Mapping Catholic Schools and Their Families Educational Research, Ltd. Greg Arnold Clare Delaney Nedzad Hodzic GEO 242: 8011 1 Summary Education, it can be argued is the most valuable assets available to people today. A strong education affects nearly every aspect of a person’s life, from what kind of job they receive, to whom they marriage, to where they live. Therefore it is important to identify what makes a good education and where to get one. One proven approach to a strong education is the education received in Catholic Schools both at the elementary and secondary levels. Past research has proven that Catholic schools graduate more students, send more students to college, and prepare to students for the workplace more than Public school counterparts. In this vein, our group undertook the project of locating Catholic Schools and identifying who utilizes their services as well as who are they competitors. To do this we created several maps for the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office of Catholic Schools. These maps detailed the location of a specific school and the student’s family homes who attended such schools. Our information came from the Office of Catholic Schools and we used ArcMap to create maps. We also identified Charter Schools as a major competitor to Catholic schools because they offer the same amount of ‘choice’ that Catholic Schools do and offer more affordability. We located where this schools were and their proximity to the Catholic Schools around them. Finally we tried to identify the demographic make-up of Catholic Schools by utilizing Census tract data we were able to find what kind of neighborhoods families who sent their children to private schools were located in.2 2 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………. 3 2. Needs Assessment 2.1 Background……………………………………………………………... 4 2.2 Project Goals……………………………………………………………. 7 2.3 Objectives………………………………………………………………. 7 2.4 Information Categories Utilized………………………………………... 7 2.5 Information Structures/Products………………………………………... 8 3. System Requirements 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………... 9 3.2 Data Requirements as a Conceptual Database Design 3.2.1 List of Object Classes…………………………….…………………………… 9 3.2.2 Object Diagram……………………………………………………………….. 9 3.2.3 Matrix of Need-to-Know Questions and Object Classes……………………... 10 3.3 Software Requirements…………………………………………………………..11 3.5 Personnel Requirements……………………………..………………………….. 13 3.6 Timing………………………………………………………………………….. . 14 3.7 Institutional Requirements……………….……………………………………... 15 4. Data Acquisition 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………….. 18 4.2 Data Source Steps…………………………………………………………….... 18 4.4 Fitness for Use………………………….………………………………………. 18 4.5 Data Acquisition Constraints………….………………………………………... 18 5. Data Analysis 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………. ………..19 5.2 Analysis Plan…………………………………………………………................. 20 6. Results 6.1 Introduction…………………………………………………..………………..... 26 6.2 Findings……………………………………………………………..……............ 27 7. Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations…………………..……………... 31 Appendix A: Office of Catholic Schools Annual Report……………………………...3 3 1. Introduction We hope to accomplish not only what Dr. Foertsch proposed but also to go a step beyond his expectations to create a broad history of the schools and families of the Archdiocese of Chicago (OSC). We will deliver, as were the wishes of our client, updated maps of schools going through steps for school improvement. With the data provided by our client we will be able to develop accurate maps of Archdiocese schools and where their students come from. Creating these maps will enable to Archdiocese, and most importantly the school itself identify where the majority of its students are coming from. Creating comparison maps of past years to present time will allow administrators of both Offices to see where shifts have taken place in their student enrollment. Knowing where students currently live and where they have come from in the past can help marketing strategies to increase enrollment in schools that have seen decreases. It will also help within classrooms. Teachers who are able to identify students by socioeconomic status based on where they live will be better able to cater their lessons accordingly. This project also has the potential of looking deeper into the make-up of Catholic schools and the types of people who attend them. While looking at how student location of OSC schools has changed over the years, we will be able to identify other changes as well, including the socioeconomic and educational of the changing neighborhoods. These other changes will be very important to the Archdiocese. As our client has mentioned enrollment in Catholic schools has been decreasing over the years, identifying the changes around the schools and the make-up of their student body may help explain this phenomenon. In order for the Office of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Chicago to survive it needs to have students and families who are enrolled and able to pay tuition. Catholic Schools have also, as our client, Dr. Foertsch explained, had exemplary standards and results in regards to the type of students they produce, having both a very high graduation rate and a large proportion of students continuing on to higher education. It would be extremely beneficial to both the OSC as well as the public to be able to access this type of education.