INFO-201-Final-Project

Story Pitch:

The story we chose to visualize is education inequity as it has been one of the most serious problems in the world. In fact, students across the United States are facing the same issue: not every student has equal access to quality education. Specifically, we would like to focus to scope on education inequity that happens among high school students in New York City. By analyzing the high school datasets, we could tell how educational resources are distributed unevenly across school districts based on the income level. Furthermore, it could give us more insights on how the quality of education affects college enrollment rates and average SAT scores for high schools. These aspects are important to help us understand the association between education inequity and possible factors underlying this issue, such as socioeconomic status, races, and ethnicity.

Generally, privileged groups of people will have easier to access any academic resources they need and they are more likely to be successful. For example, high schools that are located in wealthy neighborhoods provide their students with advanced coursework and technology as well as high quality educators who are experienced in teaching. Hence, they have a higher chance of getting high SAT scores and gaining admission to a top university. In contrast, there is insufficient priority given for the high schools in poorer areas, causing the students to learn much less and receive less support from the classroom. As a result, they are more likely to drop out of school earlier while having a smaller chance of enrolling in college due to lower SAT scores. All of these make the disparity gap in education grow bigger and bigger. Students from low-income households, people of color, and those who live in rural regions are disproportionately impacted by this gap and they are denied opportunities that should be open to everyone.

Education is not only a basic human right, it is also an inevitable factor on financial security, responsible citizenship and sustainable development. Therefore, it is crucial to have equity in education so that we could help underprivileged students to earn an equal opportunity in order for them to have a better learning environment and gain access to a brighter future. We believe our story will push the viewers to confront the systemic barrier that keep millions of students from reaching their full potential and motivates them to work towards the goal where everyone has the chance to achieve. Also, we hope to inspire the viewers to reflect and contribute on creating an equitable education system that will help those who are under-served and disadvantaged in education.

Datasets:

1. NYC High School Quality Rankings

   • https://infohub.nyced.org/reports/school-quality/school-quality-reports-and-resources/school-quality-report-citywide-data
   • Quality measures, demographics, and measures of student success collected by the NYC department of education by surveys and formal school visists
   • 488 rows (schools)
   • 224 columns

2. NYC School District Breakdown

   • https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Education/School-District-Breakdowns/g3vh-kbnw/explore
   • Percentage of people receiving public assistance based on school district.
   • 32 rows (districts)
   • 45 columns

Background Research

1. https://www.un.org/en/un-chronicle/recognizing-and-overcoming-inequity-education

   • The causes of educational inequity:
     • Teachers are key agents for learning
   • The importance of equity in education:
     • Education is a basic human right

2. https://www.lawyerscommittee.org/educational-equity-in-college-admissions-can-only-be-achieved-if-universities-abandon-racially-biased-sat-act-tests/

   • High standardized test scores are more closely correlated with race, wealth and parental education.

3. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/unequal-opportunity-race-and-education/

   • Schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students receive fewer instructional resources than others.

4. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/the-costs-of-inequality-educations-the-one-key-that-rules-them-all/

   • Achievement gap starts earlier than we thought. At the age of 1, all children score similarly in the cognitive ability test. However, the
     disparities are noticeable by age of 2, with black and Hispanic children performing worse in terms of expressive vocabulary, listening comprehension, and other acuity indicators. This implies that educational achievement involves more than just schooling.

5. https://resilienteducator.com/classroom-resources/what-equity-really-means-in-schools/

   • Equality means getting everyone the same thing, regardless of what they have and who they are; whereas equity supports those who need the most.

6. https://www.cssny.org/news/entry/unequal-education-in-new-yorks-public-school-system1

   • New York City has had a long history of racial inequity in education
   • Excacerbated by competitive private schools and test prep industry that make money a necessity to get a good education

7. https://www.mcny.org/story/long-fight-educational-equity-nyc

   • De facto segregation in schools persisted long after it was declared unconstitutional
   • They did a similar statistical analysis to what we might do showing that this segregation still persists today

8. https://council.nyc.gov/data/school-diversity-in-nyc/

   • Showed that poverty is a major issue at NYC schools (72.8% of students)
   • Racial inequity is worst at top selectibe high schools (something we could look into)
     • Lower levels of poverty as well

9. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/09/nyregion/nyc-schools-segregation-lawsuit.html

   • Currently a law suit over whether the gifted and talented program that begins in kindergarten has been a trojan horse for segregation
   • These programs are more common in white and asian-american neighborhood
     • White students are greatly overrepresnted in selective middle and high schools