Free/Reduced Lunch Correlations

[UPDATE]
I had a request to add spending per student...so I did
What we see is that the less you spend, the better the scores in 3rd grade reading and math seem to be. Also spending seems to be directly tied to free/reduced price lunch...

FYI...I'd like to point out that that just because two things are correlated does not mean that one causes the other...
[/UPDATE]

[UPDATE2]
Added Berryhill, Glenpool, and Sand Springs, changed highlight colors, and made the numbers into percents.  70-79 percent is yellow, 80-89 percent is orange, 90-99 percent is red.
[/UPDATE2]


Using data from my last post and adding three more local school districts(Bixby, Owasso, and BA) I created a Google spreadsheet to show how the data is or isn't correlated. (Interesting correlations are highlighted)
For a stronger case I would need a lot more districts represented, so anything less than 90% correlation is sort of questionable.

Regardless, what we see is that NOT being qualified for the school lunch program is highly correlated with 3rd grade math and reading, and later with SAT scores.

It doesn't look like volunteer hours per student counts for much...which is really surprising. I'm also blown away by how many hours TPS has....I would have assumed that their hours per student would be really low.


We see that 3rd grade math achievement is highly correlated with 3rd grade reading.

We see that (of course) ACT scores are correlated with NOT having to take remedial college courses.

It seems that the reduced price/free school lunch is a big predictor of academic failure. Question is why? Is it because it’s a proxy measure of the wealth and stability of the home?

(scroll to the right to see highlights and correlations)

The following columns have been abrevated in the spread sheet

• Students Eligible for Free/Reduced Lunch
• Patrons' Volunteer Hours per Student
• 1st-3rd Graders Receiving Reading Remediation
• Third grade Math (% satisfactory or above)
• Third grade reading (% satisfactory or above)
• Average GPA of HS Seniors (2009 Seniors)
• Average ACT Score (Class of 2009) 
• Oklahoma College Freshmen taking at least one remedial course
  in Math, English, Science, or Reading ('06~'08)
• Spending per Student (based on Average Daily Enrollment)

Free Lunch Vs Scores in Tulsa/Union/Jenks

The following data for 2009 was obtained from http://www.schoolreportcard.org/

Students Eligible for Free/Reduced Lunch

State	56.3%
Tulsa	76.9%
Union	41.0%
Jenks	24.9%

Patrons' Volunteer Hours per Student

State	3.1
Tulsa	15.1
Union	3.0
Jenks	6.2

1st-3rd Graders Receiving Reading Remediation

State	34.3%
Tulsa	46.2%
Union	44.0%
Jenks	22.6%

Third grade Math (% satisfactory or above)

State	70
Tulsa	66
Union	74
Jenks	79

Third grade reading (% satisfactory or above)

State	71
Tulsa	66
Union	77
Jenks	79

Average GPA of HS Seniors (2009 Seniors)

State	3.0
Tulsa	2.8
Union	2.9
Jenks	3.1

Average ACT Score (Class of 2009)

State	20.8
Tulsa	19.7
Union	21.7
Jenks	23.7

Oklahoma College Freshmen taking at least one remedial course
in Math, English, Science, or Reading ('06~'08)

State	37.2%
Tulsa	56.9%
Union	32.3%
Jenks	24.0%

Union Changes Tone on Free Lunch Application

Last year I received this note from Union Public Schools, encouraging me to sign up for free/reduced priced lunches...even if I didn't need it. The idea, I guess, was for me to get free lunches for my kids and $1.95 a month phone service, while Union gets a few cheap bucks from the Feds in the process.

This is Lisa Griffin, Director of Union’s Child Nutrition, calling to tell you about an important opportunity. Meal prices this year are $1.00 for breakfast, $1.75 for an elementary lunch, and $2.00 for a secondary lunch. Your student will receive an application for free and reduced price meals during the first week of school. If your family qualifies, it could save you up to $525 per child, and provide our district more revenue to use for teacher salaries, books, and supplies. Even if your student does not intend to eat in the school cafeteria, an approved application will benefit the district. Other benefits for you include qualifying for Sooner Care insurance, discounted telephone rates, and school test fees. Please seriously consider completing this application and fill out only one per family. Return it to your child’s school. For more information, call 357-6134.

