Under the Migrant Education Program (MEP), state education departments in the United States receive federal funds to support the education of migrant children. The level of MEP funding dispersed to a particular school district depends on the number of eligible migrant students identified in that district. In 2005 the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) contracted Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER) to implement a reinterview process to evaluate prior eligibility determinations for MEP. MDE hired HACER to conduct a similar re-interview process in 2006. Over the summer of 2006, HACER conducted re-interviews with the families of students previously identified as eligible for the program. This report describes HACER’s research methodology for the 2006 re-interviews, explains the eligibility determination process, and estimates the ineligibility rate (i.e. the “defect rate”) of identified migrant students in Minnesota. The report concludes with a discussion of findings and a series of recommendations to MDE. 

Research Methodology 

This project aimed to re-interview the families of at least 150 students identified as eligible for the program between September 2004 and September 2005. HACER received a sample of randomly selected students drawn from the MIS 2000 database in July 2006. The students in the sample were stratified by their Qualifying Arrival Date (QAD) and the Minnesota region where they were identified. Re-interviews were conducted during July and August of 2006 throughout the state of Minnesota. HACER attempted to contact the family of each student in our sample at least three times through three separate means. HACER conducted 187 successful re-interviews for this project, successfully reaching 62 percent of the sample. Most re-interviews (92 percent) were 6 conducted in person, though some were held over the phone. Re-interviews took place in both English and Spanish.

During each re-interviews, HACER staff filled out a form with sufficient information to determine a student’s eligibility. In turn, two HACER staff analyzed re-interview forms to determine whether students were indeed eligible for MEP. Each staff analyzed the re-interview forms independently, determined eligibility based on the information indicated on the form and recorded these determinations in separate computer databases. Only after each person had reviewed all the re-interview forms did they come together and compare their determinations. In situations where staff had arrived at different determinations of a student’s eligibility, they discussed the case until they agreed to a final determination. Final eligibility determinations were marked on the re-interview form and were also recorded in an electronic database.