New State/Local Data for February 2009
American Community Survey (ACS) resource materials
The US Census Bureau has begun publishing educational handbooks to provide guidance on new concepts and the challenges the American Community Survey brings to users. The Census Bureau is now releasing data from the ACS in the form of 1-year and 3-year estimates (5-year estimates covering 2005-2009 will be released in 2010). The Census Bureau recognizes that these estimates are fundamentally different from those associated with sample data from the decennial census long form. Therefore, each handbook targets a specific user group including first-time ACS data users, including:
- What General Data Users Need to Know helps general audiences understand the basics of the ACS, its opportunities and challenges, and how to access and the use the ACS data on the Census Bureau's Web site. It includes concrete examples of how ACS data can be used to answer real-world questions about our society.
- What the Business Community Needs to Know acknowledges that to make effective use of the ACS, businesses need to understand how ACS data are collected and reported, and their advantages and limitations relative to the long form data previously collected during the decennial census. This handbook describes the data products available from the ACS and how to access them. Examples are provided with step-by-step instructions on accessing the data.
- What High School Teachers Need to Know summarizes the types of information and geographic areas covered by the ACS, and explains how to understand ACS data. Specific examples are provided to illustrate how ACS data can be incorporated into lesson plans and activities to address a variety of social studies, geography, and mathematics standards.
- What the Media Need to Know describes how the ACS is put together, key concepts and how to get the most out of the survey. It explains the various ways to find and access ACS data and the best ways for novice and experienced journalists to use the estimates. Step-by-step stories are included of how journalists have used the ACS to find and improve their published work.
Perspectives on a Population: English-Language Learners in American Schools
Education Week, an education advocacy organization, has produced a data-driven examination to date of English-Language Learners (ELL) students and youths in the United States, based on its Quality Counts 2009 report (Profile for Colorado available for purchase only). Drawing predominantly on original data and analysis from the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, each of the report’s five main sections examines critical dimensions that define the experiences of English-learners:
- Profiling a Population offers an extensive demographic portrait of ELLs, including: their socioeconomic background, characteristics of the school systems that serve them, geographical concentration of and shifts in the ELL population, and the immigration patterns that drive much of its growth.
- Policies and Programs examines the ways in which states identify students for ELL services, the types of language-instructional programs offered, policies that aim to expand and strengthen the workforce of qualified teachers for ELLs, and the professional development provided to educators to better serve the ELL population.
- Attaining English Proficiency details the tests states use to assess the progress of ELL students in acquiring proficiency with the English language and provides results on the percent of ELL students in each state who are making progress, attaining proficiency, and qualifying to exit from ELL services.
- Performance and Accountability focuses on the achievement of ELL students in the core academic areas of mathematics and reading, comparing their performance to that of their non-ELL peers. This section also provides information on the types of testing accommodations that states offer to ELL students to more accurately assess their academic performance and on the ways in which ELL students factor into federal accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act.
- Funding the Education of English-Learners explores state-specific funding for educational services targeting English-language learners through federal Title III dollars as well as state-generated funding from formula-based and categorical sources.
Hispanics and the Economic Downturn: Housing Woes and Remittance Cuts
The Pew Hispanic Center reports that, like the U.S. population as a whole, Latinos are feeling the sting of the economic downturn. Almost one-in-ten (9%) Latino homeowners say they missed a mortgage payment or were unable to make a full payment and 3% say they received a foreclosure notice in the past year, according to a new national survey of 1,540 Latino adults conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. Moreover, more than six-in-ten (62%) Latino homeowners say there have been foreclosures in their neighborhood over the past year, and 36% say they are worried that their own home may go into foreclosure. This figure rises to 53% among foreign-born Latino homeowners.
The survey also finds that the economic downturn has had an impact on the amount of money that Latinos sent to relatives or others in their country of origin in the past year. Among Hispanic immigrants who sent remittances in the last two years, more than seven-in-ten (71%) say they sent less in 2008 than in the prior year. Latinos hold a more negative view of their own current personal financial situation than does the general U.S. population. More than three-in-four (76%) Latinos, and 84% of foreign-born Latinos, say their current personal finances are in either fair or poor shape, while 63% of the general U.S. population says the same.
