School and neighborhood poverty indicators are a familiar feature in educational research, but the scope and specificity of available indicators is limited. As a result, researchers frequently rely on data from proxy neighborhood geographies out of operational necessity rather than analytic choice. This study examines common constraints of neighborhood data used for educational research and proposes the use of school-centered neighborhood poverty estimates based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) and estimation techniques borrowed from spatial statistics. This study tested the feasibility of producing the proposed indicator by developing neighborhood poverty estimates for 1,793 Ohio elementary schools. Initial results suggest that the proposed indicator may provide a useful supplement to existing school-level poverty indicators and offer additional clarity about economic conditions in neighborhoods where schools are located.
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