School District Mapping and Geographic Information System Resources

Proximity develops, maintains, and provides access to K-12 school and school district mapping and related spatial analysis tools. Map files (shapefiles) include school point (building/campus location) files and school district boundary files. These files may be used for orienteering and visually based analyses using mapping and GIS (geographic information system) applications.

All U.S. Schools Shapefile
... create maps of school locations; visually analyze school attributes
... request information

Current Area Definition School District Shapefiles
... school districts in many states have changed boundaries since Census 2000
... see examples of how districts have changed from 2000 to 2004
... request information

Current Area Definition School District-to-County Relational File
... what school districts are located in counties of interest to you?
... the School District-to-County Relational File provides the answer to this type of question

CommunityViewer GIS
... view maps of communities and school districts
... identify patterns in your geographic areas of interest
... autodownload and view Census-sourced shapefiles
... tools to assess attendance areas & neighborhoods

Selected Area School District Map Projects. Use these map projects and associated mapping or GIS software to view school district(s) in the context of other geography. See how you can easily relate different types of geography and access dynamic decisionmaking information. You will be able to make similar maps for school districts nationwide integrated with most any type of other geography: cities, counties, metropolitan areas, townships, ZIP codes, census tracts, census block groups, census blocks, water districts, congressional districts and legislative districts, Corps of Engineers and related Federal lands areas, school building locations, and custom defined areas such as school attendance areas.

Examples:

• Santa Clara County, CA (San Jose area, tutorial)
• Coos County, OR using CommunityViewer GIS
• Clear Creek ISD, TX (Houston area)
• Maricopa County, AZ (Phoenix area)

Census 2000 School District Maps. Proximity provides no fee access to Census 2000 vintage school district boundary files. These files may be downloaded via the Proximity maps Web site.

How can you make/view maps?
Make/view basic maps on your computer.
Make thematic maps on your computer.

Custom Maps. Proximity develops custom maps and map shapefiles for new or revised school district areas. Custom maps are provided as end products and/or integrated with other types of geographic and subject matter data. These map products can be provided to meet wide ranging media needs from graphic files to printed maps to PDF formatted maps to map files for use with mapping and GIS software.

Historical Maps for Trend Analysis. Proximity staff were developers of the first national scale set of school district boundary files and maps. The first school district maps and boundary files were developed for the 1990 Census school district special tabulation. In the late 1990's Proximity developed all 1990 Census vintage school district boundary files in shapefile format. Availability of both the 1990 Census and Census 2000 versions of the school district boundary files enables geospatial analysis of changing school district demographics between 1990 and 2000.

Continuous Updates. Proximity continuously updates school district boundaries on a national scale. Alternative vintage files are maintained by Proximity. Using different vintage boundaries enables analysis of, for example, geodemographic situations as they existed in the context of the 1990 Census with those of Census 2000 and those of 2002.

The underlying map boundary files, or shapefiles, are available from Proximity so that you can develop your own maps and link your data with the boundaries for visual analysis of your data. For more information contact Proximity.

Viewing school district maps. The following options are available to view school district maps via Web-based mapping resources.

Use of mapping or GIS software on your computer provides more options and capabilities. Reasons for not doing this include specialized software requirements which can be at considerable expense, learning time required to use the software on your computer, and managing your own map files. Reasons for using PC-based school district maps are primarily the increased flexibility in meeting the specific required application needs. Web-based mapping solutions are inherently limited due to the problem of integrating multi-sourced data with data that might be only on your PC.

FactFinder. While the FactFinder mapping resource enables you to view most types of Census 2000 geography with school district boundaries, the user has no control over the attributes of the boundary colors or weights used. The "layers" cannot be stacked in different orders. Naming features are inflexible and often cannot produce the desired types of views. Thematic maps of school districts are not available using FactFinder.

