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Education > Overview

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Education

Overview  

Communities with educated populations are more productive, more innovative, and earn higher salaries.1 When compared to the state and the nation, Lincoln has more residents with high school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees. In Lincoln, more children are enrolled in childcare quality improvement initiatives, which should lead to improved educational outcomes. Lincoln Public Schools’ enrollment has been growing.

Lincoln Public School students’ scores increased for third grade language arts, and eighth grade math proficiencies after decreasing during the COVID-19 pandemic.2 National research and data from Nebraska public schools suggests that student learning was negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.3,4,5

Graduating from high school gives students the opportunity to earn a higher income and leads to good health.6,7,8 Although educational attainment is highly correlated with income and occupation, research suggests that education is the strongest predictor of health outcomes.9,10 However, Lincoln Public Schools’ graduation rate remains below both the national and statewide average.

From the earliest standardized tests through graduation rates, students of color and students from low-income households experience disparities in educational achievement and attainment. Nationally, research indicates that barriers to equal educational achievement and attainment include ongoing racial segregation, unequal school resources, unequal academic opportunities, and family economic status.11, 12, 13 Research also suggests that disparities in educational achievement by race/ethnicity and income were often exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.14

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Footnotes
  1. Glaeser, E. (2011). Triumph of the city. Penguin Books.
  2. The Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) is the statewide assessment system for English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science that public schools have administered since the 2016-17 school year. It is not comparable to the older Nebraska State Accountability (NeSA) assessment. The ELA and mathematics NSCAS test administered in Spring 2021 was shortened to preserve instructional time due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-participants were also not representative of the whole population. These factors, in addition to changes in enrollment and differences in NSCAS participation rates, complicates direct comparisons to previous NSCAS data.
  3. Lewis, K., Kuhfeld, M., Ruzek, E., & McEachin, A. (2021). Learning during COVID-19: Reading and math achievement in the 2020-21 school year. Center for School and Student Progress.
  4. Kuhfeld, M., Soland, J., Tarasawa, B., Johnson, A., Ruzek, E., & Liu, J. (2020). Projecting the potential impact of COVID-19 school closures on academic achievement. Educational Researcher, 49(8), 549-565. DOI: 10.3102/0013189X20965918
  5. Nebraska Department of Education. (2021). COVID-19 special report: Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) results 2020-2021.
  6. U.S. Census Bureau. (2002). The big payoff: Educational attainment and synthetic estimates of work-life earnings (Report No. P23-210). The Census Bureau.
  7. Freudenberg, N. & Ruglis, J. (2007). Reframing school dropout as a public health issue. Preventing Chronic Disease, 4(4), A107.
  8. Zajacova, A. & Lawrence, E. (2018). The relationship between education and health: Reducing disparities through a contextual approach. Annual Review of Public Health, 39(1), 273-289. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044628
  9. Freudenberg & Ruglis, 2007.
  10. Zajacova & Lawrence, 2018.
  11. Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2006). Race matters: How race affects education opportunities.
  12. Entwisle, D. R., & Alexander, K. L. (1992). Summer setback: Race, poverty, school composition, and mathematics achievement in the first two years of school. American Sociological Review, 57(1), 72-84. DOI: 10.2307/2096145
  13. Hernandez, D. J. (2011). Double jeopardy: How third-grade reading skills and poverty influence high school graduation. Baltimore, MD: Annie E. Casey Foundation.
  14. Kuhfeld et al., 2020.
  15. Step Up to Quality Child Care Act, Nebraska Revised Statute 71-1961.
  16. U.S. Census Bureau. (2021) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about School Enrollment. The U.S. Census bureau defines nursery school “as a group or class that is organized to provide educational experiences for children during the year or years preceding kindergarten. It includes instruction as an important and integral phase of its program of childcare…Children enrolled in Head Start programs or similar programs sponsored by local agencies to provide preschool education to young children are counted under nursery school.” For U.S. Census Bureau data, nursery school and preschool are not differentiated.
  17. Pianta, Robert C., Barnett, W. Steven, Burchinal, Margaret, and Kathy R. Thornburg. 2009. The Effects of Preschool Education: What We Know, How Public Policy is or Is Not Aligned with the Evidence Base, and What We Need to Know. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 10 (2) 49-88.
  18. Bartik, Timothy J. 2014. From Preschool to Prosperity: The Economic Payoff to Early Childhood Education. Kalamazoo, Michigan: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.
  19. The Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) is the statewide assessment system for English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science that public schools have administered since the 2016-17 school year. It is not comparable to the older NeSA (Nebraska State Accountability) assessment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NDE cancelled the 2019 – 2020 NSCAS assessment; therefore, there are no results from that year. The ELA and mathematics NSCAS test administered in Spring 2021 was shortened to preserve instructional time, also due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-participants were also not representative of the whole population. These factors, in addition to changes in enrollment and differences in NSCAS participation rates, complicates direct comparisons to previous NSCAS data.
  20. Lesnick, J., Goerge, R. M., Smithgall, C., & Gwynne, J. (2010). Reading on grade level in third grade: How is it related to high school performance and college enrollment? Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.
