Interactive map shows ACT scores and poverty

Thanks to my friends at GenerationAll for sharing this image on Twitter, showing a Chicago view taken from the EdMap  interactive site.  The color circles on the map represent high schools with 150 or more students, and show the average ACT score for each school. The higher scores are in shades of green and the lower scores are in shades of red.

These are overlaid over a map showing demographics. The lighter shades of blue represent areas of higher concentrations of poverty.  If you zoom in closer you can clearly see a correlation between low ACT scores and high poverty.

This is the message I've been providing with map stories for nearly 20 years. Below is a map made using the interactive Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator, showing the Woodlawn area of Chicago, and showing public schools that were on the 2008 Illinois schools low performance list.  

The green stars on my map are locations of non-school tutor/mentor programs in the area. On this map there are none within the Woodlawn area, which either means I do not have them in the database, or they do not exist.  

You can also add layers of information showing poverty levels, and layers showing assets, such as faith groups, colleges, hospitals and businesses.  A map view centered around a specific school could show political leaders and assets who should be working together to improve in school and out-of-school time learning opportunities for youth in that map view area. 

Youth in local schools could be creating these map stories.

Below is a presentation showing how other people can create their own map images, and then use them in blogs and newsletters and on social media to draw attention to a problem and to draw people together to try to reduce the problem.

How to Use Chicago Tutor/Mentor Program Locator to Make Your own Maps by Daniel F. Bassill

While this uses the Program Locator as an example, any interactive map that enables you to zoom into a zip code, or a single school location, can be a platform used to create a jpg image following the same steps.  

The Program Locator was built in 2008 using what was then advanced technology, What's available for making maps in 2016 is much more sophisticated, but I don't have the dollars or talent to rebuild my platform, or to keep the data up-to-date.

Thus, I'm sharing examples of how people could create map-stories using any platform, and  using my stories as an example, while I'm also looking for partners in business, universities, and/or philanthropy, in Chicago, or any other city, to help upgrade my own mapping resources.

See more articles with ideas for using maps. click here

If you'd like to explore this just email me at tutormentor 2 at earthlink dot net.