New Online Tool Illustrates Public School and Neighborhood Demographics
By: Jill Zimmerman | September 13, 2011
As part of their biannual process to review the School Facilities Master Plan, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) and Recovery School District (RSD) commissioned local consulting firm GCR & Associates to complete a demographic study assessing population trends in New Orleans and making updated forecasts of future trends, with a particular focus on public school enrollment. The complete study, which includes public school enrollment forecasts by neighborhood, was released in January 2011 and can be viewed by clicking here.
In addition to the January report, GCR & Associates created an interactive website that allows users to view demographic data by neighborhood or public school for the 2010-2011 school year. Data is available for all OPSB and RSD charter and direct-run schools, but not BESE charter schools. Particularly interesting is the ability to generate a PDF for each school that maps the home origins of all students who attended that school last year, and reports the percentage of students who lived within a one-mile radius of the school.
Using this new data, we found that on average, public schools in New Orleans enroll about 23 percent of their students from within a one-mile radius. The percentage of students living nearby varies a great deal by school, school type, grade configuration, neighborhood, etc., and ranges from four percent at Ben Franklin Elementary and KIPP Renaissance High to 53 percent at Paul Habans Elementary. Both failing and not failing schools, as defined by a 2010 School Performance Score below or above 65, had an average of about 22 percent of students living within a one-mile radius.
While this preliminary data is an exciting new tool, there is much more to explore and understand about enrollment patterns in New Orleans’ open choice school system. As part of our new project, Spotlight on Choice, the Cowen Institute has contracted with GCR & Associates to analyze the student-level home origin and school enrollment data, including new data soon to be collected for the current school year. By looking at where students live and go to school, as well as how this has changed over time, we hope to provide new and meaningful insight into school choice and enrollment in New Orleans. We look forward to sharing our findings with you soon.
New Online Tool Illustrates Public School and Neighborhood Demographics
By: Jill Zimmerman | September 13, 2011
In addition to the January report, GCR & Associates created an interactive website that allows users to view demographic data by neighborhood or public school for the 2010-2011 school year. Data is available for all OPSB and RSD charter and direct-run schools, but not BESE charter schools. Particularly interesting is the ability to generate a PDF for each school that maps the home origins of all students who attended that school last year, and reports the percentage of students who lived within a one-mile radius of the school.
Using this new data, we found that on average, public schools in New Orleans enroll about 23 percent of their students from within a one-mile radius. The percentage of students living nearby varies a great deal by school, school type, grade configuration, neighborhood, etc., and ranges from four percent at Ben Franklin Elementary and KIPP Renaissance High to 53 percent at Paul Habans Elementary. Both failing and not failing schools, as defined by a 2010 School Performance Score below or above 65, had an average of about 22 percent of students living within a one-mile radius.