Glossary

Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP):  Measures the yearly progress of different groups of students at the school, district, and state levels against a yearly target in reading and mathematics. There are both proficiency and participation targets. Proficiency target goals are set increasingly higher in three-year increments until 2013-14. Target goals increase in 2007-08, 2010-11 and finally in 2013-14 when 100 percent proficiency is expected.

Aggravated Assault:  An unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting sever bodily injury. 

Air Quality Index (AQI):  Measure used to measure air quality in North Carolina.  A daily index value is calculated for each air pollutant measured. The highest of those index values is the AQI value, and the pollutant responsible for the highest index value is the "Main Pollutant." The criteria pollutants used to calculate AQI are:

Carbon monoxide

Nitrogen dioxide

Ozone

Sulfur dioxide

Particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers

Particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometers

These columns give the number of days each pollutant measured was the main pollutant and are defined using the following formula:

Good:  Number of days in the year having an AQI value 0 through 50.

Moderate:  Number of days in the year having and AQI value 51 through 100.

Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups:  Number of days in the year having an AQI value 101 through 150.

Unhealthy:  Number of days in the year having an AQI value 151 or higher.

American Community Survey:  Survey taken by the United State Census Bureau to poll population, social and economic patterns in years between the decennial censes.  Counties or enumeration units over 65,000 are surveyed every year.  Most information collected by the census is also collected in the American Community Survey.  Because of the logistics involved in collecting information of this magnitude, a sample of the population is taken.  For the state of North Carolina, the sample size is approximately 55,422.  Please refer to http://www.census.gov/acs/www/UseData/index.htm for the techniques and quality assurance controls used in this process.       

Arson:  Any willful or malicious burning or attempt to burn, with or without the intention to defraud

Associate’s Degree:  Academic degree typically offered by 2-year community colleges or post high school programs which serve as the equivalent to the first two years of a four-year college or university degree.

Bachelor’s Degree:  Academic degree usually awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for four years.

Basic Family Budget:  Metric created by the Environmental Policy Institute to determine basic family needs for a working family.  It comprises only the amounts a family needs to spend to feed, shelter, and clothe itself, get to work and school, and subsist in 21st century America. It includes no savings, no restaurant meals and no funds for emergencies. 

Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS):  A United States national health survey that looks at behavioral risk factors used in this publication such as smoking, health coverage and obesity.  It is run by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and is conducted by the individual states. The survey is conducted by telephone.

Body Mass Index (BMI):  A statistical measurement which compares a person's weight and height. Though it does not actually measure the percentage of body fat, it may be a useful tool to estimate a healthy body weight based on how tall a person is. 

Burglary:  The unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft.  Includes attempted forcible entry.

Census:  Process of acquiring and recording information about a population.  In the United States, the census is performed decennially in years that end in 0.  The census collects information transcending race, age, ethnicity, employment, income, housing and country of origin.  Because of its high cost and resources required to adequately perform a census, these figures are updated in interim years between these censes with the American Community Survey and the Current Population Survey.  These intra-census surveys take a sampling of the population and apply them to a larger data set using statistical techniques.    

Confidence Interval:  In sampling data from a larger set to create an approximate or mean value, a confidence interval determines the range of values (or margin of error) that the approximation or mean value could conceivably have if a different set of values were taken.  This margin of error is based off the variance, sample size and value to determine bounding values around the mean or approximation.  Because of this, the sample size and margin of error are inversely related for the same confidence interval.  For larger sample sizes, the margin of error will be smaller.  All published margins of error for the American Community Survey are based on a 90% confidence level.  The BRFSS utilizes a 95% confidence interval.    

County and Equivalent Entity:  The primary legal subdivision of most states. In Louisiana, these subdivisions are known as parishes. In Alaska, which has no counties, the county equivalents are boroughs, a legal subdivision, and census areas, a statistical subdivision. In four states (Maryland, Missouri, Nevada and Virginia), there are one or more cities that are independent of any county and thus constitute primary subdivisions of their states. The District of Columbia has no primary divisions, and the entire area is considered equivalent to a county for statistical purposes. In Puerto Rico, municipios are treated as county equivalents.

Current Population Survey:  Survey performed by the United States Census Bureau for the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  This survey tracks information about unemployment statistics, volunteerism, living patterns, employment patterns in the workforce and health patterns. 

