Methodology

This page explains exactly how the Black Leadership Board is scored. The goal is one thing. Make every number defensible, transparent, and adjustable. If you disagree with a choice on this page, you can see precisely what we did and why.

What the Leadership Board measures

The board scores outcomes in cities currently led by a Black mayor. The default scope is every United States city above a population threshold of 100,000 residents, drawn from a verified roster of leaders. A parallel state board uses governors and statewide officials. The board does not score a city until its data is loaded and verified.

The board judges outcomes during a leader's tenure. It does not claim that a leader caused those outcomes alone. The caveat at the bottom of this page applies to every view of the board.

The six indicators

Six indicators make up the score. Each comes from a cited public source and uses the latest available year. Four are better when higher. Two are better when lower, so we invert them before scoring.

Black median household income. Source is the United States Census Bureau American Community Survey. Higher is better.
Black homeownership rate. Source is the Census American Community Survey. Higher is better.
Black to white unemployment gap. Source is the Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics combined with the American Community Survey. A smaller gap is better, so this indicator is inverted.
Black owned business density per 1,000 Black residents. Source is the Census Annual Business Survey. Higher is better.
Reading and math proficiency for Black students. Source is state assessment files and federal EdFacts data. Higher is better.
Violent crime rate, measured as a five year trend. Source is the Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting and the National Incident Based Reporting System. A falling rate is better, so this indicator is inverted.

How the score is computed

Step one. Normalize each indicator

Each indicator is placed on a common scale from 0 to 100 across the peer set of Black led cities. The default method is min to max scaling. A city at the bottom of the peer set on an indicator scores near 0 on that indicator. A city at the top scores near 100. A percentile option is available and, if used, is stated on the board. Only cities that meet the completeness rule below take part in the normalization.

Step two. Combine into a composite

The composite score is the weighted mean of the six normalized indicators. By default every indicator carries an equal weight of one sixth. The weights are published and can be tuned. The board always shows the exact weights in use.

Current weights. Black median household income 1/6. Black homeownership rate 1/6. Black to white unemployment gap 1/6. Black owned business density 1/6. Reading and math proficiency 1/6. Violent crime five year trend 1/6.

Step three. The five year trend

The board also reports the change in a city's composite over five years as a separate up or down signal. This judges a leader on direction, not only on an inherited level. A city can sit at a high level because of conditions that predate the current leader. The trend signal shows whether things are improving or worsening during the tenure.

The national average is shown alongside every indicator

The board ranks Black led cities against each other. It also shows the national average next to every indicator and draws a national reference line on the composite. This matters. A city can beat its peers and still sit below the national average. The board shows that plainly rather than hiding it. National values are stored as observations at the national level and rendered as a reference column on each indicator and as a reference line on the composite.

Read this carefully. Ranking first among peers is not the same as doing well by the national standard. When a top ranked city is still below the national average on an indicator, the board says so on the same screen.

The completeness rule

Completeness is the fraction of the six indicators that are present for a city. If a city has fewer than 67 percent of its indicators, which is four of the six, it is not scored. Instead it is listed as insufficient data. We would rather list a city honestly than score it on a thin or incomplete record. No indicator is ever imputed or filled in with a guess.

The causation caveat

Caveat on every board view. Mayors and governors do not control the whole economy, state preemption of local policy, or the weight of history. This board measures outcomes during a leader's tenure. It does not claim sole causation. Read the trend signal and the national average together with the rank to form a fair picture.

Honesty guards

Every sub score shows its raw value, its source, and its data year.
No indicator is imputed. A missing value is shown as data not available, never guessed.
The exact formula and the current weights live on this page.
A show your work view on each city reveals all six raw numbers behind the score.

For the full list of sources with agency, dataset, access method, cadence, and a direct link, see the sources page.