Virginia K-12 Public Schools & School Districts

 ... 2015 Virginia K-12 School & School Districts GIS Base Project

 

Empowering visions for success ... data resources described here are essential to know where we are, when change might occur and how that change might impact us,  We help leaders and stakeholders calibrate their visions with data-driven measurements of change.  A strategic plan is an essential part of this continuously changing process ... partners working toward the most successful outcomes.      

 

This section is focused on data and tools to examine characteristics of the Virginia school age population, schools, school districts and neighborhoods. Use these resources to develop/extend/share insights into ways of improving student educational opportunities and outcomes.

 

An overview of the ProximityOne Virginia K-12 schools and school districts demographic-economic GIS project and related data is reviewed here. These same data and tools are available for each state. Install these data and tools on your computer to examine statewide to neighborhood to individual school/school district characteristics. See terms of use and licensing options. Knit together multi-sourced data to gain insights into patterns and infrastructure for the geography, population and schools of interest.

 

Optionally examine these current, historical and trending data in combination with demographic-economic projections. Planning for the future ... assess the how, what and where of change between now and 5 years ahead. See more about school district projections.

 

How you can use these ready-to-use resources:

 • visually collaborate on wide-ranging patterns and geographies in committees/meetings.

 • create maps for integration into stories and reports.

 • view geographic reference maps of school district(s) of interest optionally showing schools.

 • view thematic pattern maps of schools, school districts, counties.

 • add student data and view these data contextually with neighborhoods & other geography.

 • add other subject matter data.

 • add other geography such as census blocks, block groups, census tract, cities, etc.

 • view data in a tabular manner; sort and apply queries.

 • extract data for selected schools or school districts for use with other applications.

 

Visual Analysis of Schools & School District Patterns
Missouri K-12 GIS Project Start-up view; see additional views below

View created with CV XE GIS. Click graphic for larger view.
  -- larger view shows metropolitan area boundaries and names.

The GIS fileset uses the most recent data from:
  • reports by schools, school districts, state & Federal education agencies
  • demographic-economic data from the American Community Survey
  • geographic, demographic, economic data developed by ProximityOne.
The GIS project is available for the U.S. or any state.

Additional GIS Application Views
Lee's Summit, MO school district (bold black boundary) vicinity; schools as red markers.
  - Lee's Summit city shown by hatch pattern. Urban census blocks shown by orange fill pattern.
Click graphic for larger view. Larger view shows patterns of economic prosperity by neighborhood; median household income.
  - See color/interval settings in legend at left of map; use GIS tools to adjust interval values and colors.
  - larger view illustrates use of mini-profile tool to view attributes of a school (see pointer).
  - blue labels show school enrollment; yellow labels show free and reduced lunch fee participation.
  - school at pointer has an urban locale code of 41 (see in profile) but at edge of city and not in urban area.

View created with CV XE GIS. Click graphic for larger view.
Additional Views under development.

Installing the GIS Project (requires Windows computer with Internet connection)
1. Run the ProximityOne CV XE GIS Installer (only required if not already installed)
... run the CV XE GIS installer
... take all defaults during installation
2. Run the Data Installer -- requires Missouri Data Installer UserID (not your User Group ID)
... updated 1/26/15 ... if previously installed allow to reinstall with overwrite/update.
... the data installer will guide you through installation step by step.
... project files may not be redistributed whole or in part; shapefiles are not authorized for use with other software.
3. Initial start-up.
... after completing the above steps and with CV XE running (use desktop icon)
... use File>Open>Dialog to open the project file named c:\k12\k12_mo.gis
... the map view shown at top of this section should appear.
4. Additional optional settings.
4.1. Enable full set of CV XE GIS features available to User Group members:
    ... add your User Group ID to the Key edit box in Settings.
4.2. Enable automatic open of the k12_mo.gis project when CV XE is started:
    ... add c:\k12\k12_mo.gis to the Start-up GIS Project edit box in Settings.
5. Additional optional GIS projects.
... open a different GIS project with different start-up settings.
... patterns of economic prosperity; median household income by census tract.
... create a project for any school district, city, county, etc. with custom settings; your additional data.
... use File>Open>Dialog to open the project files named below:
5.1. Columbia Public Schools ... c:\k12\k12_mo_columbia.gis ... start-up view shows:
  ... Columbia Public Schools (bold boundary); Columbia city (hatch pattern); schools; urban area by census block.


