Education System in NYC
Pathway to Future
Network
Unlike the tangible, more visible hard system, the soft system supports social needs related to culture, education, politics, and economics through policies and people.
In this project, the New York City education system is explored and analyzed by mapping data related to the demographics and location of the public and private schools that make up the network and nodes, SAT test scores, and median income for each region, which help identify schools, students, and families as agents of education. Finally, the flows of the education system will be analyzed by mapping the average educational attainment of New York City residents and comparing it to a map of median income levels and school quality. The future of the city and the education of the next generation are interdependent. The better the education of these children, the brighter the future of the city in terms of innovation and urban development possibilities.
Racial Percentage of Students in the Public school system
The education network has more than 1.1 million students at more than 1,700 public schools in New York City . This makes it the largest public school system in the country with a budget near $25 billion, providing children attending public school free K-12 education.
Image of NYC Children ( https://www.nyic.org/)
Demography
Composition of NYC Public School Students, 2017-2018
To understand the network in context of the population the demographic percentage is studied.
New York City has a large population of over 8 million residents. From the data and the map, it can be observed that the highest population race group is White at 32% and the lowest is Asian/ PI at 1%. However, there is a sharp decrease in the percentage of White in the population of NYC public school students from 32% to 15%. The Asian, Black, and Hispanic population percentage all increased for the student population in public schools, compared to the overall NYC population. Specifically, almost 66% of the student population in public schools are Black and Hispanic. This raises questions on the racial diversity and possibly the quality of education at Public schools, which will be further explored in the following analysis nodes with the information from this map on the right of where different race group communities are located in New York City.
Racially Representative Schools, 2017-20184
Nodes
Public and Private Schools
The nodes of the education system is formed by the schools in the City. On the right the map shows locations of public and private schools.
School Enrollment by Sector, Race and Location
The chart shows that over 50% White NYC students attend private school while the Asian, Black and Hispanic students all have over 80% students attending public district schools.
The public schools are divided into 32 community districts and students would enroll to schools based on their home address locations.
Sliding the map on the map will show the rating of these public schools based on their enrollment rate, student performance, racial diversities and school resources. The heat map shows that Manhattan has the most number of highly rated public schools. and Queens has relatively low number of highly rated public schools.
Agents
The agents are the NYC Department of Education who monitors the education system with all the budget money from government tax revenue, the students and their families are the participants of the system.
Enrollment Race and Family Income
While some students attend private schools for special needs or care, the main factor is becuase of their family budget for education. The public school system is free and supported by the NYC DPE; therefore, is a more affordable choice for families who do not have high income. From the bar graph above it can be identified that over 80% NY families with above 150K income would send children to public schools but over 50% NYC families with above 150k income would choose private schools.
However, comparing the poverty map on the right with the school rating map from above it can be found that districts with lower poverty rate tend to have more high rating schools. For example all the light grey areas on the poverty map around mid and lower Manhattan, align with the hot spots on the heat map where highly rated public schools are located. Considering that most students are enrolled to district schools based on home address there is a positive correlation between family income and school performances.
This shows that even within the public school system, different zones would have different education performances related to the percentage of racial population and the their family backrgrounds, the three agents of this education system are closely connected and impacting each other and the struggle of minority race group starts to become apparent.
SAT Scores and Income
Overlaying the average median income map and the average SAT Score data, a positive correlation between the average family income and student performances can be identified. The lower Manhattan school district with high average household income in light pink also has the highest average SAT score over 2000 out of 2400 in NYC marked in yellow circle. This correlation does not mean causation between SAT scores and family income, since not all light pink areas on the map are covered with yellow dots, rather it is identifying a pattern relating to high income districts tend to have a higher possibility of getting better schools and better scores, or vice versa good education increase the real estate values in that area.
Flows
The flow of the education system network can be identified as a cycle. From analyzing the nodes and agents the relationship between race groups, public school enrollment numbers, average family income and average education level within districts all link up to form a cycle that impact one another element.
From the map we can see that most areas with high education levels Bachelor's and Graduate degrees are densely populated by high income districts with White population, while areas densely populated by minority race groups and lower income families tend to have lower percentage of Bacholor's and Graduate Degrees.
The free K-12 public school education network is important to the soft system of the city because it provides family and children with the resources to learn and break the low income cycle. However, since enrollment is district based it is still difficult for low income children to compete for performance and college offers because their peers might also be struggling, compared to the high income district students with more access to learning resources and little to no family burden to consider when they are studying for their pathway to the future.
