New York State Education Department  
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Part B Annual Performance Report
2003-2004

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  Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities  

Appendix 2.2

The Need/Resource Capacity Index

 
   

The Need/Resource Capacity Index

The SED Office of Elementary, Middle, Secondary and Continuing Education (EMSC) has developed a Need/Resource Capacity (N/RC) index which is used to categorize school districts into similar groups based on indicators of relative district wealth, population density and some important characteristics of resident students’ special needs. An understanding of N/RC will be helpful in considering the information presented in this Report.

The following definition has been excerpted from the SED Report to the Governor and Legislature on the Educational Status of New York State’s Schools, submitted June 2004. It provides a definition for each N/RC category.

The Need/Resource Capacity index, a measure of a school district’s ability to meet the needs of its students with local resources, is the ratio of the estimated poverty percentage1 (expressed in standard score form) to the Combined Wealth Ratio2 (expressed in standard score form). A district with both estimated poverty and Combined Wealth Ratio equal to the State average would have a Need/Resource Capacity index of 1.0. Need/Resource Capacity Categories are determined from this index using the definitions in the table below.

Need/Resource Capacity Category

Definition
  1. New York City
 New York City
  1. Large City Districts
 Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Yonkers
High N/RC Districts
  1. Urban-Suburban


     
  1. Rural
 
All districts at or above the 70th percentile (1.188) which meet one of the following conditions: 1) more than 100 students per square mile or 2) have an enrollment greater than 2,500 and more than 50 students per square mile.
 
All districts at or above the 70th percentile (1.188) which meet one of the following:  1) fewer than 50 students per square mile or 2) fewer than 100 students per square mile and an enrollment of less than 2,500.
 
  1. Average N/RC Districts
 All districts between the 20th (0.7706) and 70th (1.188) percentile on the index.
 
  1. Low N/RC
 All districts below the 20th percentile (0.7706) on the index.
  1. Charter Schools
 All charter schools in New York State.

1Estimated Property Percentage: A weighted average of the 2000–01 and 2001–02 kindergarten through grade 6 free-and-reduced-price-lunch percentage and the percentage of children aged 5 to 17 in poverty according to the 2000 Decenniel Census. (An average was used to mitigate errors in each measure.) The result is a measure that approximates the percentage of children eligible for free- or reduced-price lunches.

2Combined Wealth Ration: The ratio of district wealth per pupil to State average wealth per pupil, used in the 1998-99 Governor's proposal.

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