Layers, Shapefiles & Datasets Included
  • U.S. by state
  • Missouri metropolitan areas with selected ACS 2013 demographic-economic data
  • Missouri counties with selected population estimates
  • Missouri cities, initially set with query for Scottsdale
  • Missouri 2012-13 public schools and selected attributes -- iterated four times:
      ... showing school name as label (when layer checked)
      ... showing school enrollment as label (when layer checked)
      ... showing school free and reduced lunch fee students as label (when layer checked)
      ... showing school as red markers (when layer checked)
  • Missouri roads -- TIGER/Line road coverage for selected counties
  • Missouri census blocks with integrated demographics, urban/rural status, other geographic codes
  • Missouri cities
  • Missouri towns/county subdivisions
  • Missouri census tracts with ACS2013 subject matter ... see list of selected items
  • Missouri 2013-14 school districts and selected attributes -- iterated four times:
      ... showing school district boundaries (all types) with district name as label (when layer checked)
      ... %grade relevant children by elementary school district (when layer checked)
      ... %grade relevant children by secondary school district (when layer checked)
      ... %grade relevant children by unified school district (when layer checked)
        (shows %grade relevant children as label)
  • Mapquest Open Street Map as tiling base layer
        (shows only with Internet connectivity)

Using the Datasets
Each shapefile has an associated dBase file; for example the schools layers all use the shapefile sch1213_mo.shp.
The file named sch1213_mo.dbf (part of the shapefile) may be opened/viewed/exported.
Use Database>dBrowse to perform these operations; or open the file "sch1213_mo.dbf" directly in Excel or Access.
Caution -- be aware that this feature can permanently modify the file opened.
  ... any changes made to a field value are permanent.
  ... the Zap button permanently deletes all records.
  ... queries/filtering, changing field widths, sorting, and use of Field Location Manager do not affect the dataset.
Refer to CV XE GIS User Guide for more information.

Illustration of using dBrowse to view schools data; click graphic for larger view

ACS 2013 Census Tract Items -- scroll section

ACS 2013 Census Tract Items Field Descriptions -- scroll section
Similar to above list but structured with one row per item/field.
This item/description list can be used is applications as described in A-3 above.

Extending the GIS Project
The GIS project may be extended in several ways. Among the possbilities are:
  • add other layers/shapefiles of different type to to project; e.g., census tracts, roads, cities, other locations.
  • augment/add a school or school district layer/shapefile with performance data.
  • augment/add a school district layer/shapefile with other ACS 2013 demographic-economic data.
  • modify query settings applied to a layer to show other attributes; e.g. schools by locale code.
  • save a modified project with a new name and start-up view.

Related Resources
  • 2012-13 LEA Characteristics Interactive table
    ... view subject matter used in the Missouri school districts layer/shapefile in this interactive table
    ... national scope table; 18,000+ local education agencies
    ... illustration -- Missouri school districts ranked on total enrollment:
  • 2012-13 Public Schools Characteristics Interactive table
    ... view subject matter used in the Missouri school layer/shapefile in this interactive table
    ... national scope table; 100,000+ schools
  • ACS School District Demographic-Economic Characteristics Interactive tables
    ...General Demographics
    ...Social Characteristics
    ...Economic Characteristics
    ...Housing Characteristics
  • Children's Demographics by School District
  • America's Communities
    ... view city demographic-economic profile.
  • Analyzing Missouri Neighborhood Patterns
    ... use this related GIS project as-is; optionally add layers from this project to the k12_mo.gis project.
  • Metropolitan Areas -- interactive demographic-economic data table
    ... Metro Profiles (include school district summaries)-- click link in left column below to view selected metro