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

to $40,000 homes as well as more temporary residences
such as shabby, crowded trailer parks. There
is also a section of inexpensive cinder block houses,
each with a standing heater. AFSC staff monitored
during December 1973 and January 1974. Every
fourth household was visited.
b. Precincts I and 26B
Precincts I and 26B are non-continguous areas
with a homogenous, black, low-income population.
(Because of their similar socio-economic characteristics,
these two areas were combined for the purpose
of data analysis.) There are many small farms which
are worked by their owners and a few areas of new
government subsidized homes. People appear to
live off the land and those who are employed do
housework or construction work or are professional
people. Many residents receive some sort of financial
assistance-AFDC, social security retirement or
disability, pensions, etc. Every fourth household was
monitored by AFSC staff during September 1973.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Census Tract 74.04
CDF wanted to survey a low-income black population
in a large, non-southern urban area. We
chose this 99 percent black Census tract in Washington,
D.C. Located in far southeast Washington, D.C.
with a majority of the homes public housing projects,
Census Tract 74.04 has a median family income of
$5,963 and 34 percent of the families with incomes
below the poverty level. There are over 2,000 persons
under 18. Aside from the grassless two-story
housing projects, some of which have been renovated,
there are lower-middle- to middle-income
apartment complexes with young families and a few
single family homes. CDF staff monitored every
third household during late February and early
March 1974.
Out of School Data
Source: CDF Survey Questionnaire; Children in
Household Chart, Questionnaire on Child Not Enrolled
in School (Appendix B, Tables I-III), and
Family/Household Questionnaire (Appendix G).
Procedures: Survey questionnaires were first reviewed
and edited to determine if the child out of
school met our definitional criteria in terms of age,
162
length of time out and so on.
All data were summarized by area initially; areas
were combined to find the survey totals. The numbers
of school-age children in the survey were computed
from the Household Chart, and children out
of school were totaled first, for the three-consecutive
month period, and secondly, for those out 45 or
more days. Then detailed information on the outof-school
children was summarized and rates computed.
Children out of school
----------- = % out of school
Total school-age children
Detailed data summarized for out-of-school children
included information on:
-the reasons given for children out of school
(Chapter 1, Table I)
-racial and ethnic characteristics by age groupings
(Chapter 2, Tables VIII, IX and X) and
by sex (Appendix F, Tables, I, II, and III)
-family characteristics such as educational attainment
of head of household, poverty status
as indicated by AFDC and other public assistance
as sole or partial support, femaleheaded
households. (Appendix G and H).
Suspension Data
Source: CDF Survey Questionnaire; School Expulsions,
Suspensions and Disciplinary Transfers
(Appendix E, Tables 1 and 2), and Family/Household
Questionnaire (Appendix G).
Procedures: We were also interested in gathering
data on absences due to disciplinary actions. We
found some children suspended who also met the
criteria for being counted in our out-of-school data.
These were counted in both summaries.
Data on children who had been suspended during
the survey analysis period was collected and summarized
from our survey following procedures similar
to those used in studying children out of school.
Detailed data was computed on children suspended
including:
-reasons for suspension (Chapter 5, Table I)
-social and ethnic characteristics by sex for all
children and for secondary children (Appendix
T, Table I and Table II)