Stupid statistics reading question.

[Kyla]

I’m reading some educational studies for a research project and I’m confused by the difference between net and gross. For instance, net enrollment rate versus gross enrollment rate.

Anyone out there with a quick answer?

Thanks.

[SCSimmons]

In general, ‘gross’ refers to the single factor, and ‘net’ to all factors that impact the same metric combined. A simple example for this context: if 100 new students enroll in a school with 500 students at the start of the year, and they have 20 dropouts and 30 students graduate, then they have a gross enrollment rate of 100/500 = 20%, and a net enrollment rate of 50/500 = 10%.

[Lord_Mondegreen]

From this website:

The NER is the number of pupils of the theoretical school-age group for a given level of education, expressed as a percentage of the total population in that age group. The theoretical maximum value is 100%. Total NERs below 100 percent provide a measure of the proportion of primary school age children who are out of school. When the NER is compared with the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) the difference between the two ratios highlights the incidence of under-aged and over-aged enrolment. The GER is the number of pupils enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the theoretical age group for the same level of education.

[ultrafilter]

A quick search suggests that the gross enrollment rate is the number of enrolled students divided by the number of school age children, whereas the net enrollment rate is the number of enrolled school age students divided by the number of school age children.

[Kyla]

Thanks, everyone! I really appreciate it.