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Illinois School Board Journal
September/October 2001

Locate demographics with Internet 'point and click'

by Brigitte Mach Erbe and Gregory Hauser

School districts are an integral part of the communities they serve, and many decisions made by school boards require knowledge of the community's social and economic fabric. Fortunately, through the Internet, school board members can obtain reliable and relatively current information about many aspects of their communities.

But just where should board members "point and click" to find that relevant data?

The prime source of data about the American population is the U.S. decennial census. The U.S. Census Bureau collects data on residents through the use of both short and long survey forms.

The short form, which seeks basic information, is mailed to about 83 percent of U.S. households. It includes information on sex, age, relationship to head of household, race and home ownership.

The long form, which asks more detailed questions, is sent to only one in six households. It contains more detailed questions about marital status, education, ancestry, language spoken at home, employment, occupation and income, as well as additional questions about housing and transportation.

Census information is compiled for relatively small, stable areas referred to as "tracts" (block numbering areas in rural counties), which have from 1,500 to 8,000 residents. Tract information can then be combined into many other geographic units, such as communities, counties and ZIP code areas.

Beginning with the 1990 Census, data compiled for school districts are available on CD-ROM from the National Center for Education Statistics in the Department of Education (School District Data Book). While no publication date has been announced, this information will be available for the 2000 Census both through the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM. This publication provides especially detailed information on children through high-school age, thus providing a powerful planning tool for school districts.

In addition to census information on population and housing, the U.S. Census Bureau also conducts an economic census of business establishments every five years. The last such census was conducted in 1997. Information collected includes the number of establishments; employment; payroll; and value of sales, receipts, revenue or shipments for establishments with paid employees.

To update data collected in such infrequent intervals, the Census Bureau also conducts annual surveys of a smaller sample of the population. These surveys - the Current Population Survey and the American Housing Survey - include some items from the decennial population census. But because these surveys are based on smaller population samples than the census long forms, information is not available for areas as small as communities. The American Community Survey eventually will fill that void; however, information on only a small number of communities currently is available.

For additional assistance, more than 70 federal agencies currently produce statistics of interest to the public. Crime statistics are available for cities and counties from the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but much of that information is not published for smaller, local communities.

Data on student achievement as well as demographic information for Illinois schools and school districts can be found online through the Illinois State Board of Education, which provides access to report cards for individual schools through its Web site (www.isbe.state.il.us). The Chicago Sun-Times (www.suntimes.com) also provides a data archive for Illinois schools with Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) data, as well as Iowa Test of Basic Skills data for Chicago. Some school districts have their own Web sites and provide additional information for their schools on standardized tests administered in addition to the ISAT.

The federal government collects regular information on student achievement through the National Assessment of Educational Progress. This information is disseminated at the national level and for states that have agreed to allow publication of their data. Unfortunately, Illinois is not one of those states.

When you know the type of information that could be available, the Internet becomes a powerful tool for accessing data. The Internet is made up of a set of constantly changing Web pages that lack any organization or oversight. Finding anything in this "data jungle" would be impossible if it were not for the invention of search engines.

Search engines send out electronic "messengers" to existing Web sites and collect information about their content. In the old days of the Web, these "messengers" actually had names like "Archie" and "Veronica." One that still exists is called "WebCrawler."Imagine these electronic impulses crawling (at lightning speed) through the maze of data located on millions of computers and collecting keywords to provide a reference guide for people browsing for useful information.

Several locations now offer "metacrawlers," Web engines that seek information from a number of other search engines.

Go2net (www.go2net.com) and AskJeeves (www.ask.com) are both "supercrawlers" that employ many other search engines to find a match to a typed "keyword." Some of these other search engines are Yahoo, Lycos, WebCrawler, Infoseek, AltaVista, Excite and LookSmart, but there are many others. When you type a keyword, these search engines often deliver a large number of matches, some more relevant than others.

AskJeeves actually allows you to ask questions, such as, "What is the population of Illinois?" Within one or two clicks, the good butler Jeeves usually comes up with an answer.

Google, one of the regular search engines, has a useful feature: "I feel lucky." You can choose this option when looking for a specific home page, such as that of a community, a government agency or a school. This does not always work, but often the "I feel lucky" option takes you directly to the desired Web page.

Searching the Internet can be a time-consuming task, especially when looking for very specific information. The list of specific Web site URLs that follow are those deemed most user-friendly for finding that information. Similarly, the more general search engines listed here can often lead to the successful completion of a search when the address of a Web site is not available.

To facilitate your access to the Web sites referenced, use the URL http://faculty.roosevelt.edu/erbe/. Once you have accessed this Web site, open the Microsoft Word document titled "IASB Paper." Clicking on a URL in the text will take you to that Internet site and the "back" arrow will take you back to the article, allowing you to toggle back and forth between article and data sites. The faculty Web site also includes other related materials.

U.S. Bureau of the Census Home Page: Link to many U.S. government data sources collected by the U.S. Bureau of the Census and other U.S. agencies. Takes trial and error to get the exact information you seek. www.census.gov/

American Eagle Fact Finder: Provides information for states, counties, communities and congressional districts. http://factfinder.census.gov/

State and County Quick Facts: Search for information about states and counties. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/

U.S. Gazetteer: Search for place names, ZIP code areas and area maps. www.census.gov/cgi-bin/gazetteer

Venus: Provides information for many different geographic areas, from state to census tract, including communities and ZIP code areas. http://venus.census.gov/cdrom/lookup

American Community Survey: Designed to provide up-to-date information to communities beyond the decennial census, this survey is currently conducted by the Bureau of the Census only in a small number of communities annually. Full implementation of the survey is expected by 2003, when every county should be covered. By the 2010 Census, the Community Survey is expected to replace the long form. www.census.gov/acs/www

Data collected by other U.S. agencies: www.fedstats.gov/regional.html

Illinois State Board of Education: www.isbe.state.il.us and http://206.166.105.128/ReportCard/rchome.asp

Chicago Sun-Times: www.suntimes.com/schools/

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): The NCES provides many different kinds of education statistics, both current and historical, for all levels of education, mostly at the national level. Information about international education statistics can also be obtained at the NCES site. http://nces.ed.gov/

National Assessment of Educational Progress: Since 1969, the NAEP, also known as "the Nation's Report Card," has assessed the academic performance of fourth, eighth and 12th graders in a range of subjects. Reports on the achievement of American students in reading, mathematics, writing, civics and other subjects are available at this site. http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/sitemap.asp

Selected Search Engines: www.go2net.com; www.google.com; www.askjeeves.com or www.ask.com

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Kurtz, D.N. (1999). "A page of my own: One board member's personal Web page." (Online) Electronic School. www.electronic-school.com

Priest, W.C. & Komoski, P.K. (1996) Creating learning communities: Practical, universal networking for learning in schools and homes. (Online) Center for Information, Technology & Society. www.epie.org

School District Data Book: 1990 Census School District Special Tabulation. U.S. by State, Volume SDDB-00. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education.

Sheekey, A.D. (1997) "The electronic village: Telecommunications is changing the school board's role." (Online) Electronic School. www.electronic-school.com

Thornburg, D.D. (1999) Technology in K-12 education: Envisioning a new future. (Online) White papers on the future of technology in education. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. www.ed.gov/technology

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Wilkerson, J.S., Campbell, J. & Keene, M. (1999) The Mayfield quick view guide to the Internet. Mountain View, California. Mayfield.

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