Domestic Violence:  The commission of one or more of the following acts upon an aggrieved party or upon a minor child residing with or in the custody of the aggrieved party by a person with whom the aggrieved party has or has had a personal relationship, but does not include acts of self defense:

• Attempting to cause bodily injury, or intentionally causing bodily injury

• Placing the aggrieved party or a member of the aggrieved party's family or household in fear of imminent serious bodily injury or continued harassment that rises to such a level as to inflict substantial emotional distress

• Committing any act defined in General Statute 14 27.2 through 14 27.7.

Educational Attainment:  Highest level of education completed in terms of the highest degree or the highest level of schooling completed.

Elementary School:  A school inclusive of kindergarten through either the eighth or ninth grade, or the first through either the eighth or ninth grade. It can include both elementary and intermediate or middle schools.

Employed:  Employed includes all civilians 16 years old and over who were either (1) "at work" -- those who did any work at all during the reference week as paid employees, worked in their own business or profession, worked on their own farm, or worked 15 hours or more as unpaid workers on a family farm or in a family business; or (2) were "with a job but not at work" -- those who did not work during the reference week but had jobs or businesses from which they were temporarily absent due to illness, bad weather, industrial dispute, vacation, or other personal reasons. Excluded from the employed are people whose only activity consisted of work around the house or unpaid volunteer work for religious, charitable, and similar organizations; also excluded are people on active duty in the United States Armed Forces. The reference week is the calendar week preceding the date on which the respondents completed their questionnaires or were interviewed. This week may not be the same for all respondents.

End of Course (EOC) Testing:  Tests used to sample a student’s knowledge of subject-related concepts as specified in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and to provide a global estimate of the student’s mastery of the material in a particular content area.

End of Grade (EOG) Testing:  Tests that are designed to measure student performance on the goals, objectives, and grade-level competencies specified in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

Ethnic Groups:  The Race and Ethnic standards were developed by the Office of Management and Budget in cooperation with Federal agencies to provide consistent data on race and ethnicity throughout the Federal Government. The development of the data standards stem in large measure from new responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws.  There are two minimum categories for ethnicity: Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino. The federal government considers race and Hispanic origin to be two separate and distinct concepts. Hispanics and Latinos may be of any race.

Family Household (Family):  A family includes a householder and one or more people living in the same household who are related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. All people in a household who are related to the householder are regarded as members of his or her family. A family household may contain people not related to the householder, but those people are not included as part of the householder's family in census tabulations. Not all households contain families since a household may comprise a group of unrelated people or one person living alone.

Forcible Rape:  The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.  Assaults or attempts to commit rape are also included in this statistic.

Gang:  A group or association of three or more persons who may have a common identifying sign, symbol, or name and who individually or collectively engage in, or have engaged in, criminal activity which creates an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. Criminal activity includes certain acts that if committed by an adult would be a crime.

Hate Crime:  Crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, including where appropriate the crimes of murder and non-negligent manslaughter; forcible rape; aggravated assault, simple assault, intimidation; arson; and destruction, damage or vandalism of property.

High School:  Schools with either the ninth through the twelfth grade or the tenth through the twelfth grades.

High School Graduation Rate:  Represents the percentage of students who successfully complete high school.  In North Carolina, high school graduation is computed for both a 4 year cohort for students who complete high school in 4 years or less, plus a 5 year graduation rate for students requiring a fifth year of high school in order to complete graduation requirements.  Students who leave high school for a community college GED or adult high school program are counted as dropouts under state policy. Also, the cohort graduation rate does not count students with disabilities who complete the 12th grade but do not qualify for a standard diploma and instead earn a Certificate of Achievement or Graduation Certificate.

Homicide:  A death resulting from the intentional use of force or power, threatened or actual, against another person, group, or community. A preponderance of evidence must indicate that the use of force was intentional.

Household:  A household includes all the people who occupy a housing unit as their usual place of residence.

Income:  The sum of the amounts reported separately for wages, salary, commissions, bonuses, or tips; self-employment income from own nonfarm or farm businesses, including proprietorships and partnerships; interest, dividends, net rental income, royalty income, or income from estates and trusts; Social Security or Railroad Retirement income; Supplemental Security Income (SSI); any public assistance or welfare payments from the state or local welfare office; retirement, survivor, or disability pensions; and any other sources of income received regularly such as Veterans' (VA) payments, unemployment compensation, child support, or alimony.

