Show Me How Number Weighting Works.
Each district’s student count can be weighted according to two separate weighting systems:
Percentage Weighting – There are 5 brackets with heavier weight count given to students in each successively higher bracket based on percentage of age 5-17 population that is Title I eligible.
| Percentage of Students in a District Who Are Disadvantaged | Each Disadvantaged Student in this Bracket Counts this Many Times |
| Up to 15.58 | 1.00 |
| 15.59-22.11 | 1.75 |
| 22.12-30.16 | 2.5 |
| 30.17-38.24 | 3.25 |
| 38.25 and up | 4.00 |
Number Weighting - There are 5 brackets with heavier weight count given to students in each successively higher bracket based on number of Title I students.
| Number of Students in a District Who Are Disadvantaged | Each Disadvantaged Student in this Bracket Counts this Many Times |
| 1-691 | 1.00 |
| 692-2,262 | 1.5 |
| 2,263-7,851 | 2.0 |
| 7,852-35,514 | 2.5 |
| 35,515 and up | 3.0 |
So here is an example of how two districts with similar poverty rates, one small and one large, fare under percentage and number weighting.
Under percentage weighting, each district places the same proportion of its students in each of the first three brackets. After the weights are applied to each bracket, they end up with about the same average weight per disadvantaged student – Houston is slightly higher at 1.54 than Jim Hogg County at 1.48 because Houston has a slightly higher percentage of disadvantaged students.
| Houston (70,947 of about 244,500 students are disadvantaged - 29%) | Jim Hogg (310 of about 1,110 students are disadvantaged 28%) | ||||
| Percentage of Students Who Are Eligible | Weight Given Each Student in Bracket | Actual Number Eligible Students in This Bracket | Weighted Number Eligible Students (Col 3 x Col 2) | Actual Number Eligible Students | Weighted Number Eligible Students (Col 5 x Col 2) |
| Col. 1 | Col. 2 | Col. 3 | Col. 4 | Col. 5 | Col. 6 |
| Up to 15.58% | 1.00 | 37,570 | 37,570 | 174 | 174 |
| 15.59-22.11 (the next 7%) | 1.75 | 15,747 | 27,557 | 73 | 127 |
| 22.12-30.16 (the next 8%) | 2.5 | 17,630 | 44,075 | 64 | 159 |
| 30.17-38.24 (the next 8%) | 3.25 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 38.25 and up (the rest) | 4.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 70,947 | 109,202 | 310 | 460 | |
| Avg. Weight Given Each Disadvantaged Student | 1.54 | 1.48 | |||
Under number weighting, Houston fills up the first four brackets easily and lands more than half its disadvantaged students in the fifth bracket, where each counts three times. On average, each of the disadvantaged students in all five brackets counts 2.69 times. Jim Hogg County doesn’t have enough students to fill the first bracket. All its students count only once under number weighting.
| Houston (70,947 of about 244,500 students are disadvantaged - 29%) | Jim Hogg (310 of about 1,110 students are disadvantaged 28%) | ||||
| Number of Eligible Students | Weight Given Each Student in Bracket | Actual Number of Eligible Students | Weighted Number of Eligible Students (Col 3 x Col 2) |
Actual Number Eligible Students | Weighted Number Eligible Students (Col 5 x Col 2) |
| Col. 1 | Col. 2 | Col. 3 | Col. 4 | Col. 5 | Col. 6 |
| 1-691 | 1.0 | 691 | 691 | 310 | 310 |
| 692-2,262 | 1.5 | 1,571 | 2,357 | 0 | 0 |
2,263-7,851 |
2.0 | 5,589 | 11,178 | 0 | 0 |
| 7,852-35,514 | 2.5 | 24,710 | 61,775 | 0 | 0 |
| 35,515 and up | 3.0 | 38,386 | 115,158 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 70,947 | 191,159 | 310 | 310 | |
| Avg. Weight Given Each Disadvantaged Student | 2.69 | 1.00 | |||