I was greatly saddened to see this note coming from Union Public Schools. While I don't, in theory, have a problem with this federal program, I reject the outright plea for parents to sign up for it. I saw this same thing at Tulsa Public Schools (see Please Fill Out Our School Lunch Form...Please and The Welfare State Starts at School). It is one of the reasons we moved out of TPS, "The District of Choice" and into Union.

Aside from the obvious moral implications of asking parents to take government money that they don't need, I worried about what a massive boost to free/reduced price lunch enrollment would mean for Union in the long run. I asked myself, what is the ultimate goal for Union, for every student to qualify for a free lunch? Do we really want every school in Union to be a Title 1 school? Getting that kind of federal money carries a terrible price. The simple fact is that parents looking to move in to Union will pass it by, scared off by high numbers of kids getting free/reduced lunches. Unfortunately, it won't end with families passing Union over; as free/reduced lunch enrollment rises, more and more people will flee the district for "greener pastures". Unchecked it would constitute an escalating probability of disaster*. It is a problem that will feed on itself until Union is no better than TPS (or even scarier...no worse)

So, last year I called Lisa Griffin and politely protested. Apparently she listened to what I had to say, because the tone of this year's note was quite a bit different.

This is Lisa Griffin, Director of Union Public Schools Child Nutrition, calling with a friendly reminder. Please consider completing and sending back your application for free and reduced price meals this week, if you have not already done so. These forms were sent out through the mail the middle of July. Getting this form returned before school starts will allow your students to eat without any charges and will remove one more thing from your list of “to-dos” for school. Call 357-6134 if you would like another form. Thank you!

Ms. Griffin told me that she thought of me when she wrote it...I'm not sure if that is good or bad. All I know is I'm happy we aren't pushing so hard for folks to sign up for free/reduced priced lunches.

DIY Neighborhood Graffiti Removal

This is our neighborhood playground. It represents in investment of thousands and thousands of dollars. Because I want to protect that investment, and because I don't want my children to be exposed to the words d*#k, f*#k, n*gg*r, or to a crudely drawn phallus(or an accurately drawn one for that matter), we decided to clean it up.



To that end, my wife purchased Mötsenböcker’s Lift Off® #4 Spray Paint Graffiti Remover


All I can say is wow this stuff really works!!!! check out the before and after pictures below.



If you have some graffiti in your neighborhood, you could report it...you could wait for someone else to take care of the problem. Or, you can take care of it yourself. It's not that hard, and it works, and your kids wont have to look at filthy words or get a crash course in male anatomy.

Scratchin' me where I itch

Yall may nor may not be followers of internet memes, but there is a new one floating around the intertubes where a man jacks up an old washing machine by throwing a brick in it during the spin cycle.

This is my favorite version of this meme...It scratches me right where I itch, and is perhaps a small window into the darker regions of my soul.

918 area code change starting this week

Well...kinda. Starting Saturday Aug 7th, so called "Permissive Calling Period" begins. This means that folks in the 918 area code will be able to dial local 918 numbers with either a 7 or 10 digit number. I.E. you can dial 555-1245 or 918-555-1234.

You don't have to make a change if you don't want to. After the 7th, you can still dial the same 7 digit number you always have....or if you want to get a jump on programming your cell phone or land-line speed dials to contain all 10 digits, you can. (Although I don't think there is anything preventing you from putting the 10 digit number in your cell phone right now...whatever.)

Bottom-line, if you want to ignore this whole 918 area code overlay until the last possible second, you can safely ignore the "big change" this week and keep on keepin' on. Mandatory 10 digit dialing doesn't start until March 5, 2011.