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Newsgroups: culist.maps-l
Path: superior!schwartz
From: [log in to unmask] (Saul Schwartz)
Subject: Census Block Group Maps?
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Organization: Carleton University
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Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 16:00:52 GMT
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Hi. I wonder if any members of this list know how to get access to
maps showing 1990 US Census block group boundaries for specific
cities? (Actually I'm pretty sure that someone does!)
 
I'm writing a paper that analyzes the high school academic achievement
of individual students, asking the question whether students from
areas of "concentrated poverty" do worse in school, net of their
individual characteristics.  The only (and unsatisfactory) measures of
"concentrated poverty" are Census-derived measures such as "median
income" or "proportion of household receving AFDC" for block groups.
The data I'm using links student addresses to their 1990 Census block
group so that the block group information can be added onto the
students' academic records.
 
Having done the statistical work (I can't reject the null hypothesis
that living in a block group of "concentrated poverty" has no effect
on academic achievement), I want to illustrate the source of the
common perception that there *is* a relationship. So I want to include
a block group map that shows (by shading?) that areas of concentrated
poverty are also areas of low achievement. The statistical work in the
rest of the paper then shows that this apparent relationship may only
be apparent and can't definitively be established. I'm doing this for
five cities - Bridgeport, Dayton, Little Rock, Pittsburgh, and Savannah.
 
Thanks in advance,
 
 
Saul Schwartz
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