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Newsgroups: culist.maps-l
Path: superior!schwartz
From: [log in to unmask] (Saul Schwartz)
Subject: US Census Block Group Maps
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: [log in to unmask] (News Administrator)
Organization: Carleton University
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Date: Sun, 6 Nov 1994 01:22:11 GMT
Lines: 38
 
My apologies if some of you have read a message like this before; I
think a previous post may have been lost last week and has not
appeared on my site's MAPS-L.
 
I am writing a paper on the (possible) effects of "concentrated
poverty" (living in a neighborhood with many poor people) on high
school academic achievement (as measured imperfectly by achievement
test scores). The (again imperfect) measures of poverty involve the
block group characteristics of five American cities - Bridgeport,
Dayton, Little Rock, Pittsburgh and Savannah.
 
The paper concludes that the null hypothesis of "no effect" (of
concentrated poverty on academic achievement) cannot be rejected, once
individual level characteristics are statistically held constant. But
(and here's where the maps come in) there is a clear, but I think
misleading, relationship between the poverty level of block groups
(for example, median income) and average achievement scores - the poor
block groups have low achievement scores.
 
To illustrate the apparent relationship (later cast into doubt by the
statistical analysis), I want to include maps of the cities that show
the block groups. On the maps, I will then show both the poor block
groups and the low achieving block groups, thus illustrating the
apparent relationship.
 
Is there a general source of such maps? If not, does anyone know of a
source (electronic or otherwise) for the maps for the other cities?
The map librarians here at Carleton did not know of one.
 
(Patrick McGlamery has told me how to get the relevant Bridgeport maps
and the fact that he did so suggests that some people saw the first
post and thus my worry about reposting.)
 
Thanks in advance,
 
 
Saul Schwartz
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