As a result of current economic conditions, many Latinos are adjusting their economic behaviors. More than seven-in-ten (71%) report that they cut back spending on eating out. More than two-thirds (67%) planned to curtail holiday spending. Over one-fourth (28%) report that they helped a family member or friend with a loan.
Impact of the WIC Program on the Infant Formula Market
Since 1972, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) has provided free infant formula to low-income families. This USDA ERS report finds that today, infant formula purchases through the WIC program account for roughly half of all infant formula purchased in the United States. Beginning in the late 1980s, WIC agencies, in an effort to contain rising program costs, secured rebates from formula manufacturers through sole-source contracts for the infant formula they purchase During 1980-2002, infant formula did not substantively change but real wholesale prices nearly doubled. This research examines the impact of providing free formula through the WIC program and its use of sole-source contracts to control program costs on the wholesale price of infant formula. The findings show that providing free formula to low-income families is the primary factor in the growth in real wholesale prices of formula and that sole-source contracts not only have reduced the cost of formula to the Government but also have retarded wholesale price growth.
Determinants of the Food Stamp Program Caseload
The Food Stamp Program (FSP) is intended to help low-income households afford a nutritionally adequate diet. Welfare (cash assistance) and FSP policies have changed significantly since the 1990s. This USDA ERS report examines 1990-2004 data to consider how the policy changes and the changing economic climate have affected the FSP caseload over time. Results show that the FSP caseload shifted sharply from nearly half receiving cash benefits from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to less than a fifth. The share of the FSP caseload not receiving cash benefits from either TANF or Supplemental Security Income (nonpublic assistance, or NPA) increased sharply. The NPA caseload rose when the economy was weak and was sensitive to reporting requirements for the FSP (for example, how often participants must be recertified as eligible). The decline in the share of the FSP caseload that receives TANF is not well-explained by the changes in the economy or program policies. The Food Stamp Program was renamed the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in October 2008.
A Comparison of Household Food Security in Canada and the US
Food security—consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life—is essential for health and good nutrition. The extent to which a nation’s population achieves food security is an indication of its material and social well-being. Differences in the prevalence of household-level food insecurity between Canada and the United States are described at the national level and for selected economic and demographic subpopulations in this USDA ERS report. Associations of food security with economic and demographic characteristics are examined in multivariate analyses that hold other characteristics constant. Comparable measures of household food security were calculated from the nationally representative Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 2.2 (2004) and the U.S. Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement (2003-05). Based on the standard U.S. methodology, the percentage of the population living in households classified as food insecure was lower in Canada (7.0%) than in the United States (12.6%). The difference was greater for the percentage of children living in food-insecure households (8.3% vs. 17.9%) than for adults (6.6% vs. 10.8%). These differences primarily reflected different prevalence rates of food insecurity for Canadian and U.S. households with similar demographic and economic characteristics. Differences in population composition on measured economic and demographic characteristics account for only about 15 to 30% of the overall Canada-U.S. difference.
Fruit & Vegetable Consumption by Low-Income Americans: Would a Price Reduction Make a Difference?
USDA ERS finds that Americans’ diets, particularly those of low-income households, fall short of Government recommendations in the quantity of fruits and vegetables consumed. Some proposals suggest that a price subsidy for those products would encourage low-income Americans to consume more of them. This study estimated that a 10-percent subsidy would encourage low-income Americans to increase their consumption of fruits by 2.1%-5.2% and vegetables by 2.1%-4.9%. The annual cost of such a subsidy for low-income Americans would be about $310 million for fruits and $270 million for vegetables. And most would still not meet Federal dietary recommendations.
Agricultural Productivity in the US
Increased productivity is the main contributor to growth in U.S. agriculture. This ERS data set provides estimates of productivity growth in the U.S. farm sector over the period 1948-2006, and estimates of the growth and relative levels of productivity across the individual States for the period 1960-2004.
The Transformation of US Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency and Risks
This USDA ERS report discusses how U.S. livestock production has shifted to much larger and more specialized farms, and that the various stages of input provision, farm production, and processing are now much more tightly coordinated through formal contracts and shared ownership of assets. Important financial advantages have driven these structural changes, which in turn have boosted productivity growth in the livestock sector. But structural changes can also generate environmental and health risks for society, as industrialization concentrates animals and animal wastes in localized areas. This report relies on farm-level data to detail the nature, causes, and effects of structural changes in livestock production.
