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 Building the data capacity of local school and community leaders
The combination of declining school enrollment, flat or declining property values, heightened state academic standards, and the increased pressure for smaller districts and communities to achieve cost savings through shared services and/or district consolidation have created a climate of increased fiscal stress for communities and school districts across New York State. School and community leaders need comprehensive and up-to-date data about their districts and communities with which to make informed decisions and effectively plan for their future.
In response to this need, the New York State Center for Rural Schools is developing an Integrated Data System (View Brief). This project connects the work of  Cornell’s Program in Applied Demographics (PAD) and Community and Rural Development Institute (CaRDI) with the guidance of the Rural Schools Association of New York State (RSA).
The new Integrated Data System (click map on left to visit) will link data on community demographics, school enrollment trends and projections, district financial and administrative data, student performance measures, and local property tax revenues, rates, among other measures of fiscal stress. While most of this data is publicly available, it is not centralized. The data is often difficult to access and link together making analysis and planning difficult for school and community leaders. The Integrated Data System aims to solve these problems. It will be made freely available through the NYS Center for Rural Schools’ website and periodic training workshops will be held.
Finance and Planning Tools Beta! - Developed by Cornell's Program in Applied Demographics
- Integrated Data System visit - A set of tools that you can access and visualize (trends, projections, and maps) various elements of district data.
- Budget Playground Tool visit - A budget scenario builder to help with future planning.
- 15 Year Trend Tool visit - A visual representation of the last 15 years of district enrollment and financial data.
- Enrollment Projection Tool visit - A simple tool to project 5 year enrollment trends using various methods.
- Each of these is in the Beta stage. Please proceed with caution but send feedback with how they work and how they can be improved.
 Data Sources
- Cornell University Program on Applied Demographics (PAD) visit
PAD applies demographics methods and techniques to the latest economic and population trends, providing data on New York State counties. Enrollment trends 1995-2007, by school district, is a recently added feature.
- School District Demographics System visit
Snapshot Reports give a quick overview of demographics, economics, financials, occupation and employment information on a school district using the most recent data available. Map Viewer provides a visual display of population and housing, race and ethnic, economics, social characteristics, and administrative data. Profile Comparisons allows comparison between any two school districts in the U.S. on demographic and finance data.
- Map NY – US Schools - visit
Map U.S. Schools is part of the American Communities Project at Brown University. It provides information about public schools across the U.S., including maps of school district boundaries and location of individual schools. These maps provide information about many characteristics of the districts (showing, for example, which districts have higher or lower poverty rates, or racial diversity, or disparities across schools) and which schools have better or worse performance on standardized tests.
- Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates by school district - visit
The estimates provided here are only for school districts identified in the U.S. Census Bureau's school district mapping project. This project's survey asks each state's department of education for a list of all schools districts and their boundaries. The school district boundary update is conducted biennially and identifies school districts that are eligible for Title I funding under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The population and poverty estimates for each estimate year are produced for all school districts identified in the most recent boundary update at the time the estimates are produced.
- National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) - visit
The CCD is a program of the U.S. Department of Education's NCES that annually collects fiscal and non-fiscal data about all public schools, public school districts and state education agencies in the United States. CCD Data Tools includes a “build a table” option which enables users to create customized tables of CCD public school data for states, counties, MSA’s, districts, and schools using data for multiple years.
- Public School Finance Data - visit
Education finance data include revenues, expenditures, debt, and assets (cash and security holdings) of elementary and secondary public school systems.
- U.S. Census Bureau - visit
Use the “American Factfinder” button on left-hand side to access population, housing, economic and geographic data for communities, counties, states, etc.
- Census in schools program -visit
As required by the U.S. Constitution, the 2010 Census — a count of everyone living in the United States — is fast approaching - Census questionnaires will be mailed or delivered to every household in the United States in March 2010. This site provides lesson plans, maps, teaching guides, and other informational materials to help teachers and students learn about the importance of the Census.
- NYS School District Financial Profiles - visit
- School Data Direct - visit
A warehouse for public school data from multiple sources.
- Federal Education Budget Project - visit
Awarehouse for public education Financial data from multiple source.
Maps
- All Districts in NYS by new NCES Locale Codes
Download definitions, map
- All Districts in NYS plus highlighting for Small Districts
Download map
- Districts serving fewer than 500 students in 2007/8
Download map
- Districts serving fewer than 500 students 1995 vs. 2005
Download map
- All Rural Districts in New York State
Download map
Policy Briefs
Research Studies
- Capacity of Early Care and Education in Rural NYS
9/07 - download
- Trend Analysis of UPK Implementation in NYS
9/08 - download
- Case Analyses of UPK Implementation in NYS
9/08 - download
Other Sources of valuable information
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