School Administration

To effectively manage a school district or to monitor national educational policies and outcomes requires a geographic perspective and geographic tools.

For districts, geographic information ranges in scale from the community and its characteristics to the micro geography of a school and its components. Students, for instance, have geographic locations including home addresses, homeroom numbers, and the buses they ride. Besides "where," each has unique characteristics such as Student Information System (SIS) standards of grade level, subjects, grades, attendance, test scores, lunch program, and special needs.

For provincial and federal education agencies, the above apply to a broader geographic scope. These too can reflect key educational attributes. Adding a spatial dimension to tables of data on topics such as teacher-student ratios, adequate yearly progress, and other factors can bring to light patterns and possible solutions not previously considered.