Abstract
This research uses two measures of poverty, as well as mobility and selected education variables to study how their relationships vary across 543 Missouri high school districts. Using Missouri and U.S. Census American Community Survey (ACS) data, local R2's from geographically weighted regressions are spatially mapped to demonstrate differences in relationships between poverty, mobility, and educational variables across districts. Results show the importance of allowing relationships to “vary” between districts and that using a global measure fails to capture important local contextual variation. Missouri and ACS poverty measures are related to each other and to selected education variables, but the strength of relationship varies significantly by regions across the state. The implications for future research and policy are discussed.
Notes
Children living in high-poverty areas is defined as the percentage of youth under age 18 who reside in census tracts where the poverty rate of the total population is at least 30%.