org/10.26300/ytaf-nc39)  \nFree and reduced-price meal eligibility does not measure student poverty: Evidence and policy significance  \nIshtiaque Fazlul  \nCory Koedel  \nEric Parsons  \nMay 2021  \nFree and reduced-price meal (FRM) eligibility is commonly used in education research and policy applications as an indicator of student poverty. However, using multiple data sources external to the school system, we show that FRM status is a poor proxy for poverty, with eligibility rates far exceeding what would be expected based on stated income thresholds for program participation. This is true even without accounting for community eligibility for free meals, although community eligibility has exacerbated the problem in recent years. Over the course of showing the limitations of using FRM data to measure poverty, we provide promising validity evidence for a new, publicly-available measure of school poverty based on local-area family incomes.  \nAcknowledgement  \nWe thank the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education for access to data, and Andrew Estep and Cheng Qian for research support. We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Walton Family Foundation and CALDER, which is funded by a consortium of foundations (for more information about CALDER funders, [see](see www.caldercenter.org/about)[ ](see www.caldercenter.org/about)[www.caldercenter.org/about](see www.caldercenter.org/about)calder). All opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders, data providers, or institutions to which the author(s) are affiliated. All errors are our own.  \n1. Introduction  \nFree and reduced-price meal (FRM) eligibility plays a central role in identifying highpoverty students in U.S. education policy. For example, under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the accountability systems of all fifty states plus Washington DC track gaps in student achievement by poverty status, and 84 percent (all but six states and Washington DC) use FRM data to identify high-poverty students. FRM data are also used to allocate federal, state, and local funding with the goal of targeting resources toward schools serving low-income children.1 The scholarly community is similarly reliant on FRM data to identify high-poverty students for a variety of research-based applications (Domina et al., 2018) .  \nNoting that FRM data are commonly used in these roles, it is well-understood that FRM designations are error-prone, blunt indicators of poverty and obscure wide variation in income within FRM status bins (Domina et al., 2018; Harwell and LeBeau, 201","cbCaimhlz94bpH3d","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimhlz94bpH3d","pdf",426597,41,"English","# Introduction\n## FRM as a proxy for poverty\n## Prior evidence of measurement error\n## Data sources and evaluation approach","[{\"question\":\"Why is FRM eligibility commonly used in education policy and research?\",\"answer\":\"FRM eligibility is used to identify high-poverty students and to target resources, based on the assumption that FRM status reflects low student income.\"},{\"question\":\"What problem does the study find with using FRM status to measure poverty?\",\"answer\":\"FRM status is a poor proxy for poverty, producing eligibility rates far higher than what income-based program thresholds would predict.\"},{\"question\":\"What alternative measure does the paper propose for assessing school poverty?\",\"answer\":\"The paper provides evidence for a new publicly available measure of school poverty derived from local-area family incomes.\"}]","Free and reduced-price meal eligibility does not measure student poverty - Evidence and policy significance | PDF",103]