Infant Mortality:  Number of deaths of infants (one year of age or younger) per 1,000 live births.

Interpolation:  Interpolation frequently is used in calculating medians or quartiles based on interval data and in approximating standard errors from tables. Linear interpolation is used to estimate values of a function between two known values.

Juvenile Crime:  The number of delinquent complaints received by the court services offices.

Juvenile Crime Rate:  The number of delinquent complaints received by the court services offices per 1,000 youth ages 6-15 years old.

Juvenile Delinquency:  Refers to criminal acts performed by a juvenile.  While a juvenile in North Carolina may encompass anyone between the ages of 6 and 20, juvenile delinquency rates in North Carolina are typically measured per 1,000 children age 6 to 15.  

Labor force:  All people classified in the civilian labor force, plus members of the U.S. Armed Forces (people on active duty with the United States Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard). The Civilian Labor Force consists of people classified as employed or unemployed

Land Cover Classification:  Used to estimate the amount of open space within an area, land cover classification uses LandSat satellite imagery to estimate the observed bio-physical cover on the earth's surface.   A land cover map for the United States was created by the USGS (United States Geological Survey) for the years 1992 and 2001.  Another version of 2007 data is planned for the near future. 

LandSat: Satellite platform used to help create land cover maps across the United States. 

Larceny:  The unlawful taking, carrying, leading or riding away of property from the possession or constructive of another.

Literacy:  The ability to read and speak a particular language

Lower Bound:  For the American Community Survey, the lower bound represents the low end of the 90 percent confidence interval of an estimate from a sample survey. Statisticians calculate that they are 90 percent confident that the true number falls between the upper and lower bounds.

Margin of Error:  A margin of error is the difference between an estimate and its upper or lower confidence bounds. Confidence bounds can be created by adding the margin of error to the estimate (for an upper bound) and subtracting the margin of error from the estimate (for a lower bound).

Marital Status:  Adults are generally classified by marital status as being married, never married, separated, divorced or widowed.

Mean:  In statistics, the mean, or average, is a measure of central tendency that is calculated by summing the total values of a phenomena and dividing by the number of occurrences. 

Mortality:  The measure of the number of deaths in some population usually standardized by some round number (per 10,000 or 100,000) to express a rate. 

North Carolina Standard Course of Study:  Established in 1898 as an attempt at determining competencies for each grade level and each high school course, with a rigorous set of academic standards that is uniform across the state.

Obesity:  Medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to an extent that may have a negative effect on health, and could potentially lead to reduced life expectancy.  According to the BFRSS, obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of greater than 30. 

Population:  All people, male and female, child and adult, living in a given geographic area.

Population Projection:  Estimate of the population for future dates. They illustrate plausible courses of future population change based on assumptions about future births, deaths, international migration, and domestic migration. Projections are based on an estimated population consistent with the most recent decennial census as enumerated. While projections and estimates may appear similar, there are some distinct differences between the two measures. Estimates usually are for the past, while projections typically are for future dates. Estimates generally use existing data, while projections must assume what demographic trends will be in the future. For more information: http://www.census.gov/population/www/projections/aboutproj.html

Poverty:  Following the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB's) Directive 14, the Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to detect who is poor. If the total income for a family or unrelated individual falls below the relevant poverty threshold, then the family or unrelated individual is classified as being "below the poverty level.”

Race:  Race is a self-identification data item in which respondents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify..

Includes the minimum 5 race categories required by OMB (Office of Management and Budget), plus the 'some other race alone' included by the Census Bureau for Census 2000, with the approval of OMB.

• White alone

• Black or African-American alone

• American Indian or Alaska Native alone

• Asian alone

• Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander alone

• Some other race alone
   

Rate:   Way to compare the incidence of phenomena (birth rate, death rate, mortality, etc.) in two different areas which have varying populations.  Rates are usually measured per 10,000 or 100,000 people.  For mortality where we wish to measure the number of deaths per 100,000 people, the rate is computed by dividing the number of deaths by the population and multiplying by 100,000.   

Robbery: The taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of violence, and/or the use of a weapon or other means likely to produce death or serious bodily injury. 

Sample:  A subset of a population.

School Crime and Violence Rate:  In 1993, the General Assembly passed the Safe Schools Act requiring Local Educational