  21. Fiester, L. (2013). Early warning confirmed: A research update on third-grade reading. Annie E. Casey Foundation.
  22. The Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) is the statewide assessment system for English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science that public schools have administered since the 2016-17 school year. It is not comparable to the older NeSA (Nebraska State Accountability) assessment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NDE cancelled the 2019 – 2020 NSCAS assessment; therefore, there are no results from that year. The ELA and mathematics NSCAS test administered in Spring 2021 was shortened to preserve instructional time, also due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-participants were also not representative of the whole population. These factors, in addition to changes in enrollment and differences in NSCAS participation rates, complicates direct comparisons to previous NSCAS data.
  23. In general, students are eligible for free lunch if their household income is less than 130% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and eligible for reduced lunch if their household income is less than 185% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. In the 2022-23 school year, students in a family of four with a household income less than $36,075 would be eligible for free lunch, and those with a household income less than $51,338 would be eligible for reduced lunch. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. (2022). Child nutrition programs: Income eligibility guidelines. Federal Register/Vol. 87, No. 32/Wednesday, February 16, 2022. Retrieved 11.26.2024.
  24. Lewis, K., Kuhfeld, M., Ruzek, E., & McEachin, A. (2021). Learning during COVID-19: Reading and math achievement in the 2020-21 school year. Center for School and Student Progress.
  25. Kuhfeld, M., Soland, J., Tarasawa, B., Johnson, A., Ruzek, E., & Liu, J. (2020). Projecting the potential impact of COVID-19 school closures on academic achievement. Educational Researcher. 49(8), 549-565. DOI: 10.3102/0013189X20965918. Changes in enrollment and differences in NSCAS participation rates complicates direct comparisons to previous assessment data.
  26. The Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) is the statewide assessment system for English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science that public schools have administered since the 2016-17 school year. It is not comparable to the older NeSA (Nebraska State Accountability) assessment. The ELA and mathematics NSCAS test administered in Spring 2021 was shortened to preserve instructional time due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-participants were also not representative of the whole population. These factors, in addition to changes in enrollment and differences in NSCAS participation rates, complicates direct comparisons to previous NSCAS data.
  27. The Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) is the statewide assessment system for English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science that public schools have administered since the 2016-17 school year. It is not comparable to the older NeSA (Nebraska State Accountability) assessment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NDE cancelled the 2019 – 2020 NSCAS assessment; therefore, there are no results from that year. The ELA and mathematics NSCAS test administered in Spring 2021 was shortened to preserve instructional time, also due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-participants were also not representative of the whole population. These factors, in addition to changes in enrollment and differences in NSCAS participation rates, complicates direct comparisons to previous NSCAS data.
  28. In general, students are eligible for free lunch if their household income is less than 130% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and eligible for reduced lunch if their household income is less than 185% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. In the 2022-23 school year, students in a family of four with a household income less than $36,075 would be eligible for free lunch, and those with a household income less than $51,338 would be eligible for reduced lunch. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. (2022). Child nutrition programs: Income eligibility guidelines. Federal Register/Vol. 87, No. 32/Wednesday, February 16, 2022. Retrieved 11.26.2024.
  29. This is the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the nation, considered the most accurate estimate of four-year graduation rates. McFarland, J., Hussar, B., Zhang, J., Wang, X., Wang, K., Hein, S., Diliberti, M., Forrest Cataldi, E., Bullock Mann, F., and Barmer, A. (2019). The Condition of Education 2019 (NCES 2019-144). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved 11.12.2019.
  30. A 100% graduation rate is unlikely, in part because some special education students continue to receive educational services beyond four years of high school, some students graduate but in more than four years, and due to student mobility out of districts and state.
  31. In general, students are eligible for free lunch if their household income is less than 130% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines, and eligible for reduced price lunch if their household income is less than 185% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. In the 2022-23 school year, students in a family of four with a household income less than $36,075 would be eligible for free lunch, and those with a household income less than $51,338 would be eligible for reduced lunch. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service. (2022). Child nutrition programs: Income eligibility guidelines. Federal Register/Vol. 87, No. 32/Wednesday, February 16, 2022. Retrieved 11.26.2024.
  32. The district dropout rate is calculated by dividing the total number of 7th-12th grade students who dropped out by the official fall enrollment for grades 7-12. A student who dropped out either enrolled in school the previous school year but did not enroll at the beginning of the current school year, has not graduated from high school or completed a state or district-approved education program, or has aged out.
  33. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics Program, Table 5.2 Employment, wages, and projected change in employment by typical entry-level education (Employment in thousands). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Labor.