NCES Map Viewer. With the NCES Web map viewer, the only other geography that can be displayed with school districts are states, counties, and cities. Cities are only viewable as points. City and county label names are often obtrusive. You cannot view streets nor perform address lookups with the NCES map viewer. Like FactFinder, the user is not able to change attributes of "layers" such as viewing order, color, styles, etc. Unlike FactFinder, when using the NCES Web map viewer it is not possible to "drill down" and view the relationships of census tracts and school district boundaries. Using the NCES map viewer, selected data can be displayed thematically for school districts -- not possible using FactFinder. Still, the subject matter selection structure is highly restrictive. A "pick from list" method enables the user to choose from a relatively small subset (though most widely used) of items from the School District Special Tabulation.

Neither FactFinder nor the NCES Web map viewer enable the user to view school locations or attributes in an acceptable manner. FactFinder can display school locations but the locational data are not reliable. In general, school location related analyses should be performed using PC-based mapping applications and where attributes of the school location are known to be correct. These comments are not intended to be negative but reflect on features that limit the usability of the resources. Both the Census Bureau and NCES Web mapping facilities provide very useful resources.

Making school district maps. Follow these steps to make your own school district map. There is no fee involved.

Option 1. School district(s) in a specific county. This description is limited to the situation where the school district is in one county. Note that the map viewer software can require 15 minutes or more to download.

Make a folder on your computer named c:\sdmaps.
Download and expand the county by school district boundary file into c:\sdmaps.
Access the file via http://proximityone.com/maps2000.htm.
In this example, San Mateo County, CA is used.
Download and install the map viewer software.
Start the map viewer software and then click on the + on the second toolbar row.
Open the (in this case) three map files: m06081e.shp (San Mateo elementary districts, m06081s.shp (San Mateo secondary districts), and m06081u.shp (San Mateo unified districts). Select all three and click on Add Theme button.

Option 2. School district(s) in a specific state. The following example is for school districts in Texas. Follow a similar set of steps for any state. Note that the map viewer software can require 15 minutes or more to download.

Make a folder on your computer named c:\sdmaps.
Download and expand the state by school district boundary file into c:\sdmaps:
- Access the type of state by district file via:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bdy_files.html.
- In this example, select "School Districts - Unified: 2000"
- On the next page, arrow down and select "Texas - sn48_d00_shp.zip"
- On the next page, select "ArcView Shapefile (.shp)"
- Expand this file to the folder c:\sdmaps.
For best orientation, also get the state by county boundary file into c:\sdmaps:
- Access the county boundary file via:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bdy_files.html.
- Select "County and County Equivalent Areas: 2000"
- On the next page, arrow down and select "Texas - co48_d00_shp.zip"
- On the next page, select "ArcView Shapefile (.shp)"
- Expand this file to the folder c:\sdmaps.
For a later application, also get the state by census tract boundary file into c:\sdmaps:
- Access the county boundary file via:
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bdy_files.html.
- Select "Census Tracts: 2000"
- On the next page, arrow down and select "Texas - tr48_d00_shp.zip"
- On the next page, select "ArcView Shapefile (.shp)"
- Expand this file to the folder c:\sdmaps.
Download and install the map viewer software.
Download and install the dbmerge software and expand this zip file to c:\sdmaps.
(this step required only for school area demographic analysis)
Start the map viewer software and then click on the + on the second toolbar row.
Open the (in this case) the map files:
- sn48_d00.shp (Texas by unified school district).
- co48_d00.shp (Texas by county ).
- Click on Add Theme button.
Find the Houston Independent School District (or district of interest to you)

Set the county boundary to transparent with re boundary (left click theme name) and the map should appear as follows:

Select the query builder tool:

Build the query and click on execute. Then click on highlight results. Houston ISD appears highlighted in yellow.

Click on 'zoom to results' to selected to view close-up.

State Specific Supplementary Steps. Many state education agencies provide access to school and school district mapping resources. The following example builds on "Option 2" (above) using Texas school system data. Contact Proximity for information about other states.

While this application focuses in on one school and associated school district, similar steps may be followed to view/analyze any Texas school or school district.

Possible advantages of using state specific resources include access to updated school district boundaries (updated since Census 2000) and potentially more accurate or extended school/building level data.

