children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

as opposed to every second, third, or fourth, was
based on the total number of households in the area
selected. Sampling was done consistently within
Census tracts and political subdivisions, but differently
among them. Households where there was
no answer or 'a refusal to answer were noted and
tabulated. When a monitor found no one home at
the designated household, the monitor visited the
preceding household in the count. (In a few areas,
the next household was visited.) The count always
resumed from the original household whether or not
an interview was obtained at the preceding (or next)
household. If there was no answer at the designated
household and the household preceding it, the monitor
noted this and continued on with the original
count from the designated household. Monitors did
not go back (or forward) more than one household
before the designated household.
All interviewing was done between July 1973 and
March 1974. In analyzing the data we collected, the
school year 1972-1973 (both semesters) always was
examined. However, in some places interviewing
was done a month or more after the 1973-1974
school year had begun. In those places, the analysis
covered up to a three semester time period. We
calculated children out of school by IWO different
measures: I) children who missed three or more
consecutive months of school, and 2) children who
missed 45 days of school, whether or not it was
consecutive. The survey analysis period for these
two measures included 1972-73 and that portion of
the first semester that had passed. Our calculations
on suspension were done on this same two- and
sometimes three-semester basis.
Below is a brief description of each specific place
we monitored.
ALABAMA
1. Autauga County-Beat 10
While parts of Autauga County are developing
into a "bedroom community" suburb of Montgomery,
other parts are sparsely populated and
isolated. APSC staff selected such a rural portion of
Autauga County, political Beat 10, to survey. Beat
10 consists of tiny communities, some all white and
others all black, plus individual black and white
families scattered randomly throughout hills and
hollows. Just as randomly situated are well-to-do
and poor families. APSC staff members monitored
every household during the three-week period following
July 23, 1973.
2. Montgomery
a. Census Tract 3
In Montgomery we wanted to survey a Census
tract with low-income families, both black and white.
Census Tract 3, according to 1970 Census data, is
65 percent black, has a high percentage (39 percent)
of families below the poverty level, and contains
over 1,000 persons under 18. Most black families
in Census Tract 3 live in New Town, the most
delapidated neighborhood in Montgomery, with open
ditches, abandoned cars, and condemned and
burned-out houses lining its streets. Most white families
live in Chisholm, a "blue collar" enclave north
of New Town. Some streets house retired couples
next to poor, young families, and others house upwardly
mobile and middle-income families. Construction
of an interstate highway through the area
has resulted in the abandonment of many shanties
since 1970. Monitoring was done by the APSC
staff from the middle to the end of January 1974.
Every second household was interviewed.
b. Northgate Housing Project
Many black families who have left New Town in
Census Tract 3, especially since 1970, have moved
into the federally subsidized Northgate Housing
Project in adjacent Census Tract 4. All of its residents
in 100 units are black. Though constructed
less than five years ago, the exteriors of its twostory
units are run-down, there is no landscaping,
virtually no grass, and no playground equipment.
Here again, monitoring was handled by the APSC
staff during the latter part of January 1974. Every
second household was included in the survey.
COLORADO
Denver
a. Census Tract 1.01
CDF wanted to survey white children living in a
"blue collar" lower middle income area in a large
western city. Census Tract 1.01 in north central
Denver is such an area. The 1970 Census shows
Census Tract 1.01 to be one-tenth of a percent
black, with fewer than 400 "persons of Spanish
language" (Mexican-Americans are presently begin-
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