The data visualization below incorporates two sets of data: the geographical location of the schools operated by the Hartford Public School system and the achievement characteristics of each school, that is the percentage of students who met the proficient level on state tests in each school. As the legend suggests, red schools are the worst performing while green schools are the highest performing. The schools are divided based on data from 2013, but by clicking on the school, the viewer can observe the percentage of students at proficient from 2007-2013. This map easily lets viewers identify the locations of high performing schools and if participating in the Open Choice program, parents can gauge the distance from their home to their preferred school choice. Of course, this use will further be enhanced once I am able to include a searchable feature, which I provided a link for in my last post.
However, data can be misleading, and as Jack commented in my previous post, achievement data is not directly linked to the students which reside in that area because of the Open Choice program, which allows students to apply to attend any one of the HPS-run schools. Furthermore, the map does not fully highlight the progress from 2007-2013, and so one could assume that low-performing schools have always been low-performing schools, without clicking on each data point. For example, in 2007 36.4% of students at ML King met proficient. The school has steadily improved, and in 2013 57.2% of students met proficient. If this progress was more easily visible, a viewer might conclude that ML King has found a successful method to improve achievement, and further improvement is likely. To highlight progress, an interactive chart might best complement the map, or even a time slide feature in which viewers can select the year, and the achievement data will adjust accordingly.
This second map is very similar to the one above, but shows CAPT scores, which is the state test taken by students in Grade 10. As a result, the markers only represent high schools.