Texas school system map resources: http://deleon.tea.state.tx.us/SDL/SDLdownload.asp. For purposes of these applications, only the non-projected data are used.

Download unprojected schools, expanding this file to c:\sdmaps.
Add the theme c:\sdmaps\schools2003gcs.shp to the mapviewer project.

Adjusting theme settings, a map is generated that appears as follows:
With the school district theme active (click on it in left panel), use the query tool to locate and then zoom to Spring Branch ISD.
Close the query panel to see this district and schools:
With the school theme active, identify tool active, click on the school near the icon as shown in the above map. A basic profile of this school appears:
To view the demographics in the vicinity of a school of interest, the state by census tracts boundary file can be used. This file was downloaded in previous steps. Add this shapefile (tr48_d00.shp) to the project.

All shapefiles from the Census Bureau are provided without demographic data. To integrate demographic data, the Proximity dbmerge software is used. Start the program c:\sdmaps\dbmerge.exe. Choose Integrate>Merge from the menu. Set the values for the edit boxes source file 1, source file 2, and output file as shown below. Be very careful to avoid an error.
Click on the Create button as shown above. Source file 1 and source file 2 populate as shown below. Click on "move all fields" first under sf1 and then under sf2 - in that order. The output file populates. Arrow down to "200REGION" field as shown in the following graphic.
To avoid redundant fields names, there are several items (fields) that need to be deleted that are listed in the output file field name listing. Delete each of the "2" sourced fields (field names beginning with "200...")until you reach "200POP100" as shown below. Do this by clicking on a field name then click "delete current". Each field deleted is removed from the list. The final step is to click the merge button as shown below. The subject matter items in the file "tractstx.dbf" will now have been merged with the shapefile dbf. If your merge was successfully completed, replace the original tr48_d00.dbf with the new file temp.dbf. One way to this is with Explorer or the command prompt instruction:

c:\sdmaps>copy temp.dbf tr48_d00.dbf

With the merge successfully completed, close dbmerge and return attention to the map viewer application.
Modify the tr48_d00 shapefile properties by clicking left on the theme name and choosing Theme Properties. Set attributes as shown below. In this example, the subject matter field DP3058 is used -- median household income. Other subject matter items are available in the file. The content of the subject matter file "tractstx.dbf" is described here: http://proximityone.com/tracts.htm.
Closing the Theme panel, the following thematic map should appear. Verify that the theme order and attributes are as shown in the left column of the following graphic.
Conclusions about the school vicinity are now apparent from the map. Evident from the thematic map, the school is located in a higher income area, but not the highest in the district. The specific values of attributes for any of the nearby census tracts can be viewed using the "+" identify tool. With that tool selected and the tr48_d00 theme active, click in the tract as shown below and the data profile as shown here appears. The order of items displayed in the panel might differ -- click on a header to sort.

Census 2000 School District PDF Maps

The Census Bureau has prepared very detailed school district maps structured as PDF files. These files may be accessed via the Census Bureau server: http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/school_dist/.

The maps are organized on a state-by-county basis. A county-wide index to the sector maps is available for each county. To view maps for a district that is located in two counties requires going through a similar process for each county. The maps are at different scales and cannot be integrated.

For example, to view the maps for Clear Creek ISD, Texas, you would first view the Galveston County section (display time can be substantial as these are large files) and then subsequently follow the same steps for Harris County:

Open the Galveston County, TX school district PDF index file: http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/school_dist/st48_texas/maps/48167_Galveston/COU_48167_000.pdf

By viewing the above PDF, it is determined that Clear Creek ISD (Galveston County part) is located in Galveston PDF sector maps 7, 8, and 9, which can be opened for viewing with these links:

http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/school_dist/st48_texas/maps/48167_Galveston/COU_48167_007.pdf
http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/school_dist/st48_texas/maps/48167_Galveston/COU_48167_008.pdf
http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/school_dist/st48_texas/maps/48167_Galveston/COU_48167_009.pdf

One possible important use of these maps is where applications require viewing the boundary of a school district where other cartographic features are also present in the map view. This might be required for school district boundaries that do not align with city or county boundaries.

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